Tuesday, August 14th 2012
AMD Updates Radeon HD 7950 to Thwart GeForce GTX 660 Ti
AMD is preparing to update the specifications of its Radeon HD 7950 graphics processor to make it more competitive in the sub-$400 market segment, particularly against NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics processor. The update is much like that of the Radeon HD 7750, which got its core frequency increased from 800 to 900 MHz in a specifications update. The company released a new BIOS ROM image file which works on all AMD reference design Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards, which implements the new specifications.
The new specifications sees the GPU core frequency increased to 850 MHz (from 800 MHz), and introduces PowerTune with Boost, which sends the GPU clock speed up to 925 MHz, when applications demand it. The memory frequency stays unchanged, at 1250 MHz, and so do the physical specifications of the GPU, such as stream processor, TMU, and ROP counts. All Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards manufactured from mid-August will feature the new specifications, prices will remain unchanged. If you're familiar with manually updating the BIOS, you can check it out (at your own risk) from our VGA BIOS Database. Set your card's BIOS selector switch to "1" (if available), and update the BIOS. It works only with AMD reference-design HD 7950 cards.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon HD 7950 Specifications Update BIOS
The new specifications sees the GPU core frequency increased to 850 MHz (from 800 MHz), and introduces PowerTune with Boost, which sends the GPU clock speed up to 925 MHz, when applications demand it. The memory frequency stays unchanged, at 1250 MHz, and so do the physical specifications of the GPU, such as stream processor, TMU, and ROP counts. All Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards manufactured from mid-August will feature the new specifications, prices will remain unchanged. If you're familiar with manually updating the BIOS, you can check it out (at your own risk) from our VGA BIOS Database. Set your card's BIOS selector switch to "1" (if available), and update the BIOS. It works only with AMD reference-design HD 7950 cards.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon HD 7950 Specifications Update BIOS
43 Comments on AMD Updates Radeon HD 7950 to Thwart GeForce GTX 660 Ti
If this is done at the hardware level as indicated, then AMD planned this from day one. I always thought they were sandbagging by not releasing cards @ 1000 MHz...it just didn't make sense. Until today.
www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/1.html
Hoe any people really want to overclock with a factory BIOS flash?
Hopefully we do not see an influx of members posting on the AMD/ATi thread about bricking their 7950.
AMD just leave it as is.
nVidia pulled out a wild card and surprised me as well considering I see them usually as an overpriced company.
7950 is a great card....just nVidia released something better later on.
whistles :eek:
Actually, as long as you've got a reference design board, they guarantee it I think.
They have to provide the extra voltage to make sure the additional 125 mhz is safe for all 7950s that went out. I also suspect the additional voltage includes room for the basic 100-125+mhz (I know some go higher) core increase thats been there for all HD 7800-7900 series.
Essentially there moving the bar/slider over for all 7950. A 7 month window since its release and just adding v0.05.
W1zzard didnt include overclockability this time but it might of brought more perspective.
If v0.05 increase is too much for you like some seam to sugguest in dramatic fashion there is always the option of undervolting on the new bios or a crazy idea dont use it. ;)
I think AMD learned from the 7970 GHZ Edition roll-out and decided this is a smarter move. Just roll out the new 7950 off the line with the new adjusted core clock and just release a BIOS for the previous 7950s to bring them up to speed. Save time and money for both AMD and AIB partners. No need to spend extra cash on Marketing/Awareness and AIBs dont have to re-print there boxes and stickers for the cards. Much smarter move IMHO.