Radeon HD 7900 to Introduce Eyefinity 3D, HD 7970 European Pricing Surfaces

[btarunr]

Reliable sources among AMD add-in board partners told DonanimHaber that the upcoming AMD Radeon HD 7900 series will introduce a new feature that other SKUs based on Southern Islands GPUs could also include. It's called Eyefinity 3D, and as the name might suggest, it's the next major update to Eyefinity, a technology that lets you span a single display head across up to six physical displays, and gives you the ability to use your available physical displays to accommodate multiple such display heads.

Eyefinity 3D adds support for 3D-optimized (120 Hz) displays, and lets you create large stereoscopic 3D display heads using a number of physical 3D displays. The technology behind this might not be as simple as it sounds, because the driver has to take into account the viewing angles of the displays in perspective to the user (as entered by the user), and calibrate the 3D image output. The same sources also hinted about the pricing of Radeon HD 7970.

AMD's next generation "Tahiti" is shaping up to be more of a monolithic high-end GPU than a high-performance GPU. Hence, single-GPU graphics cards based on it are expected to be expensive. An add-in board (AIB) partner told DonanimHaber that the European pricing of the HD 7970 will be in the range of 539-549 Euro, while its FOB price will be 500-510 Euro.

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[dj-electric]

AMD, stfu and take my god-damned fing money already
Jesus christ! why do i have to suffer like this every year?! now its all over again

Bout the 3D, AMD got to decide if they are going all the way in or not doing this at all IMO, becuase otherwise
i might just prefer NVIDIA's solution

 

[buggalugs]

$500 is very reasonable for the latest and greatest highend card. IF Nvidia was releasing the 7970 it would be$100-$150 more.

The 5870 was just over $500 when it first came out

 

[DarkOCean]

$500 is very reasonable for the latest and greatest highend card. IF Nvidia was releasing the 7970 it would be$100-$150 more.

The 5870 was just over $500 when it first came out

Actually 5870 was 380$ at launch.

 

[INSTG8R]

Hmm well I have waited this long, but man that is rich...Guess I will wait a little longer until the dust settles and the prices level out a little.

 

[Crap Daddy]

The MSRP for 5870 was nowhere near 500$ so these prices send shivers down my spine. At these prices the 7970 should be 50% faster than the GTX580 to justify somehow the price.

 

[MatTheCat]

Yep.

AMD can count me right out of that until the prices get a bit more realistic.

And even if it did retail at around €350 (or less), the entire practical implications of it at the moment as far as I am concerned would mean turning up shadows on BF3 from High to Ultra, and also getting a bit of conventional FSAA.

Could I justify it....no....not really, but definitely not at those prices.

$500 is very reasonable for the latest and greatest highend card. IF Nvidia was releasing the 7970 it would be$100-$150 more.

The 5870 was just over $500 when it first came out

your thinking of Australian prices m8....and u guys get completely ripped off.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I eagerly await benchmarks and reviews to justify the price.

as for me personally - with 2 6970s in the rig, im probably gonna be skipping 7xxx series alltogther unless its a serious major jump in performance. otherwise I dont really need that kind of power.

 

[buggalugs]

Actually 5870 was 380$ at launch.

It wasnt where I live, Stores rarely charge the RRP of cards or most computer hardware when they are first released. There always the early adopter tax, especially if you dont live in the states and its a popular item and availability is limited like the 5870 was.

Amd are charging a little more this time but its well within the reasonable price for a graphics card.

The 580's were like $699 when they came out (where I live)

your thinking of Australian prices m8....and u guys get completely ripped off.

At the time our dollar was only like 70 cents, now its around the same as the US dollar so things have improved. You can get a 6970 for like $320 now which is about the same as the US.

Theres other things to take into account to like the minimum wage is Australia is like $14/hour where the US is like $6/hour so its not too bad really.

 

[imitation]

I remember 5870s skyrocketing to >400€ a couple days after release. A friend of mine had one pre-ordered and sold it for ~100€ more than what he payed, even though he had used it for two weeks.

 

[buggalugs]

I remember 5870s skyrocketing to >400€ a couple days after release. A friend of mine had one pre-ordered and sold it for ~100€ more than what he payed, even though he had used it for two weeks.

Yep, because they were selling like hotcakes and stock was running out....and we dont live in the states.

Anyway its kind of a good sign that AMD are charging more nvidia prices, it means the cards are very good.

If a new card has a cheap price, you know it aint going to be good.

 

[Edgarstrong]

500 is too much.

I personally find E500 way too much for a graphics card, especially considering that there is no game whatsoever that would truly need it. Until concoles stop slowing down PC gaming, there isn't much need for such extreme hardware.

I'd rather buy a 24inch IPS screen from ASUS or Dell for -+ 450, would be a better investment overall and can also be used outside gaming, especially if you like toying around with web design and similar things.

 

[nt300]

Personaly I think 3D sucks regardles who makes it and how its used IMO. For those prices it has to perform 50% faster than HD 6970 and 10% faster than HD 6990. I refuse to pay a premium for this extra 3D crap.

 

[_JP_]

Shifting focus on the top-end from performance to features. Not sure if I like that. 3D is not an attractive feature to me. But as long as AMD decides to make the series blow the x9x0 focused on performance, I guess I'm okay with it.
Also, inb4 John Doe.

 

[Delta6326]

Is that 500Euro for the normal 7970? Or is that the price for the 7970 Eyefinity 3D?

Or are they the same card I'm slightly confused by the "a technology that lets you span a single display head across up to six physical displays"

 

[radrok]

Shifting focus on the top-end from performance to features. Not sure if I like that. 3D is not an attractive feature to me. But as long as AMD decides to make the series blow the x9x0 focused on performance, I guess I'm okay with it.
Also, inb4 John Doe.

You also have to think about that they might be forced to shift on features because let's face it, no game today will use so much horsepower even at 1600p (except a very FEW picked titles).

One thing for sure, if single card performance increases I'm all for it, I won't adopt multi-gpu solutions with more than 2 GPUs anymore... it just isn't worth it, the increase in FPS is good but the times it's going to work is another side of the story

 

[jpierce55]

You also have to think about that they might be forced to shift on features because let's face it, no game today will use so much horsepower even at 1600p (except a very FEW picked titles).

One thing for sure, if single card performance increases I'm all for it, I won't adopt multi-gpu solutions with more than 2 GPUs anymore... it just isn't worth it, the increase in FPS is good but the times it's going to work is another side of the story

My thought all along. I have not expected the next generation from either mfg to be a big increase in performance. At some point in time it will hurt their sales and the bottom line profits. They are not going to kill their own profits to make a handful of people happy.

Of course if they start selling less cards the prices are going to go up too..............

 

[Tenxu24]

I do not believe, can not be true since most of those who buy AMD have a tight budget.

 

[DarkOCean]

It wasnt where I live, Stores rarely charge the RRP of cards or most computer hardware when they are first released. There always the early adopter tax, especially if you dont live in the states and its a popular item and availability is limited like the 5870 was.

Amd are charging a little more this time but its well within the reasonable price for a graphics card.

The 580's were like $699 when they came out (where I live)



At the time our dollar was only like 70 cents, now its around the same as the US dollar so things have improved. You can get a 6970 for like $320 now which is about the same as the US.

Theres other things to take into account to like the minimum wage is Australia is like $14/hour where the US is like $6/hour so its not too bad really.

here minimum wage is ~$210 /month and now cheapest 6970 is like $390 ..yay.

I do not believe, can not be true since most of those who buy AMD have a tight budget.

In absence of competition this happens.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I do not believe, can not be true since most of those who buy AMD have a tight budget.

that maybe true with their CPUs, but its different when it comes to graphic cards.

many members on the forum sport dual 6950 & 6970 AMD cards -- are they on a 'tight budget' too??

a 6970 is at least a months salary to some. I remember back in the day when i used to do about 60hrs+ a week at work. I had about £400-500 per month that i could play with after all the other bills and expenditures had been payed.

 

[erocker]

The MSRP for 5870 was nowhere near 500$ so these prices send shivers down my spine. At these prices the 7970 should be 50% faster than the GTX580 to justify somehow the price.

So it needs to be 50% faster than the 580 even though it will be priced the same as the 580?

 

[BrooksyX]

Definitel plan on getting a 7950 when prices see their first drop. $500 is a little hefty for me.

 

[CLSHADES]

You also have to think about that they might be forced to shift on features because let's face it, no game today will use so much horsepower even at 1600p (except a very FEW picked titles).

One thing for sure, if single card performance increases I'm all for it, I won't adopt multi-gpu solutions with more than 2 GPUs anymore... it just isn't worth it, the increase in FPS is good but the times it's going to work is another side of the story

Obviously not the games your playing or on the displays better than 1080p. You absolutely need that kinda horsepower for multi display. Or high end 1000 dollar displays with a high pixel count. Some of you guys just talk out of your collective asses with no idea how the better half really lives.

Plain and simple boys. More horsepower is ALWAYS better. 500 dollars is very reasonable for a new video card in my humble opinion. I never spend less than 400 bux when I upgrade.

 

[DarkOCean]

So it needs to be 50% faster than the 580 even though it will be priced the same as the 580?

Probably this is what it takes for one to switch teams.

 

[CLSHADES]

I do not believe, can not be true since most of those who buy AMD have a tight budget.

Like the 750 dollar 6990? Or a water cooled 6970? 7xxx series comes out and nvidia's flag ship card prices will dump like the ATI cards did when they came out with the 5xx series.

Let me tell you something Mr.Ten I don't by nvidia because I don't like their TV support and I don't particularly like their coloring in games. I also don't like the huge amount of power they require or the heat they produce. I have been on both sides of the fence and for the last purchase ATI had the better options.

The last Nvidia card I owned was the 285. One of the best cards they ever made until their 5xx series which are quite good I admit. There is absolutely nothing wrong with ATI cards and I don't buy them because of a "budget" I buy them because I like them.