Single Fan Non-Reference Design Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Pictured

[ShockG]

no not 1.3V
That doesn't do anything using 1.26V for that clock speed. Memory clocking on this particular sample isn't good as 1.6GHz will crash, but on the other 7950s 1.625Ghz is easy with no memory voltage adjustments

 

[R_1]

Compared to last generation reference design, HD7950 BOM seems suitable for sub $200 video card :

HD6950 was $299.

 

[cadaveca]

hd6950 was 299, but didn't have as much ram. Would make a $350 price tag justified.


Although I gotta say, that cooler might be enough to drop the price a bit. Interesting stuff, very intersting.

 

[NAVI_Z]

i wonder what the waterblocks r gonna look like. anyone who has a 7970 and a 7950 care to show a

pic comparing the pcb's 2 c if the full coverage waterblocks on the market will work? i've read that

its gonna b hard 2 find waterblocks for these. hope i'm wrong.

 

[micropage7]

why the put the fan too deep?
the fan looks like unserious at all, and the box cover is bad
their design department must be half sleep when done that

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

It runs cooler than my card lol, Looks like I may be able to afford a 7000 series card after all

 

[Initialised]

It's reference apart from the board colour and the shroud.

 

[cadaveca]

It's reference apart from the board colour and the shroud.

I do not agree, but i guess that depends on your definition of reference.

The 7970 reference from W1zz's review(note the different VRM):

 

[Initialised]

Any CFX data leaked yet?

 

[dj-electric]

What kind of data do you need? nothing really changed about how things scale

 

[Xaser04]

64% overclock here on the Sapphire OC version. That's incredible I must say. Oddly enough I think higher is possible will check

I always check for that
And there's no throttling happening. Card is scaling well with clock speeds
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k520/velaphinosdumo/10102.jpg

64%?

A 1275Mhz core clock is 41% OC not 64... (assuming 900 is standard as per your GPU-Z screenshot)

Very good nonetheless.

Interesting that the pathetic looking cooler can keep it cool though. The HD7970 has a much larger Vapor chamber and that needs some hefty fan RPM to keep temps in check.

 

[m1dg3t]

My 480 at 850 core gets 7000 in 3DM11, these new AMD 28nm GPUs look fail, yes they overclock but that aint gonna net you ball busting performance that a new GPU on a smaller process should, over to you kepler.

:shadedshu Troll much?

O/T that cooler is shit. If GFX mfg's were smart they would offer us card's minus HSF seeing as so many people ditch the stocker's anyway's, it would be a win - win. End user save money and mfg save money, stoopid companies....

 

[ShockG]

64%?

A 1275Mhz core clock is 41% OC not 64... (assuming 900 is standard as per your GPU-Z screenshot)

Very good nonetheless.

Interesting that the pathetic looking cooler can keep it cool though. The HD7970 has a much larger Vapor chamber and that needs some hefty fan RPM to keep temps in check.

From the reference 800MHz. Wouldn't be fair to start at 900MHz as that's not AMD reference clock. but it isn't 64% but 62.7% anyway.

I don't' see why people find fault with the cooler, it does the job, there's no benefit to a better cooler as it wouldn't allow high clocks anyway and the GPU is sufficiently cool. All it would do is increase prices. It's good enough as it is.

 

[cadaveca]

From the reference 800MHz. Wouldn't be fair to start at 900MHz as that's not AMD reference clock. but it isn't 64% but 62.7% anyway.

I don't' see why people find fault with the cooler, it does the job, there's no benefit to a better cooler as it wouldn't allow high clocks anyway and the GPU is sufficiently cool. All it would do is increase prices. It's good enough as it is.

A better cooler may get away with less fan noise. That is all. People love silent systems, and if this card is going to cost what I expect, it deserves a half-decent cooler at least, rather than one that is "just enough".

I have a similar cooler on my XFX card, and it's loud. "Aftermarket"(non-reference) cooling solutions should beat the stock option in some way, either by cooling ability, or by noise levels, IMHO.

 

[m1dg3t]

A better cooler may get away with less fan noise. that is all. People love silent systems, and if this card is going to cost what I expect, it deserves a half-decent cooler at least, rather than one that is "just enough".

+1. Maybe, possibly lower load temp's. Especially on the VRM side, from what i can see.

Just my $0.02

 

[douglatins]

Wow, so weak, no vrm cooling. But just add a TFIII and vrm cooling and will take off

 

[douglatins]

hd6950 was 299, but didn't have as much ram. Would make a $350 price tag justified.


Although I gotta say, that cooler might be enough to drop the price a bit. Interesting stuff, very intersting.

I want my name in different color, how can i?

 

[m1dg3t]

Wow, so weak, no vrm cooling. But just add a TFIII and vrm cooling and will take off

But why should the end user have to? I'd rather have the bare card than have to modify the stock unit. Like i said before if they wanna skimp on the cooler they should just keep the cooler, knock a few $$$ off the card and i'll do my own cooling

 

[crow1001]

Fact is these cards are hitting UK at £350, that's a joke for the performance on offer, I expected more of AMD on 28nm. I guess I can only hope Nvidia will show them how its done.

 

[m1dg3t]

Fact is these cards are hitting UK at £350, that's a joke for the performance on offer, I expected more of AMD on 28nm. I guess I can only hope Nvidia will show them how its done.

Which is still cheaper than Nvidia and perform's better. Fanboi's make me

 

[cadaveca]

I want my name in different color, how can i?

Work for TPU?



Anyone with a coloured name is staff, myself included.

 

[Initialised]

Fact is these cards are hitting UK at £350, that's a joke for the performance on offer, I expected more of AMD on 28nm. I guess I can only hope Nvidia will show them how its done.

So a card that out performs a GTX580 for around the same price is a joke?

Let's see GTX580 SLi come close to the 100% scaling that AMD have had since 6870 & 6850 landed

vs

 

[cadaveca]

So a card that out performs a GTX580 for around the same price is a joke?

Yes, I gotta say that it is a joke...why does it seems a stretch to ask for the same performance 580 has been giving for over a year, for a bit less?


GTX 580 has been out for over a year, and a year later, we're supposed to pay the same prices, a year later? That kinda goes against the grain of technology actually progressing.


If i look at it that way, then it took AMD a year to catch up to nv in price/performance, so they are over a year behind the times.


The passage of time makes the value of technology less. GTX 580 performance was so 2010, and it's now 2012.

Yes, AMD's multi-GPU scaling is good, but not everone runs multiple GPUs, so that bit is of very little importance to a lot of users.


AMD ahs new leadership, and since then, we have had both a CPU launch, and a GPU launch. Both items, from the consumer perspective, are overpriced. Many have lost faith in AMD, and will continue to do so unless this changes. Most people want better value for their dollar, and nothing AMD has right now fits that bill, except the 6-series cards.

And then there's that. Because 6-series scaling is so good, you can get better performance from 6-series Crossfire, for less cost than a single 7-series card. If it wasn't for that, I personally would have no complaints, but it's hard to justify purchase of 7970 when the same dollar value will get me dual 6950 2GB cards, that will perform better than the 7970.

Since the 7970 doesn't really offer more feature-wise comapred to 6-series cards, other than individual GPU performance, I do not know why you even question things like this. Nothing in 7970 justifies the higher asking price. NOTHING.


the 7950 in the OP, and it's cooling design and BOM, only makes this situation worse.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

WTF. that is some weak cooling. How are we suppose to cool the VRMs with that when we clock the dog snot out of it?

 

[Crap Daddy]

The politics of grab the money while you can as much as you can. Maybe they can't supply enough and think that they'll sell a few for big bucks. This has nothing to do with reality while the gaming industry is where it is. Very few really need this type of product and probably that's where they're aiming. For 550$ you can get a CPU, RAM a mobo and a decent GPU and play 95% of today's games in very good conditions.