AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3 GB

[Mindweaver]

Since you brought up GPGPU, I'm sure you know that until the 7000 series the ATi/AMD cards aren't exactly known for their GPGPU prowess...




Good thing the fan behind me is neither Nvidia nor AMD.

lol that's funny! I have around 40x 40mm fans in 1u servers behind me.. lol Funny thing is I can't hear my noisy GTX480.. Oh and the air never cuts off @ 68f and it's pretty loud in it's self. If I have to power everything off and then power it back on it sounds like a Huey helicopter taking off! My APC 3000XL is loud too... I guess over the years... I tune them out or I'm going deaf one.. My wife tells me I'm going deaf... but that's probably more of the tunning out.. lol

 

[TheMailMan78]

lol that's funny! I have around 40x 40mm fans in 1u servers behind me.. lol Funny thing is I can't hear my noisy GTX480.. Oh and the air never cuts off @ 68f and it's pretty loud in it's self. If I have to power everything off and then power it back on it sounds like a Huey helicopter taking off!

I must be getting old. I can't stand noise. Moved to the woods just so I don't hear sirens anymore. Loud computer? Not in my house.

 

[pantherx12]

Since you brought up GPGPU, I'm sure you know that until the 7000 series the ATi/AMD cards aren't exactly known for their GPGPU prowess...unless you count bitcoins.

That isn't true at all, the math compute power of the card is actually higher than that on the 680s.

Sure for most people won't ever see this performance but if your working with an app that uses opencl AMD are quite a head of Nvidia.

Hell I have a feeling that my 7850 outperforms the 680 in math.

 

[Crap Daddy]

My GPU peaks under load at 31dBA. I will not buy anything that goes over 35dBA UNLESS the deal is SUPER good.

So what you're saying is that from time to time you have to open your case to see if you still have a GPU in there?

 

[Mindweaver]

I must be getting old. I can't stand noise. Moved to the woods just so I don't hear sirens anymore. Loud computer? Not in my house.

Brotha don't talk about old.. I just turned 38! but if I had to say.. I really feel around 37 1/2... lol

This is a great card, but I want them to release the 7970 x2... This feels like when AMD gave us new PII and not the Bulldozer we wanted... Which we never really got! So, by that standard they are having trouble with the 7970 x2 or 7990 or what ever the hell they are going to call it...

 

[TheMailMan78]

So what you're saying is that from time to time you have to open your case to see if you still have a GPU in there?

Yes. I don't want to hear ANY fans if I can help it.

 

[pantherx12]

By the by, CL bench scores http://clbenchmark.com/result.jsp

GCN is very effective when it comes to CL.

 

[razaron]

I got my 7970 a few weeks ago, so I'm happy that it sucks...
I'm currently running 1125/1800 at stock volts, and can still go higher on both fronts (at stock volts)

 

[raghu78]

few suggestions to the reviewer.

1. Performance summary at 5760 x 1080 should be included while reviewing a USD 500 product which is intended for ultra high resolutions like 1600p and multi monitor configurations.

2. And resolutions like 1280 x 800 should definitely be removed for reviewing this class of product.

3. Also for this class of product the average performance across all resolutions should be a weighted average with higher weights for 2560 x 1600 and 5760 x 1080 and lower weights for 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050.

The way I see it the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition is going to come with custom cooler designs. So anybody who chooses this card should stay away from the reference cooler design. With noise and heat taken care of with a good cooling solution what remains is performance, price and power. If you are gaming at 1600p and higher (which is the segment these products are intended for) the Radeon HD 7970 OC editions or Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition with custom coolers are the best option. If you want a cooler running setup with best perf/watt/price for a 1080p / 1200p monitor a custom GTX 670 is the best option.

 

[entropy13]

That isn't true at all, the math compute power of the card is actually higher than that on the 680s.

Sure for most people won't ever see this performance but if your working with an app that uses opencl AMD are quite a head of Nvidia.

Hell I have a feeling that my 7850 outperforms the 680 in math.

You obviously didn't read my post. Did you miss the "until the HD 7000 series" portion?

 

[hardcore_gamer]

So the fastest single GPU Nvidia card is slower than fastest single GPU AMD/ATI card. It's been 6 long years since that happened.

 

[W1zzard]

few suggestions to the reviewer.

1. Performance summary at 5760 x 1080 should be included while reviewing a USD 500 product which is intended for ultra high resolutions like 1600p and multi monitor configurations.

2. And resolutions like 1280 x 800 should definitely be removed for reviewing this class of product.

3. Also for this class of product the average performance across all resolutions should be a weighted average with higher weights for 2560 x 1600 and 5760 x 1080 and lower weights for 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050.

The way I see it the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition is going to come with custom cooler designs. So anybody who chooses this card should stay away from the reference cooler design. With noise and heat taken care of with a good cooling solution what remains is performance, price and power. If you are gaming at 1600p and higher (which is the segment these products are intended for) the Radeon HD 7970 OC editions or Radeon HD 7970 Ghz edition with custom coolers are the best option. If you want a cooler running setup with best perf/watt/price for a 1080p / 1200p monitor a custom GTX 670 is the best option.

1) nvidia cards can't run all tests at this resolution successfully, so they get a 0.0 score, which would greatly affect the summary score
2) close your eyes every time you see 1280x800 and scroll down
3) interesting idea. any suggestion for the weight values. how to define the classes each card is in, so the weights can be switched?

these cards need to be classified:

Spoiler

GTX 590 3072M
HD 6990 4096M
GTX 690 4096M
HD 5570 1024M
GT 520 1024M
HD 6970 2048M
GTX 680 2048M
HD 5870 1024M
HD 6450 1024M
AMD HD 7970 GHz Edition 3072M
HD 7970 3072M
GTX 580 1536M
HD 7950 3072M
GTX 470 1280M
HD 7870 2048M
GTX 670 2048M
GTX 570 1280M
HD 6950 2048M
HD 7850 2048M
GTX 480 1536M
GTS 450 1024M
GTX 560 Ti 1024M
GT 430 1024M
GTX 550 Ti 1024M
GT 440 1024M
HD 7750 1024M
HD 5770 1024M
HD 6850 1024M
HD 7770 1024M
HD 6790 1024M
HD 6870 1024M
HD 6670 1024M

 

[hardcore_gamer]

1) nvidia cards can't run all tests at this resolution successfully, so they get a 0.0 score, which would greatly affect the summary score
2) close your eyes every time you see 1280x800 and scroll down
3) interesting idea. any suggestion for the weight values. how to define the classes each card is in, so the weights can be switched?

I'd only recommend resolutions above 1600x900 for benching this kinda cards.

 

[W1zzard]

I'd only recommend resolutions above 1600x900 for benching this kinda cards.

but you like to see performance per dollar for all cards, in every review, right? so i must bench 1280x800 on all cards.

so i choose to include all resolutions in all reviews as additional data points, they provide insight into more advanced topics like cpu limitations etc.

 

[pantherx12]

You obviously didn't read my post. Did you miss the "until the HD 7000 series" portion?

That I did, my mistake

 

[radrok]

Can't believe people are bitching about the best VGA review method we have online right now, I mean come on it's not like that the additional data hurts your eyes, just scroll down as w1zz said and call it a day.

Anyway, cherry picked Tahiti GPUs, nothing fancy/new on the red side and they made quite a compromise to get the performance crown again, if this is a mirror of what we will see on the 7990 then we'll have again a hot graphics card like the 6990.

 

[pantherx12]

Can't believe people are bitching about the best VGA review method we have online right now, I mean come on it's not like that the additional data hurts your eyes, just scroll down as w1zz said and call it a day.

Anyway, cherry picked Tahiti GPUs, nothing fancy/new on the red side and they made quite a compromise to get the performance crown again, if this is a mirror of what we will see on the 7990 then we'll have again a hot gpu like the 6990.

Aye while I don't agree with all the scores he does and the pluses and minuses in the reviews his method of testing is far beyond what most reviewers do.

 

[radrok]

Aye while I don't agree with all the scores he does and the pluses and minuses in the reviews his method of testing is far beyond what most reviewers do.

Yep I'm not talking about the scores, that's probably the most subjective thing in a review which I usually skip, what is important is the data provided, atleast in my opinion

 

[Random Murderer]

Wow, extremely disappointing, but at the same time, reassuring(for me at least).
Right after I bought my 7970s, the announcement for the GHz edition came about and I thought "oh sh*t."
Now that this review has been posted, I'm one happy man. Both of my cards max out CCC Overdrive at 1125/1575 on stock voltage. One card is a 1112mV VID and the other 1125mV. The highest VID the vanilla 7970 came with was 1174mV, still well under the 1200mV the GHz edition uses.


So here's a Top Gear top tip:

If you're in the market for a 7970, buy a reference 7970. Higher clock speeds, lower voltage, and less heat.
And on that bombshell...

 

[PLAfiller]

When considering gaming performance there are places in which the differences are like hair. E.G Starcraft2- 0.4 FPS? I admire the perseverance to record this. I personally don't care. The guys with money, who like the card will buy it. It's that simple.

 

[raghu78]

1) nvidia cards can't run all tests at this resolution successfully, so they get a 0.0 score, which would greatly affect the summary score
2) close your eyes every time you see 1280x800 and scroll down
3) interesting idea. any suggestion for the weight values. how to define the classes each card is in, so the weights can be switched?

Given that a USD 500 card is intended for multi monitor configurations and single monitor with high resolutions like 1440p / 1600p some method needs to be worked out to include the 5760 X 1080 results into the performance average. Its extremely unfair while reviewing a card which people will look to use in multi monitor configurations to leave out the multi monitor performance.

As for weights here are some suggestions. for cards which are in the USD 350 - USD 500 price point the 1280 x 800 chart does not need to be a part of the review and the performance average. For weight in this class I can give only what I feel is right given you are spending a lot of money.

1600p - 0.3, 5760 x 1080 - 0.3, 1080p / 1200p - 0.2, 1680 x 1050 - 0.2 .

For cards in USD 200 - USD 350 the 5760 x 1080 can be removed and weights can be as follows

1080p / 1200p - 0.4, 1680 x 1050 -0.3, 1600p - 0.2, 1280 x 800 - 0.1

For cards in USD 100 - USD 200 , 1600p can be removed and weights can be as follows

1080p / 1200p - 0.4, 1680 x 1050 - 0.3, 1280 x 800 - 0.3

 

[alienstorexxx]

"cons: High price"

??? wtf?

fastest single gpu on earth. period, stop bitching on power consumption on a top end gpu.
and pricing is right next to gtx680, even vulpurizes oced versions at 550usd.

 

[dude12564]

"cons: High price"

??? wtf?

fastest single gpu on earth. period, stop bitching on power consumption on a top end gpu.
and pricing is right next to gtx680, even vulpurizes oced versions at 550usd.

Factory o/c'd and overvolted for about 50 bucks more...

 

[alienstorexxx]

Factory o/c'd and overvolted for about 50 bucks more...

isn't that what you pay when you buy a custom gpu by an assembler ie. msi, sapphire, etc?
plus powertune boost. it rises the bar for the asseblers.

also "50 bucks more" is what cost a gtx680, if you have seen anyone around there, i'm begining to think is another informatic myth. so if you see from the other side, it isn't costs 50 bucks more, it costs the same than competition, and outperforms it

 

[HellasVagabond]

isn't that what you pay when you buy a custom gpu by an assembler ie. msi, sapphire, etc?
plus powertune boost. it rises the bar for the asseblers.

also "50 bucks more" is what cost a gtx680, if you have seen anyone around there, i'm begining to think is another informatic myth. so if you see from the other side, it isn't costs 50 bucks more, it costs the same than competition, and outperforms it

1) Custom cards offer Factory OC coupled with Less Noise & Temperatures
2) Why not get the 680 and overclock it to get a more powerful card ? Makes no sense to choose the 7970GHz when you can outperform it and have a card with less power needs, noise and temperatures.

In any case i feel we are all going in circles. ATI/AMD fanboys will never admit what's right there (same goes for NV fanboys when NV releases something bad) so everyone can't be happy, ever.