Radeon HD 7950 Overclocked to HD 7970 Clock Speed, Tested

[btarunr]

In its latest round of pre-launch testing of the Radeon HD 7950, DonanimHaber overclocked the GPU to match the clock speeds of the HD 7970, that's 925 MHz core, 1375 MHz (5.50 GHz effective) memory, from its reference clock speed of 800 MHz core, 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz effective), and pitted it against a Radeon HD 7970 reference and GeForce GTX 580 reference. Tests included 3DMark 11 Extreme Preset, and 3DMark Vantage Performance. At the outset these figures establish the HD 7950 to be faster than GTX 580 in the two tests. When overclocked to match the clock speeds of the HD 7970, the HD 7950 on average is 4% slower than it. In related news, DonanimHaber reports that AMD could also be working on affordable variants of the HD 7950 that come with 1536 MB of memory, on the same 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface. That would probably depend on how NVIDIA's lineup stacks up against it.



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[badtaylorx]

not that this wasnt expected.....smart move by amd

 

[Hokum]

If they are getting low yields of full 7970 cores expect a whole range of different lower spec cores.

 

[phanbuey]

Those scores are heavily influenced by CPU - that 4% is skewed. If you look at just the graphics score, no doubt the gap is higher.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

now the only thing we need to know is if it can be flashed to a 7970

 

[claylomax]

How did the 6950 compare to the 6970 when overclocked to the 6970 speeds?

 

[radrok]

How did the 6950 compare to the 6970 when overclocked to the 6970 speeds?

The shaders made up to ~3% of difference if the cards are confronted clock for clock.
The huge gains are made with overclocking

 

[dj-electric]

If the reference HD7950 will reach the 1.275-1.3Ghz clocks it would defo be a HD7970 killer in $\P

 

[phanbuey]

That is if they don't price it at $450 like they are going to :/

 

[DarkOCean]

Those scores are heavily influenced by CPU - that 4% is skewed. If you look at just the graphics score, no doubt the gap is higher.

in the earlier pics in gpu scores in 3d11 at stock speeds the gap i've seen is ~23-24%... that big.
This is castrated more than in the case of 6950 vs 6970.

 

[R_1]

So why do we need to overclock? Ain't that GPU already super duper fast for all our console ports? Me remains skeptical again! That HD7000 price is so Nvidish, but performance is not overwhelming. Let's see what GK-104 can do.

 

[phanbuey]

^^ +1... perf/$ is horrible for a new generation since its "on-par" with the old generation. The Perf/$ hasnt changed from what it was when the 580 first came out.

What an underwhelming series of cards.

 

[radrok]

If you take stock performance I agree that is not anything stellar but if you count in the overclock then the thing begins to yield massive performance compared to anything else.
I still don't understand why people complain about performance when these things are beasts when overclocked and don't tell me you are going to run stock -.-

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I know not this "stock" of which you speak.

 

[phanbuey]

If you take stock performance I agree that is not anything stellar but if you count in the overclock then the thing begins to yield massive performance compared to anything else.
I still don't understand why people complain about performance when these things are beasts when overclocked and don't tell me you are going to run stock -.-

The 580 OCs great too - and actually around the same % amount. It is not uncommon to see 920Mhz over-clocks on 580s - that is why overclocking is mostly moot. Even if the 580 OC's 20% and the 7970 25%, that 5% doesnt change this fact:

When the 580 came out November 2010 it was priced at $499... it offered 75%-80% of the performance of the current 7970 that came out a few weeks ago at $550. The $ to performace vs over a year ago has not changed nearly enough. Not to mention, the price of the 580 dropped to $450 - so that makes it even less worth it.

When the 5870 1GB came out in 2009 (for instance)... under $400 with the ability to murder the $380 285 and AND overclock - that was a monster release and is still a very fast card, on par with the 6950 1GB. This was an exciting card - because the technology increased so much at the same price point.

The 7970 offers the performance jump (when OC'd mostly), but counters it with a jump in price that makes it worth the exact same as a card that came out a year ago. It would be the same thing if Nvidia now released kepler that is twice as fast as the 7970, and charged $1,100 for it.

 

[WarraWarra]

That is if they don't price it at $450 like they are going to :/

There is apparently $100~$150 price difference from 7970 to 7950 and AMD prices for 7970 is around $450, this is not retail prices or hyped up demand prices some retailers have.

So 7950 should be $300 about + retailer mark up close to $50 or something like this.
Keep in mind you need to find out what the CrystalMeth prices would end up being
or (price + retailer + local tax + fed tax + shipping + some bogus something prices + possible 2x times RMA to retailer cost + cost of time spend on funky driver issues).

+1 AMD gpu division on the 7950.

 

[Casecutter]

^^ +1... perf/$ is horrible for a new generation since its "on-par" with the old generation. The Perf/$ hasnt changed from what it was when the 580 first came out.

What an underwhelming series of cards.

I guess we wait and see what Nvidia got/gets as 28Nm pricing from TSMC. That's the factor your not considering, the price increase they both get on this shrink.

 

[phanbuey]

There is apparently $100~$150 price difference from 7970 to 7950 and AMD prices for 7970 is around $450, this is not retail prices or hyped up demand prices some retailers have.

So 7950 should be $300 about + retailer mark up close to $50 or something like this.
Keep in mind you need to find out what the CrystalMeth prices would end up being
or (price + retailer + local tax + fed tax + shipping + some bogus something prices + possible 2x times RMA to retailer cost + cost of time spend on funky driver issues).

+1 AMD gpu division on the 7950.

well the first 7950 is etailer is out at $480, so ~$450-$425 is not too far off from what we could expect. At the end of the day, it don't matter if they charge $30 to the retailer - if it can only get to me at $450 at the end of the supply chain, then its a $450 card.

@ Casecutter - true - but IF their midrange card is competive with the 7970, which is not terribly out of this world, I highly doubt it will come out at $450 or $550 - since those are not "midrange" prices. One never knows though and you have a good point.

 

[dickobrazzz]

hmm..so i think in russia first few monthes it`ll cost a lot and gtx580 will be better performance/price

 

[happita]

How about an overclocked 580 vs overclocked 7950 vs overclocked 7970? Then that would put some heads to rest in relation to how big the gap will become when they ALL get pushed to their breaking points (maximum air cooling, nothing too exotic). Then the price/performance will be known to us enthusiasts, I could care less about stock clocks. Kepler is a whole other ball game, as we do not know much about it, specs or pricewise...so we will have to wait for that battle to come.

 

[dj-electric]

You can be absolutely sure that the HD7950 Overclocks well and without voltage changes will probably reach the GTX580's maxoc speeds

 

[Duckula]

Someone over at Chiphell somehow managed to lay his hands on a Sapphire non-reference design HD7950 video card and he did some benchmark:

platform:

CPU: Intel i7 2600K @4.5GHZ
mobo: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme
GPU: HD7950
RAM: 2X4GB 1600HMZ
HDD: Crucial C300 128GB

Test result:
3Dmark Vantage (at stock frequency):
Total: P6893, GPU: 6510

3Dmark Vantage (overclocked to 925/1350MHz):
Total: P7595, GPU: 7267

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1390885451?pn=1

http://www.chiphell.com/thread-350613-1-1.html

 

[Super XP]

The HD 7950 may be the best choice seeing how here in my area the HD 7970 is being sold for $670+ 13% tax. Talk about taking consumers for a ride. Rip Off...

 

[dj-electric]

Sapphire's PCB is almost identical to the reference, in fact, its just a painted reference card
Sapphire is yet to come out with their UniPCB for the HD7900 witch will probably include the Atomic models

 

[erocker]

How about an overclocked 580 vs overclocked 7950 vs overclocked 7970? Then that would put some heads to rest in relation to how big the gap will become when they ALL get pushed to their breaking points (maximum air cooling, nothing too exotic). Then the price/performance will be known to us enthusiasts, I could care less about stock clocks. Kepler is a whole other ball game, as we do not know much about it, specs or pricewise...so we will have to wait for that battle to come.

Thing is, some cards overclock really well, and some don't. Stock vs. stock vs. stock and the knowledge to know what kind of overclocks are to be expected works for me.