AMD Radeon HD 7990 6 GB

[W1zzard]

Today, AMD releases their highly anticipated HD 7990 dual-GPU flagship. It is based on two full Tahiti GPUs running at 1000 MHz. AMD has also worked hard to keep power draw and noise in check, but can this $1000 card compete with NVIDIA's GTX 690 and GTX Titan?

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[Delta6326]

Very nice review W1zz! But sadly this is not my cup of tea, I would rather just buy 2 cards. On summary page 2 those are some nice figures.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

As I was saying in the other thread about the announcement of the card. This thing is a disappointing, I was expecting it to beat the 690 hands down, but AMD still needs to work on drivers. Does not appear to be scaling as it should. (Well atleast in games that it isn't scaling right, in the first performance summary, then its about 1% faster then the 690 on games that it does scale right on)

 

[983264]

More choices, more dilemma...

Still, crossfire profiles for games still needs work... Great Review

 

[HammerON]

Thanks for the review W1z!!!

 

[Kyuuba]

At least it can beat the GTX 690 on the main games the world plays.

 

[Nordic]

With watercooling or even some beastly air cooling this card would really shine.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

On a side note, those power consumption numbers are interesting.

 

[radrok]

Thanks for the review it is top notch as always w1zzard

Moving on onto the card I would define this release as underwhelming:

They could (and should) have worked soooo much harder. This card really had the potential to shine and annihilate both the GTX 690 and the GTX Titan.

I've waited for this release since the 7970 launch because I really am a sucker for dual GPU cards from ATI/AMD so much I've ran quad CFX for so long I can't really remember but they took just too much time to launch this unpolished turd.

I'm so glad I didn't wait and went for dual Titan, it pains me to admit that nVidia drivers are so much better, and this comes from an ATI fanboy....

 

[Emperor_Piehead]

Pretty cool card would love to see those drivers fixed though

 

[jigar2speed]

This card really had the potential to shine and annihilate both the GTX 690 and the GTX Titan.
.

Had ? It will!!!, give it some time the driver updates are going to change the game.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

AMD has improved performance with crossfire with new prototype driver. '

This is from PCper with their review of the 7990 with their prototype driver given to them by AMD to do the frame-rating tests.

 

[radrok]

give it some time the driver updates are going to change the game.

Somehow I've heard this phrase so much I wont be enthralled by it anymore but hey, one another can hope

If I buy a 1k Eur/Dollar piece it has to work right NOW, not in some time lol.

 

[Xzibit]

Somehow I've heard this phrase so much I wont be enthralled by it anymore but hey, one another can hope

If I buy a 1k Eur/Dollar piece it has to work right NOW, not in some time lol.

Really the Titan didnt and still isnt working 100%

You RMA'ing it ?

Or are you just refering to your own preference


PCPer - Frame Rating: AMD Improves CrossFire with Prototype Driver

Clash of the E-Pees soon

 

[radrok]

I don't know why I'm biting your bait but I will for clarity's sake.

Or are you just refering to your own preference

I'm referring to my OWN experience. Fair enough?

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

They seriously launched this before nailing down the xfire issues? What was the rush? And here that's not even the only deal breaker. It bugs me to no end that coil whine is even still a thing, but this sounds particularly bad, and on a $1000 card no less? Thanks but no thanks for the two flaming turds on a stick AMD.

 

[Xzibit]

My point was always is that Nvidia software fixed it last year so it was possible for AMD to fix it aswell.

@1440p it looks good with the new Prototype 2 drivers but anything higher I would asume things being equal AMD would have the advantage if they got there variance sorted out to a comparable because its spitting out more frames and nvidia is seeing a higher variance beyond 1440p with its current fixed drivers.

Thats my own take on it but I wasnt so quick to pound on AMD for it. Since this is the first cycle I switched from Nvidia to AMD.

I could be wrong and if i am so be it. I'm sure someone will point it out to me.

either way better drivers all around

 

[HumanSmoke]

@1440p it looks good with the new Prototype 2 drivers but anything higher I would asume things being equal AMD would have the advantage if they got there variance sorted out to a comparable because its spitting out more frames and nvidia is seeing a higher variance beyond 1440p with its current fixed drivers.

Did you actually happen to interpret the graphs in the PCPer article you linked to?

The lower and flatter the line, the better the result.

As for variance "above 1440p", you'll notice that PCPer prefaced their article with:

One thing to note: this fix does not yet address Eyefinity + CrossFire problems.

Which seems to contradict your conclusion

 

[MxPhenom 216]

One thing to note: this fix does not yet address Eyefinity + CrossFire problems.

Dave won't like that. Since he has all his monitors and got all his GPUs strictly for Eyefinity experience.

 

[Xzibit]

@HumanSmoke

Guess you dont like reading either even when you quote me

I would asume things being equal AMD would have the advantage if they got there variance sorted out to a comparable

comparable level.

I'll even fix it for you.

I'll even quote this aswell from the article

There is still the issue of Eyefinity and that problem will not be addressed by this first version of the driver. I have more analysis of that complicated discussion planned in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

It would be a problem is they were the only drivers being released EVER!!!

I think a reasonable person can come to the conclusion that both will keep updating their drivers to improve things.

 

[15th Warlock]

Good review!

As Radrock said, the release is kinda overwhelming, if anything the alpha drivers should improve frame latency which seems to be the new metric most hardware sites use nowadays.

Kudos to AMD for bundling all those games with the 7990, I wish my Titans would've bundled at least half those games

Oh well, looks like we'll have to wait until Maxwell and Sea Islands to have another breakthrough in graphics performance next year, the race is on!

 

[Outback Bronze]

$1000 bah. Would have love to see them do 3 gpus on the one pcb, something diffrent. This to me is just 7970 xfire which has been around for 16 months now. Still very nice looking card though.

 

[HumanSmoke]

@HumanSmoke

Guess you dont like reading either even when you quote me
comparable level.

The conclusion I was talking about was your assertion that...

and nvidia is seeing a higher variance beyond 1440p with its current fixed drivers

(as would be fairly apparent from reading the actual post)
Well, as you can see from the PCPer graphs, that is not the case...and if you needed any other proof of nvidia's supposedly "higher variance beyond 1440P" I'd suggest you take a look at the various 5760x1080/1200 benchmarks from around the interwebz...assuming cadaveca's first hand experience isn't enough of a clue.

"The inconsistent nature of Radeon HD 7970 GE 3-way CrossFire is very evident here.
Technically Radeon HD 7970 GE 3-way CrossFire is 25% faster based on the average FPS with TressFX enabled. However, the wildly inconsistent framerate nature is something you feel as you play the game, and compared to GTX 680 3-way SLI it is more stuttery on the 7970 GE 3-way CrossFire platform."

 

[asskriss]

the Radeon HD 7990 is the fastest card from AMD, so the prices is very expensive not all people have this card.

 

[Xzibit]

@HumanSmoke

I'm not comparing its variance to AMD :shadedshu

Im making an observation that beyond 1440p variance sky-rockets abnormaly not consistant with the difference you see going from 1080p to 1440p

Its there from the first PcPer article to the last
PCPer - Frame Rating Dissected: Full Details on Capture-based Graphics Performance Testing

Unless you prefer your variance more eratic then a single card beyond 1440p

At the current state Nvidia SLI plays smoother but now its gonna be who can fix their drivers first beyond 1440p.

I'm not that impressed by the 7990 when it pertains to games. Its bleh. You get games its a plus they help you pay for 3/8 of the card which good I think.

The only impressive thing is 3 fans arent that loud. W1zzard concluded they are others concluded they are similar to the 690 and OpenCL its dominates the Titan and 690. Bitcoiners and Crunchers are gonna drool over it for sure.

People are gonna eat these up if OC is good just to have the best scores.