AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su, in her Q2-2023 Financial Results call, confirmed that the company will launch new "enthusiast-class" gaming graphics cards within Q3-2023 (any time before October). "In gaming graphics, we expanded our Radeon 7000 GPU series in the second quarter with the launch of our mainstream RX 7600 cards for 1080p gaming. We are on track to further expand our RDNA 3 GPU offerings with the launch of new, enthusiast-class Radeon 7000 series cards in the third quarter," she stated.

There are two distinct possibilities of what "enthusiast class" entails. The first and most obvious one, could be the introduction of the RX 7800 series, including the RX 7800 XT, which is expected to closely resemble the limited-edition RX 7900 GRE by the specs; but a less talked-about possibility could even be the RX 7950 series. In its testing, the RX 7900 GRE was found to offer raster 3D performance comparable to the previous-generation RX 6950 XT although with better ray tracing performance on account of improved Ray Accelerators, which would put it behind the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti that AMD is trying to compete with. This should mean that for AMD to have a compelling "RX 7800 XT" product, it should perform faster than the RX 7900 GRE (possible through higher clock speeds or a few more CU).

AMD's Ryzen 7000-series CPUs with 3D V-Cache are set to launch next week and alongside the launch, there will obviously be reviews of the upcoming CPUs. As with many other companies, AMD prepared a reviewers guide for the media, to give them some guidance, as well as expected benchmark numbers based on the test hardware AMD used in-house. Parts of that reviewers guide has now appeared online, courtesy of a site called HD Tecnologia. For those that can't wait until next week's reviews, this gives a glimpse of what to expect, at least based on the games tested by AMD.

AMD put the Ryzen 9 7950X3D up against Intel's Core i9 13900K, both systems were equipped with 32 GB of DDR5-6000 memory and liquid cooling. Tests were done with both AMD's own Radeon RX 7900 XTX and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. We won't go into details of the various benchmarks here, as you can find those below, but according to AMD's figures, AMD came out on top with a 5.6 percent win over the Intel CPU, at 1080p using the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and by 6 percent using the GeForce RTX 4090. This was across 22 different games, with Horizon Zero Dawn and F1 2021 being the games favouring the AMD CPU the most and Far Cry 6 and the CPU test in Ashes of the Singularity being the games favouring the AMD CPU the least. TechPowerUp will of course have a review ready for your perusing by the time the new CPUs launches next week, so you'll have to wait until then to see if AMD's own figures hold true or not.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor will bring 16 cores and 32 threads along with 16 MB of L2 cache and 128 MB of L3 cache for 144 MB of 3D V-cache present on the package. Today, we get to see it in action for the first time in benchmarks like Blender for 3D content creation and Geekbench 5 for synthetic benchmarks, where we get to compare the scores to the already existing models. In Blender, the new AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D scores 558.59 points, while the regular Ryzen 9 7950X scores 590.28 points. This represents a 5.4% regression from the original model; however, we are yet to see how other content creation benchmarks suit the new CPU.

For Geekbench 5 synthetics, the upcoming Ryzen 9 7950X3D scores 2,157 points in the single-core score and 21,841 points in the multi-core score. The regular Ryzen 9 7950X can reach around 2246 points for single-core and 25,275 points for multi-core score, which is relatively faster than the new cache-enhanced Ryzen 9 7950X3D design. Of course, some of these benchmark results show that the 4.2 GHz base frequency of Ryzen 9 7950X3D plays a significant role in the overall performance comparison, given that the regular Ryzen 9 7950X is set to a 4.5 GHz base clock. Both designs share the same 5.7 GHz boost speed, so we have yet to see more benchmarks showing other differences induced by larger cache sizes.

AMD Ryzen 7000-series "Zen 4" desktop processors got their first round of price-cuts on leading retailer Newegg, as the company has a hard time justifying their launch-prices in the wake of Intel's 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" and declining demand in the PC components market. The new pricing sees the top Ryzen 9 7950X 16-core/32-thread chip priced at USD $574, down from $700 (an 18% price-cut). The 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 7900X sees its price go down from $550 to $474 (down 14%).

The 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 7700X gets a $50 price-cut sending its price down from $400 to roughly $350. The 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 7600X gets a similar $50 cut, which means the chip can now be had for roughly $250, down from its $300 launch price. All four SKUs face stiff competition from the aggressively priced 13th Gen Core SKUs, which include the i9-13900K, the i7-13700K, and the i5-13600K. Prices of Socket AM5 motherboards are another big put-off as they're a major contributor to platform costs, which is restricted to DDR5 memory. The Intel platform currently includes entry-level chipset options, as well as motherboards with DDR4 support.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, today revealed the breakthrough DDR5 performance of XMP DDR5-7600 and O.C. performance to DDR5-7950 under fan cooling on Z790 AORUS XTREME and MASTER motherboards with Team Group gaming modules T-FORCE DELTA RGB DDR5 7200 memory. Featuring Shielded Memory Routing of SMD memory DIMM, exclusive DDR5 overclocking BIOS setting, top-quality components, and enhanced design from hardware to firmware on motherboards, this performance proves GIGABYTE's strong leading role in product quality and performance.

To unleash the ultimate DDR5 performance, GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS XTREME and MASTER implement new generation Shielded Memory Routing design. By optimizing memory trace width, length, and style from HPC simulation to actual implementation, overall impedance is lowered between CPU memory controller and memory modules. Further with low signal-loss PCB, signal loss inside PCB and external interference are greatly reduced which can maintain high-speed DDR5 signal transmission to achieve higher DDR5 speed. In addition, the abundant BIOS setting of DDR5 Memory Upgrade and XMP 3.0 User Profile lead to the breakthrough performance of XMP DDR5-7600 and DDR5-7950 O.C. under fan cooling with T-FORCE DELTA RGB DDR5 7200 memory. The detailed memory information is listed in the memory support list of the motherboard.

Sapphire unveiled the Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition graphics card for Apple Mac Pro workstations. Featuring lateral-flow cooling assembly akin to AMD's reference design, and a glossy, curvy white cooler shroud, the card features a custom design, pitch-black PCB with the firmware required to get the card running on a Mac Pro.

The card features older Radeon HD 7950 ASIC, which lacks PowerTune with Boost; and features clock speeds of 800 MHz core, 5.00 GHz memory. It packs 3 GB of memory across a 384-bit GDDR5 interface. It draws power from two 6-pin PCIe connectors. Display outputs include a dual-link DVI, an HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPorts. The card is expected to be priced in the range of €400 and €500, a hefty premium over the roughly €250 common HD 7950 cards charge today.

Although the recent round of price-cuts by AMD covered mainly three SKUs, the HD 7970, HD 7950, and HD 7770; HIS put together its own list of price-cuts covering all Radeon HD 7000 series SKUs launched by it, including its non-reference design and overclocked ones. The new prices (in EUR, incl. taxes) are listed below.

• HIS 7750 iCooler 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E DP/DVI/HDM - 89,- Euro
• HIS 7770 iCooler 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI/2xMiniDP - 114,90 Euro
• HIS 7870 IceQ X Turbo 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI/2xMini DP - 299 Euro
• HIS 7870 IceQ Turbo 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI/2xMini DP - 309,90 Euro

Tens of thousands people across the world are currently celebrating the Chinese new year as they welcome in the "Year of the Dragon" and Club 3D adds another bang with the introduction of the all brand new Club 3D Radeon HD 7950, followed by the earlier introduction of the Award Winning Radeon HD 7970, the world first 28nm GPU.

With 1792 stream processors, a 384 bit GDDR5 memory bus that provides 3.15 TFLOPs of computing performance, the Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards are intended for gamers who never settle. Equipped with AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture and the latest power management technology, this card takes a no-compromise approach to gaming.

Hightech Information System (HIS) today announced the launch of HIS 7950 3GB. The card provides a budget choice for keen gamers who wish to experience the latest 7900 series. With a clock rate of 800 MHz, memory clock of 5.0 Gbps as well as a 384-bit memory interface, the HIS 7950 3GB offers top-class performances just like its 7970 sibling!

HIS 7950 3GB comes with the HIS Weight Lifter that makes the card last longer. It takes some weight off of the card and the PCIe slot, providing a simple but effective solution to prevent potential damage to the card due to the card's weight.

The first of many retail listings for the 7950 are up today thanks to the online distributer PROVANTAGE. Not much is known but the high retail price of $481.58. Time will tell if this is just the normal mark up for a pre-release item or if this is in fact retail. Ironically the picture they display is that of a ATI HD4850. The listed specs are as follows: HD 7950 3072MB DDR5 384BIT PCI Express DVI.

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.

Pictures of the Sapphire HD 7950 3 GB graphics card have been leaked on the Guru3D forum by user asder00. No further details or specifications were given other than "Product name: Sapphire HD7950 3G GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI/DVI-I/DUAL MINI DP OC VERSION".

As can be seen by the cooler, this is a non-reference design - at least for the cooler. The cooler is coloured black, has a very modern, sharp, angular and somewhat futuristic look to it and sports two large Sapphire-branded fans. Of course, it has heatpipes and five are visible. The design of this cooler suggests that it should work quietly and cool efficiently. Connectivity is aided and abetted by one DVI port, one full size HDMI port and two mini-DisplayPorts, like on its bigger brother the HD 7970. Moving on to the box, one can see that it has a 384-bit bus and 3 GB GDDR5, again like the HD 7970. The box also shows a logo with "OverClock" written boldly in white on it. The inevitable attractive lady box art in this instance has her wearing a grey top, a partial face mask and a helmet from what looks like the wars of yesteryear, plus she is carrying a rifle over her shoulder.