According to a block diagram of AMD's new 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, it features the same amount of shading power as "Tahiti," if not more. The chip features a total of 2,048 Graphics CoreNext 1.1 stream processors, spread across 32 compute units (CUs). The chip also features 128 TMUs. The block diagram was part of press-material AMD distributed with its recently launched FirePro W7100 professional graphics card, which is based on "Tonga."

The W7100 uses just 28 of the 32 CUs, and hence features 1,792 stream processors. Other features of "Tonga," according to the block diagram, include a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, 32 ROPs, TrueAudio DSP, and a modern XDMA CrossFire interface. The first consumer graphics card based on this chip is the Radeon R9 285. It is expected to feature 1,792 stream processors, and offer performance rivaling the Radeon HD 7950 Boost at lower power draw, and priced to compete with the GeForce GTX 760. That could leave the possibility of a future "R9 285X" with the chip's full complement of stream processors.

AMD offers greater flexibility with its multi-GPU solutions, letting you mix and match any two GPUs based on the same silicon. It was quite natural to expect a Radeon R9 280X to work in tandem with a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition from the previous generation, since the two are based on the same "Tahiti" GPU, which is now proven. HardwareCanucks managed to run that combo without a hitch, and log performance results across a bouquet of game tests. The publication also notes that one should be able to similarly pair a Radeon R9 270X with a Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition (the one based on "Pitcairn," not "Tahiti LE"). Have a Radeon HD 7950? Feel free to add an R9 280X to the mix.

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 760 could be the company's last GTX 700 series retail desktop SKU, at least for this year. A leaked slide by the company lays out how this year's three new GTX 700 series SKUs pretty much seal the product stack. It reveals that GeForce GTX TITAN will remain NVIDIA's flagship graphics card throughout the year. The thousand-dollar single-GPU card is based on the GK110 silicon, with 2,688 CUDA cores, and 6 GB of memory. The GeForce GTX 780, introduced this March, replaces the GeForce GTX 680 on the product-stack, even at its much higher launch price of $650, compared to its predecessor's $500. The GTX 780 has no competition from AMD at its price-point.

The slide also reveals that the GeForce GTX 770, which was launched late last month, will replace the GeForce GTX 670 from the stack. Based on the GK104 silicon, it features 1,536 CUDA cores, and 2 to 4 GB of memory. Given that it has a lot in common with the GeForce GTX 680, albeit with higher clock speeds, GPU Boost 2.0, its $400 pricing surprised us. The GeForce GTX 770 outperforms AMD's HD 7970 GHz Edition, and is generally priced on-par. The only definitively faster AMD card is the $1100 HD 7990 "Malta," which makes the GTX 770 the king of its segment.

SAPPHIRE Technology, the leading manufacturer and global supplier of graphics solutions based on AMD technology, has just announced an exciting new graphics accelerator compatible with the Apple Mac Pro series of desktop computers.

Exclusive to SAPPHIRE, the HD 7950 Mac Edition is based on AMD's latest Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. This highly acclaimed architecture delivers a significant graphics performance boost for Mac Pro users in a wide range of applications including gaming, audio or video editing and content creation. For example, gaming frame rates are increased by over 200%, general benchmark performance increased by around 30% and graphics intensive benchmarks increased by as much as 300% compared with the NV 8800GT commonly used in these machines (SAPPHIRE internal data).

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.

MSI updated its Radeon HD 7950 graphics card lineup with a model that features the new HD 7950 Boost Edition ASIC, and the company's workhorse performance-segment VGA cooler, Twin Frozr III. The card features factory-overclocked speeds of 880 MHz core, 960 MHz PowerTune Boost frequency, and 5.00 GHz memory. It features 3 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface. The Twin Frozr III cooler uses a pair of 80 mm PWM-controlled Propeller-blade fans ventilating an aluminum fin stack. The cooler, according to MSI, keeps the GPU up to 10°C cooler, running 13.7 dB quieter than AMD's reference-design cooling solution. Expected this card to be priced around US $330, a variant that sticks to AMD reference clock speeds could be cheaper.

A recent press-release by Lenovo announcing the Erazer X700 gaming desktop may not have sounded like much, but it turns out the company is enthused by AMD, particularly AMD CrossFireX, because it is an early design win for AMD's next-generation Radeon HD 8000 series family. The specifications sheet of the Erazer X700 blurts out the graphics subsystem to consist of "up to dual Radeon HD 8950 3GB" as a graphics option next to dual- GeForce GTX 660 SLI. Given that Lenovo chose not to wait until any of the other big tech trade-shows of the year to announce this, it wouldn't be far-fetched to imagine a new AMD Radeon family launch within Q1, 2013. The other more obvious explanations are that Lenovo committed a brutal typo, or it plans to re-brand the Radeon HD 7950, an act that should be made a human-rights violation.

Last month, an investigative report by The TechReport found out that despite being faster, AMD's Radeon HD 7950 graphics card isn't "smoother" than NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti, in that shows signs of higher frame-delivery latency, a theory proven by high-speed camera recordings. Over the holiday, AMD's David Baumann responded in discussions around the web talking about the issue, in which he put AMD's stand.

Apparently, AMD Catalyst drivers still have refinement left in working perfectly with GPUs based on the Graphics CoreNext (GCN) architecture. Baumann explained that GCN, and AMD's older Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) architectures feature fundamentally different memory management, and drivers that make the most of it are still a work in progress. Baumann stated "Over the early part of the year you'll see a few driver updates help this across a variety of games."

The TechReport, which adds latency-based testing in its VGA reviews, concluded in a recent retrospective review taking into account recent driver advancements, that Radeon HD 7950, despite yielding higher frame-rates than GeForce GTX 660 Ti, has higher latencies (time it takes to beam generated frames onto the display), resulting in micro-stutter. In response to the comments-drama that ensued, its reviewer did a side-by-side recording of a scene from "TESV: Skyrim" as rendered by the two graphics cards, and slowed them down with high-speed recording, at 120 FPS, and 240 FPS. In slow-motion, micro-stuttering on the Radeon HD 7950 is more apparent than on the GeForce GTX 660 Ti.Find the slow-motion captures after the break.

While testing Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 jokerCard, one of the three Radeon HD 7870 "Tahiti LE" graphics cards you can buy, we discovered that it can pair with Radeon HD 7900 series cards in CrossFireX. Our VGA testing lab, which has battened down the hatches for winter (lack of VGA launches), spent a lot of time toying with Club 3D's card and while brainstorming for the review's conclusion, it came up that HD 7870 Tahiti LE is "bad" because it can't pair with common HD 7870 or HD 7850 "Pitcairn" graphics cards. A bulb supernova just went off over our heads: "...sure Tahiti LE won't pair with Pitcairn, but will it pair with HD 7900 series "Tahiti", which have more stream processors, and more memory?" The answer turned out to be yes!

We successfully managed to pair the Club 3D HD 7870 jokerCard with a Radeon HD 7950 and HD 7970 (reference). We casually put it through 3DMark 11 and Sleeping Dogs, and found the contraptions to scale fairly well. We noticed some micro-stutter in 3DMark 11, but Sleeping Dogs felt smooth. This could be great news for current HD 7900 series owners who can upgrade to CrossFire for a modest $249~269. We even tried our luck at unlocking disabled shaders (stream processors), which didn't work. AMD used the mod-proof fuses method to lock the shaders. Check out our Club 3D HD 7870 jokerCard review.

AMD is planning to officially launch its new performance-segment SKU codenamed "Tahiti LE" on November 27. According to a new HT4U report, there won't be an AMD-reference design, and its AIB partners will be free to use their existing HD 7900 series boards to carve out the new SKU. We know from slightly older reports that "Tahiti LE" is being designed to occupy a price point between the Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition and the Radeon HD 7950, and will be a limited edition, launched in select markets, to cash in on the winter shopping season.

With NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 650 threatening to make things messy in the sub-$250 market, and competitive pricing between NVIDIA partners with high-end SKUs, AMD is preparing yet another round of price cuts to its Radeon HD 7000 GPU series. Its last round followed the launch of GeForce GTX 660 Ti. According to the source, this is what AMD's lineup could look like, when it's done resetting prices:

• Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition - starts at $430
• Radeon HD 7970 standard - starts at $410
• Radeon HD 7950 Boost - starts at $300
• Radeon HD 7950 standard - starts at $290
• Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition - starts at $240
• Radeon HD 7850 2 GB - starts at $200

ASUS announced a trio of DirectCu V2 series graphics cards, the Radeon HD 7950 DirectCu II V2 TOP (HD7950-DC2T-3GD5-V2), the Radeon HD 7870 DirectCu II V2 TOP (HD7870-DC2TG-2GD5-V2), and Radeon HD 7870 DirectCu II V2 (HD7870-DC2-2GD5-V2). The three cards feature slightly modified cooler and PCB designs over the originals. In case of the HD 7950 DCU2 V2, the cooler is compacted with a denser heatsink, and the PCB reduced in length. In case of the HD 7870 cards, the cooler uses a denser heatsink.

The HD 7950 DCU2 V2 TOP ships with 900 MHz core, and 5.00 GHz GDDR5-effective memory. It packs 3 GB of memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface. The HD 7870 DCU2 V2 TOP ships with 1100 MHz core, and 5.00 GHz memory, while the HD 7870 DCU2 V2 ships with 1000 MHz core and 4.80 GHz memory. The two pack 2 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface.

Sapphire announced a new graphics card model based on AMD's revitalized Radeon HD 7950 Boost GPU. The card combines the new HD 7950 Boost with Sapphire's Vapor-X dual-fan cooler which has been used the likes of HD 7970 GHz Toxic 6 GB. The card even features an out-of-the-box OC. While AMD's new specifications dictate 850 MHz core with 925 MHz Boost frequency, Sapphire's BIOS runs the card at 850 MHz core with 950 MHz Boost frequency. The card packs 3 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface, clocked at 5.00 GHz.

Sapphire HD 7950 Boost Vapor-X OC uses a reasonably powerful VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. The Vapor-X cooler uses a large vapor-chamber plate that draws heat from the GPU and memory, and quickly transports it to the primary heatsink. Two 8 mm-thick and two 6 mm-thick heat pipes lend a hand. The heatsink is ventilated by a pair of 90 mm fans. Sapphire's HD 7950 Boost Vapor-X OC is expected to be priced around US $350.

AMD is working on a new set of price-cuts for its performance-thru-enthusiast lines of GPUs, following the launch of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 660 Ti. The new pricing will take effect by the end of this week. The $299 GeForce GTX 660 Ti, as reviews show, offers higher performance per Dollar than Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, and punches above its weight, at the $349 Radeon HD 7950, prompting AMD to change its specifications by increasing core clock speed, and augmenting it with PowerTune with Boost. The resulting HD 7950 with Boost is bound to replace the older HD 7950.

When AMD's new pricing scheme takes effect, this is how the performance-enthusiast segment will shape up:

• Prices of Radeon HD 7950 Boost will go down from US $349 to $319,
• Prices of Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition will go down from $299 to $249,
• Prices of Radeon HD 7850 2GB will go down to $209, and HD 7850 1GB to $189.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today releases an advanced edition of HD7950: the PowerColor HD7950 Boost State Edition. Compatible with all the latest technology, the powerful upgrade delivers the best gaming experience to blow up enthusiast gamers' mind.

The PowerColor HD7950 Boost State Edition clocks at 850 MHz core speed and 1250 MHz memory speed, by taking advantage of AMD PowerTune with boost, enabling the core speed dynamically overclocked up to 925 MHz-breaking out the limitation and delivering the unparalleled gaming speed. Furthermore, with 3.3 teraFLOPS computing power, it'll easily accelerate the PC to boost up the performance like never before.

AMD is preparing to update the specifications of its Radeon HD 7950 graphics processor to make it more competitive in the sub-$400 market segment, particularly against NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics processor. The update is much like that of the Radeon HD 7750, which got its core frequency increased from 800 to 900 MHz in a specifications update. The company released a new BIOS ROM image file which works on all AMD reference design Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards, which implements the new specifications.

The new specifications sees the GPU core frequency increased to 850 MHz (from 800 MHz), and introduces PowerTune with Boost, which sends the GPU clock speed up to 925 MHz, when applications demand it. The memory frequency stays unchanged, at 1250 MHz, and so do the physical specifications of the GPU, such as stream processor, TMU, and ROP counts. All Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards manufactured from mid-August will feature the new specifications, prices will remain unchanged. If you're familiar with manually updating the BIOS, you can check it out (at your own risk) from our VGA BIOS Database. Set your card's BIOS selector switch to "1" (if available), and update the BIOS. It works only with AMD reference-design HD 7950 cards.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon HD 7950 Specifications Update BIOS

AMD is preparing a wave of price-cuts for Radeon HD 7800 series and HD 7900 series products, to make them competitive against NVIDIA's offerings, and to prepare for a new bunch of performance-segment GPUs from its competitor (such as the GTX 660). The new pricing looks like this:

• Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition: US $499
• Radeon HD 7970: US $429
• Radeon HD 7950: US $349
• Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition: US $299
• Radeon HD 7850: US $249

The most significant set of price cuts concern HD 7950 and below, which are now more affordable in the price-performance "sweetspot" segment, which targets a bulk of PC gamers. The new prices will take effect later today.

ASUS is working to redesign its Radeon HD 7950 DirectCU II family of graphics cards. The new revision sees a breakaway from the common design that HD 7950 and HD 7970 DirectCU II graphics cards share, to one that has a more compact cooler and PCB, with denser aluminum fin stacks, six copper heat pipes (instead of five on the original design), and a redesigned display output layout (2x DVI DL, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort; compared to 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, and 2x mini-DisplayPort, on the original). The new design could be implemented on both the standard and TOP models. The standard model ships with clock speeds of 800 MHz core, while the TOP model ships with 900 MHz core clock speed. While it's not expected that the new cards will be cheaper than the current HD 7950 DirectCU II cards (at least not significantly), they could let ASUS brace itself for industry-wide price-cuts of the HD 7950, if and when they come about.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 670 presents a big problem to AMD's Radeon HD 7900 series lineup. It clearly outperforms Radeon HD 7950, outperforms Radeon HD 7970 in most cases, and maintains a healthy cost-performance lead over Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, even if it lags behind in performance. To combat this, AMD is reportedly working on a new SKU, called Radeon HD 7950 GHz Edition.

The "new" Radeon HD 7950 GHz Edition will be priced competitively to the GeForce GTX 670 (around $350-400), will retain the core configuration of the original HD 7950, with 1,792 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 3 GB of memory; but will feature higher clock speeds, with a core clock speed ≥1.00 GHz, and could feature AMD PowerTune with Boost feature. It is also reported that a majority of HD 7950 GHz Edition graphics cards launched to the market (later this quarter), will be cost-effective non-reference designs by AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners.

SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced the SAPPHIRE HD 7950 Flex Edition brining the company's unique solution for multi-screen gaming to the highly acclaimed HD 7000 series of graphics cards based on the Graphics Core Next architecture from AMD.

Most graphics cards based on AMD technology require the third monitor in an Eyefinity set-up to be a DisplayPort monitor, or connected with an active DisplayPort Adapter. The SAPPHIRE FleX family can support three DVI monitors in Eyefinity mode and deliver a true SLS (Single Large Surface) work area without the need for active adapters. The first two monitors are connected to the two DVI ports and the third to an HDMI to DVI cable (supplied) with no extra hardware required.

Sapphire launched a new graphics card that combines the Dual-X cooling solution, which was first featured on a high-end Radeon HD 7970 graphics card, with the more affordable Radeon HD 7950. The company launched two models, the Sapphire HD 7950 Dual-X OC, and a base model. The Dual-X OC is shown with a black-colored PCB, and GPU clock speed of 950 MHz with 5.00 GHz effective GDDR5 memory; whereas the base model utilizes a more cost-effective blue-colored PCB, and sticks to 810 MHz core with 5.00 GHz memory clock speeds. Pricing and availability information is awaited.

Following the introduction of Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 Joker card with DiRT Showdown yesterday, the company today introduces its brand new "Poker Series". With its new "PokerSeries" Club 3D offers a new level of special graphics cards that deliver the best performance, newest features and best coolers. PokerSeries graphic cards present our highest demands.

We are not new to AMD and NVIDIA bundling games and software in retail-channel graphics cards sold across all AIB partners. The most recent of these was DiRT 3 bundled by various AMD Radeon models. The latest such offer is dubbed "Three for Free", and is aimed at making getting a Radeon HD 7900 series graphics card a more juicy deal, on top of price cuts.

"Three for Free" is a bundle of three new PC game titles that are part of AMD Game ecosystem, which consists of DiRT Showdown, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Nexuiz. All new batches of Radeon HD 7900 series graphics cards sold by various partners, that's Radeon HD 7950 and Radeon HD 7970, will include a coupon with product keys for the three games, which can be redeemed on Steam as digital downloads. This offer is already active in the Europe, and will come soon to North America.

AMD reportedly finalized the adjusted prices. The price cuts were first reported in a little earlier this month. The price of Radeon HD 7970 was slashed by as much as US $70, sending it down to $479, $20 behind that of the GeForce GTX 680. That of the Radeon HD 7950 was cut by $50, which will send its price down to $399. Lastly, the price of Radeon HD 7770 went down by $20, it is priced at $139. Although not formally part of these price cuts, the Radeon HD 7870 is now available for as low as $330.