XFX rolled out a custom design Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" graphics card, its second one since the XFX-branded reference-design card. Named HD 7990 Triple Dissipation, the card is essentially an AMD reference design PCB with a custom cooling solution by XFX, which involves a chunkier aluminium fin stack heatsink over the two GPUs, and its DuraTec dust-repelling fans, topped off with a solid milled aluminium cooler shroud. Based on a pair of Tahiti XT silicons in an internal CrossFire configuration, the XFX HD 7990 Triple Dissipation features out of the box clock speeds of 950 MHz core, and 6.00 GHz memory. The cooler makes the card three slots thick. If you can live with that, the XFX Radeon HD 7990 could be yours for under $750.

In a bid to step up competitiveness of its Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" dual-GPU graphics card against NVIDIA's GeForce GTX TITAN and GTX 690, AMD add-in-board (AIB) partners slashed prices of the card by almost a third. What was once retailing for $1,100-1,200, is now down to $699.99. Prices of the card on American retailer Newegg.com, are ranging between $699.99 to $789.99, with two AIBs capturing the $729.99 and $749.99 price points, along the way. With the right kind of CrossFire profiles, a Radeon HD 7990 can offer frame-rates rivaled only by GTX Titan and GTX 690. Then there are also AMD's recent CrossFire micro-stuttering fix, and eight Never Settle games with realistic resale value of $100 to account for. These prices should also give GeForce GTX 780 buyers second thoughts.

AMD's next generation GPU family that leverages upcoming silicon fab technologies to increase transistor counts, while maintaining or lowering thermal envelopes, is codenamed "Volcanic Islands," and we've known about that for some time now.

The centerpiece of "Volcanic Islands" family is "Hawaii," a high-end GPU that makes up top single- and dual-GPU SKUs; followed by "Maui" and "Tonga." Not much is known about these two. A dual-GPU product with two "Hawaii" chips is confusingly codenamed "New Zealand," which is already used to designate certain Radeon HD 7990 graphics cards. AMD is expected to debut its first "Volcanic Islands" GPUs in Q4-2013, when foundry partner TSMC's swanky new 20 nm node is expected to take flight.

Sapphire's Radeon HD 7990 Atomic made its first appearance at Computex, early last month. While launch of the card itself is less than a few weeks away, pictures of its PCB and cooling solution made it to the web. Its PCB, pictured below, features a pair of 28 nm "Tahiti XT2" GPUs, a total of 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, and a PLX PEX8747 PCI-Express gen 3.0 x48 bridge chip, powered by a gargantuan 18-phase VRM that draws power from three 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors.

Each GPU system hence gets a 6+2+1 phase power supply (Vcc+VDDCI+MVDD). The Vcc phases appear to consist of two 50A chokes per phase, and driver-MOSFETs; while the ancillary phases use more conventional LFPAK MOSFETs. Tantalum capacitors handle most electricals on this 12-layer PCB. The PCB features two sets of video BIOS for each GPU. Display outputs include six mini-DisplayPort connectors. The card can pair with any other Radeon HD 7900 series card using CrossFireX.

Weak demand and stiff competition from NVIDIA's offerings could lead to AMD discontinuing its flagship graphics card, the Radeon HD 7990 "Malta," by the end of Q3 (end of September). The card was launched just this April, as a redux of last year's misfired Radeon HD 7990 "New Zealand," after getting power draw and performance-per-Watt right. Availability of Radeon HD 7990 has been greatly slimmed, so inventories dry out by the end of Q3. Radeon HD 7990 is commanding a steep four-figure price that's on-par with NVIDIA's offerings that it's trying to compete with, GeForce GTX TITAN, and GTX 690. Rather than lowering prices of the card to make it competitive, it looks like AMD decided to discontinue it, within a fixed time frame (Q3). Perhaps it's an indication of AMD's rumored Radeon HD 9000 series' October arrival not being a unicorn?We just received following statement from AMD: "AMD has not EOL'd the world's fastest graphics card, the AMD Radeon HD 7990". So, all this says is that the card is not end-of-life (EOL) yet, but may be EOL'd in the future.. or not.

It was only a matter of time after AMD's launch of the more energy-efficient Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" graphics card, that Sapphire would design a liquid-cooled Atomic variant. The card is based on a custom-design 12-layer PCB, ships with factory-overclocked speeds, and uses a high-grade VRM with 12-phase vGPU, 4-phase VDDCI, and 2-phase MVDD, which draw power from three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The card is cooled by a full-coverage water-block, and features an aluminum back-plate to cool memory chips on the reverse side of the PCB. The card features 6 GB of total memory, 3 GB per GPU.

On the demo system, the full-coverage block was seen connected to a conventional-looking liquid-cooling loop, and not something closed-loop/AIO. Coolant tubes from the card run to a conventional-looking reservoir, a 240 x 120 mm radiator, and a pump that occupies a 5.25-inch drive bay, and features a pressure gauge. We're not sure if the Sapphire Atomic-branded FB blocks for the CPU and chipset are part of the package, but Sapphire has, in the past, given CPU blocks with its Atomic-branded cards. This is one card to watch out for.

Futuremark rolled out a major update to its 3DMark benchmark suite. Update v1.1.0 introduces Ice Storm extreme preset for the Windows version of the software (it was exclusive to the Android version), and optimizes the software for four-GPU and three-GPU setups. This could improve the scores for setups with GeForce GTX 690 Quad-SLI or Radeon HD 7990 CrossFireX. Months of work was put into getting this part right, according to the developer. Ice Storm extreme preset adds yet another way to test entry-level graphics solutions, using a DirectX 9.0c feature-level scene.DOWNLOAD: 3DMark v1.1.0

Albeit a wee bit late, GIGABYTE joined the Radeon HD 7990 launch party with a card of its own (model: GV-R799D5-6GD-B). Pictured below, GIGABYTE's offering is no different from any of the HD 7990 cards launched this Wednesday, except the company decals on the card. It sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 1000 MHz core, and 6.00 GHz memory, featuring 6 GB of it. The dual-GPU graphics card runs a pair of 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs, each featuring 2048 stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 384-bit wide memory interfaces. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, outputs include four mini-DisplayPort and a dual-link DVI. On par with every other card, GIGABYTE's HD 7990 will cost $999.

HIS joined the Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" party by launching its own card, which predictably, is based on AMD's reference design. Called HIS HD 7990 Fan, the card features AMD-reference clock speeds of 1000 MHz core and 6.00 GHz memory; and features the "whisper quiet" triple-fan cooling solution. The card features a pair of 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs, each featuring 2048 stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interfaces. There is a total of 6 GB of memory on board. AMD's Never Settle Reloaded, with eight games, come included. The HIS HD 7990 Fan is expected to be priced at US $999.

They may be titans, but we are Gods. Meticulously engineered for extraordinary DirectX 11.1 performance with 6GB of GDDR5 and two of the fastest GPUs on the planet. The XFX AMD Radeon HD 7990 break records without breaking the sound barrier, thanks to a massive heatsink backed by three whisper-quiet axial fans.

Finely tuned for the highest DirectX 11.1 gaming performance, the XFX AMD Radeon HD 7990 and Graphics Core Next is the best solution to prep your rig for extreme performance and blaze through the hottest graphic intensive games of the year. From browsers to image editors, experience faster and smoother performance in everyday apps with AMD App Acceleration. These elements incorporated in the new XFX Radeon HD 7990 allow it to be the top performing graphics card for a long time. No competitor comes close to this performance and if any one wants a true competitive gaming edge, the XFX Radeon HD 7990 is the best and only solution on the planet. And YES. It can run Crysis 3 in 3840 x 2160 with max settings.

AMD launched its first WHQL-signed Catalyst Software Suite in three months, with the Catalyst 13.4 WHQL, coinciding with the launch of Radeon HD 7990, earlier today. The Catalyst Software Suite installs device drivers and system software for AMD Radeon GPUs, IGPs, and integrated HDMI audio devices, in additional to AMD APP runtime environment, and certain media acceleration software.DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 13.4 WHQL for Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

The change-log for Catalyst 13.4 WHQL follows.

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder of custom desktops, notebooks, and workstations, gives PC enthusiasts another reason to smile by offering the new AMD Radeon HD 7990 graphics solution on their award-winning desktop systems.

The new AMD Radeon HD 7990 6 GB GDDR5 graphic card option offers the fastest graphics performance to date with 806 billion transistors, 4096 stream processor and 8.2 Tflops of computing power, 48 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 for 96 GB of interGPU bandwidth and can power up to 5 simultaneous monitors with AMD EyeFinity Technology. Your system will stay quiet with the card's 3x ultra-quiet axial fans and large heatsink. PC gamers will enjoy playing the latest titles in maximum settings such as Crysis 3 and Tomb Raider in 3840 x 2160 resolutions and is ready for Ultra HD gaming at 4K resolution.

ASUS today announced the Radeon HD 7990 graphics card, a dual-GPU offering derived from 28nm AMD Radeon graphics processors. With twin GPUs based on AMD Graphics Core Next technology and 6GB GDDR5 video memory, the ASUS Radeon HD 7990 easily handles the most demanding DirectX 11.1 PC games in ultra settings and resolutions above 1920 x 1080.

It is also ready for ultra HD 4K video, delivering the finest graphics performance and the convenience of a standard 2-slot height. With two GPUs factory-paired on the board, customers only require one free PCI Express 3.0 slot without needing to use AMD CrossFireX multi-GPU bridging.

Club 3D unveils today the heir of our first Radeon HD 7990. This card already crushed the competition in terms of sheer power, performance and awesomeness. But now we present its successor, the even faster Club 3D Radeon HD 7990. As the world's fastest and most advanced graphics card, it descends from generations of AMD Radeon Graphics cards that wore the same crown. And with a heritage like that, you know what you're getting: an unparalleled experience wherein gaming is everything… but not the only thing. All hail the new king.

Compared to the previous Club 3D Radeon HD 7990, which was already a stellar performer and has a track record for being the fastest graphics card in the world for some months in 2012 and 2013, the new Club 3D Radeon HD 7990 offers even better performance while being quieter, cooler and more energy efficient. It's almost impossible to imagine but even that top of range product left room for the improvement shown in this iteration. It's clear that these improvements enable better performance than any other graphics card available in the market today and at the same time operates with less noise and using less power.

EK Water Blocks, premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is working on a new water block for the latest, most powerful gaming pgrahics card in the world - the AMD Radeon HD 7990, codenamed Malta.

The upcoming EK-FC7990 SE water block will directly cool both GPU, RAM as well as VRMs (voltage regulation module) as water will flow directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC7990 SE water block will also features a very high flow design therefore it could easily be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

Leading international graphics card maker MSI has always been a key player in the competitive graphics card market. Thanks to its strong R&D capabilities and outstanding product performance, MSI's products have always received high acclaim by the media and consumers throughout the world. On the heels of having just announced the release of the HD 7790 graphics card, MSI today launched the Radeon HD 7990 (MKT Name: R7990-6GD5), the most powerful graphics card on the planet.

In addition to utilizing two of the latest 28 nm 7900 series GPUs based on the GCN architecture, the new card also comes equipped with 6GB of high-speed memory. The card's extreme specifications are guaranteed to meet the needs of extreme gamers and power users everywhere.

SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced that it will start shipping the HD 7990 - the fastest graphics card available based on the highly acclaimed graphics GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture from AMD.

The SAPPHIRE HD 7990 has a dual GPU architecture with a total of 4096 Stream processors and core clock speeds of 1GHz (with Boost enabled), delivering up to 8.2 TeraFlops of compute power. It is equipped with 6GB of the latest DDR5 memory, and its output configuration of Dual-Link DVI plus four DisplayPorts supports up to 5 simultaneous displays in AMD Eyefinity. A large heatpipe assembly cooled by three axial fans ensures that the card runs quietly even under load.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today officially announces PowerColor HD7990, codenamed Malta, ready to fulfill all enthusiastic users with critical demand. The new HD7990 is powered by dual GPUs, and features 4096 stream processors and 8.2 TFLOPS compute power, deliveries massively parallel computing power for graphics.

The PowerColor HD7990 is equipped with 6GB of GDDR5 memory, and clocks at 950MHz and 1500MHz memory speed. By utilizing AMD PowerTune with boost, the HD7990 allows the core frequency dynamically overclocked up to 1GHz, successfully tackles demanding games titles without effort. Together with the combination of three axial fans and massive heatsink, the HD7990 provides ultra-quiet working environment under 37.8 dBA.

ORIGINPC announces the launch of the new AMD Radeon HD 7990 dual GPU graphics card on their award-winning desktops for gamers, artists, professionals and hardware enthusiasts. Powered by AMD's Graphics Core Next Architecture, the AMD Radeon HD 7990 features an astounding 8.6 billion transistors, 4,096 stream processors, 6GB DDR5 memory and up to 8.2 teraflops of computing power. With support for ULTRA HD 4K gaming, 6 displays per card and its record-breaking benchmark performance, the AMD Radeon HD 7990 provides the best gaming experience to date that can now be enjoyed on all ORIGIN desktop systems. ORIGIN PC is also offering AMD's brand new gaming bundle that features 8 of the most popular AAA titles with the purchase of a single AMD Radeon HD 7990 graphics card.

Ahead of its April 24 launch, AMD board vendors has been distributing marketing materials to their retail partners. One such retailer in Japan revealed the flagship graphics card's specifications sheet, revealing details such as clock speeds and GPU core configuration.

To begin with, AMD isn't compromising much on clock speeds on the HD 7990 "Malta," in an effort to lower power draw. The card features GPU core clock speed of 1000 MHz, which puts it above the single-GPU Radeon HD 7970, but not much lower than the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, with its 1050 MHz. The memory is clocked at 6.00 GHz, on par with the HD 7970 GHz Edition, which yields a cumulative memory bandwidth of 576 GB/s.

TechPowerUp released the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility, which gives you in-depth information about installed graphics hardware, and lets you monitor various parameters in real-time. With version v0.7.0 of GPU-Z, we focused on adding and improving support for new GPUs.

To begin with, it features support for AMD Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" dual-GPU graphics card, along with support for Radeon HD 8550M, HD 7340, HD 7290, and HD 8670D "Richland" on the AMD front; and GeForce GTX 680MX, GTX 675MX, GT 218, and 9400 GT (rare GPUs), on the NVIDIA front. Voltage monitoring is improved on Radeon HD 7790.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.0 | GPU-Z 0.7.0 ASUS ROG Themed

The change-log follows.

Market launch of AMD's Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" dual-GPU graphics card is less than a week away, according to an OCaholic report. Sources told the publication that AMD plans to launch its flagship graphics card on the 24th of April, 2013. According to it, reviews of the card should already be underway. AMD Radeon HD 7990 is the company's flagship graphics card, featuring a pair of 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs. According to specifications derived from older reports, it packs a total of 4096 stream processors, and 6 GB of GDDR5 memory across two 384-bit wide memory interfaces. What sets this card apart from the HD 7990 "New Zealand" launched last year by AMD's partners is the power-optimizations AMD put into it, leaving the card to draw power from "just" two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and make do with a dual-slot cooling solution.

A lucky bloke who managed to score an engineering sample of AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 7990 sought to make a quick buck by auctioning it on Ebay. An opening bid of $0.99, and 36 bids (ATP) later, the auction has reached the $1,125 mark. The engineering sample is said to ship with clock speeds of 950 MHz core, and 6.00 GHz memory. The dual-GPU graphics cards ships with two fully-loaded AMD "Tahiti" GPUs, with 2048 stream processors each, and a 384-bit memory interface holding 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, each. If anything the Ebay listing gave us some gorgeous pictures of the beast.

An anonymous tipster left an interesting picture on our doorsteps. It shows a pair of Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" reference-design graphics cards chugging along inside an enthusiast PC. AMD surprised us late last month, when it showed off a reference-design Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card, at the Game Developers' Conference (GDC) event. The cards in this new picture appear to be identical to the one AMD showed. The "Radeon" embossing appears pretty clear on both cards, so one can't mistake them for FirePro S10000.

Bearing a new internal codename "Malta," compared to last year's various dual-HD 7970 contraptions that were codenamed "New Zealand," the new Radeon HD 7990 is being designed to be far more energy efficient, and quiet. While the various "New Zealand" cards often featured three 8-pin PCIe power connectors and triple-slot cooling solutions, "Malta" makes do with just two 8-pin power connectors, and a dual-slot cooler. We've been talking to a lot of reliable sources in the industry, and nobody has any clue about a tentative launch date.

In its GDC press-briefing on Tuesday, AMD previewed the reference-design Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card. The company dragged its feet over such a product throughout 2012, and allowed its AIB partners to launch graphics cards with their own designs. Among the two that made it to the market were a PCS+ board by TUL, sold under the PowerColor, VTX3D, and Club3D brands, and the ASUS ROG ARES II. While those cards had different company codename, "New Zealand," the new HD 7990 is being referred to internally, as "Malta."

AMD's belated move to launch the Radeon HD 7990 reference design could reiterate the company's long-haul strategy with the Radeon HD 7000 series, which could sail the company through the crucial Summer sales season, over to Q4 2013, when the company is expected to launch its next GPU generation. AMD's reference design HD 7990 enjoys an edge over current market offerings: dual-slot thickness. It uses three 90 mm fans to cool a complex heatsink cooling the two GPUs, the bridge chip, and the VRM to feed them all. AMD didn't speak much about the card, but mentioned that its triple-fan approach is paying dividends. "It's whisper quiet," commented Matt Skynner, general manager of AMD's graphics business unit.