Despite losing its competitive edge to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680, for various reasons AMD was rather slow in adjusting prices of its Radeon HD 7900 series SKUs, the HD 7970 and HD 7950. We are now learning that AMD is preparing the first round of price cuts for its flagship graphics card lineup, since the advent of NVIDIA's Kepler architecture. A Kitguru report pits price cuts of Radeon HD 7970 as much as by US $60 (from $549 to "as low as" $489). The price of HD 7950, on the other hand, is expected to go down by as much as US $55 (that's from $449 to $394). There's also a small price cut in store for Radeon HD 7770, which according to the report, could go down by $15.

We know from a late-March article that NVIDIA is working on two new SKUs based on its GK104 silicon, for launch in May. With the Kepler architecture, particularly with the design of the new-generation Streaming Multiprocessors (SMX), NVIDIA substantially increased CUDA core density. Each SMX holds 192 CUDA cores, and as with the previous-generation Fermi architecture, the SMX count is the only thing NVIDIA can tinker with, to control CUDA core count in new GPUs. GeForce GTX 680's little brother, hence will have 7 out of 8 SMX units enabled, and end up with a CUDA core count of 1344. This leaves easier to configure parameters such as clock speeds, for NVIDIA to design the perfect SKU to capture a price-point. NVIDIA is targeting the sub-$399 market, while somehow maintaining competitiveness with Radeon HD 7950.Specifications of the new SKU follow.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 literally kicked the door open as it made its entry. We're learning of NVIDIA's plans to milk the GK104 chip by carving out two more SKUs: the GeForce GTX 670 Ti, and GTX 670. These two SKUs will let NVIDIA capture price points deep within the $400-499 and $300-399 ranges, to compete with AMD's Radeon HD 7950 and Radeon HD 7870. These two SKUs will be released in May. Around the May-June time-range, NVIDIA could also introduce the GTX 690, which we're hearing is a dual-GK104 graphics card that's designed to compete with Radeon HD 7990, which launches in April.

Also in May, NVIDIA will launch desktop discrete graphics card SKUs based on the GK107 chip, which makes up its GeForce GT 650M/640M mobile graphics SKUs. Following this, some time in Summer, NVIDIA will release a new chip, the GK106, which will make up the GeForce GTX 660, which will be out to compete with Radeon HD 7850, and HD 7700 series. It looks like NVIDIA is waiting on current inventories of GF114-based SKUs to get digested, including those of the recently-launched GeForce GTX 560 SE, and is hence in no hurry to launch a new GPU to capture the sub-$250 price-points. Besides the dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990, there's nothing new in the works, at the red camp that we know of.

It's no news that Zalman is a graphics card vendor in its own might. The company is ready with its Radeon HD 7950 graphics card (model: ZALMAN HD7950-Z). The card uses a slightly customized AMD reference design PCB (customized with its color), augmented with Zalman's proven VF3000 VGA cooler. The VF3000 is a large aluminum fin heatsink to which heat is fed by copper heat pipes, ventilated by two large red LED-lit fans.

The cooler occupies three expansion slots, and is said to offer temperatures as low as 20°C below what the AMD reference cooler manages. This particular model sticks to AMD reference clock speeds, leaving it to end-users to take advantage of the cooler and overclock for themselves, although plans for an OC model are underway.

AMD today reached a major milestone in the graphics industry with worldwide availability of its full line of next generation AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPUs in less than three months. Starting in December, AMD launched the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series, followed in February by the AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series and completed today with availability of the AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series graphics cards.

"Bringing the first 28nm graphics cards to market in December spurred us to continue pushing the boundaries, product after product, culminating with today's product availability," said Zvika Greenstein, director of product management, GPU Division, AMD. "Look at our feature set: Graphics Core Next, AMD Eyefinity 2.0, AMD PowerTune, AMD ZeroCore Power technologies and of course our GHz Edition graphics cards - it is without doubt that AMD stands alone in the graphics industry."

Apart from launching a pair of Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards based on its IceQ X² cooler, HIS also launched a pair of graphics cards based on the Radeon HD 7950 GPU, which are cooled by its latest IceQ iTurbo cooler. This cooler was also featured on HIS HD 7870 IceQ iTurbo. Based on this cooler, HIS launched two models, the HIS HD 7950 IceQ (model: H795Q3G2M), and HIS HD 7950 IceQ Turbo (model: H795QT3G2M). The base model features reference clock speeds of 800 MHz (core), 5.00 GHz (memory); while the Turbo model features a slightly bumped core clock speed of 900 MHz, with no change in memory speed.

Both cards use new HIS IceQ iTurbo cooling solution, which consists of a lateral-airflow design. From the GPU base, two 6 mm-thick and two 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat-pipes arise, conveying heat to a small but dense aluminum channel array. A lateral-flow blower directs air through these channels, where heat dissipation takes place. Unfortunately, with the way this cooling solution is designed, you require three expansion slot bays in you chassis you accommodate one of these cards (check out the top-view picture). The cards use AMD reference-design PCBs that are colored blue, to match HIS IceQ color-scheme. HIS did not give out pricing information.

GPU vendors tend to give out their own performance figures of the products they're launching, compared to competitors' products. In one such comparison, allegedly of the GeForce GTX 680, doing rounds on the internet, NVIDIA's new GPU was evaluated by its makers be be over 40% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 in some tests. Keeping Radeon HD 7970 as a baseline, NVIDIA presented its performance figures for the GeForce GTX 680's leads over it, and Radeon HD 7950's trails under it. Results of as many as 15 tests were presented, from 7 games/benchmarks. All benchmarks were run with and without AA. The one test that caught the eye is Battlefield 3 with "4xAA". Experts we spoke to think NVIDIA could be using FXAA algorithm. In any case, NVIDIA looks to be confident of taking back the fastest-GPU crown from AMD.

A report by 3DCenter.org, which takes into account the specifications of NVIDIA's GK104 GPU, based on clock-speed and specs. leak estimated its shader compute power to be 17% higher than that of AMD's Tahiti in its Radeon HD 7970 avatar (4.46 TFLOPs single-precision floating point). Based on the said specifications, the report also hypothesized things such as memory bandwidth, ROP performance, and texture performance; and compared it to those of the Radeon HD 7970 and Radeon HD 7950.

NVIDIA has reportedly named the top desktop graphics card based on its upcoming 28 nm GK104 GPU GeForce GTX 670 Ti. The GK104 is a spiritual-successor to GF114 (which in-turn, to GF104), and NVIDIA is eager to get this part out fast, so it could consolidate on the performance thru high-end segment, before it's certain that it won't face issues with its foundry partners, so it could go ahead and launch parts based on the GK110. Interestingly, NVIDIA chose to name the highest-performing GK104-based SKU GTX 670 Ti and not GTX 660 Ti, probably indicating that this part will perform competitively with high-end parts out in the market today, including AMD's recently-launched Radeon HD 7000 series.

Speaking of performance, sources told SweClockers that they expect the GeForce GTX 670 Ti to outperform GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon HD 7950. Its specifications doing rounds on the web suggest it has a radically different number-crunching machinery. Industry analyst DigiTimes recently pinned launches of GeForce Kepler family to begin in April, though we're hearing there will be substantial activity surrounding these GPUs in March.

A leading brand of graphics card maker - VTX3D, today introduces the most well-known X series of VTX3D, HD7970/HD7950 X Edition. The X series is designed to deliver extraordinary performance with factory overclocked setting and unique cooling design.

VTX3D HD7970/HD7950 X Edition incorporates the latest PCI-E Gen 3 to get the maximum performance from your GPU. Both fitted with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory connected via a new high speed 384 bit memory interface. VTX3D HD7970/HD7950 X Edition is clocked at 1050 MHz and 880 MHz respectively, also together with 1425 MHz and 1250 MHz for each memory, fulfilling those who thirst for extreme performance. The HD7970/HD7950 X Edition also features ultra cooling design. With two 92 mm ultra big fan and SSU-shape heat pipe design, this efficient cooling solution maximizes the speed of heat dissipation, but minimizes the noisy level, creating most pleasing environment for gaming.

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder offering custom desktops, notebooks and workstations has just added AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card solution to their award winning up desktop offerings.

Similar to the AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics, the AMD Radeon HD 7950 series graphics takes your game to new levels for the no-compromise gamer at a more affordable price point. With AMD Radeon 7900 series graphics, the gaming experience is perfected with the new GCN Architecture engineered to deliver jaw-dropping performance and unprecedented image quality. For those gamers looking to get an added advantage, they can add up to six displays with AMD Eyefinity technology and enable unrivalled HD video quality to see every move and make the kill. Those who are not so much into gaming will appreciate the astonishing performance in everyday applications with AMD App Acceleration that allows for faster video encoding, transcoding and decoding.

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.

Gigabyte flagged off its Radeon HD 7950 lineup with a custom-design graphics card. Carrying the model number GV-R795WF3-3GD, the card makes use of Gigabyte's custom-design WindForce 3 cooling solution strapped on to a more familiar-looking AMD reference design PCB that's colored blue. The WindForce 3 cooler consists of a complex aluminum fin array that draws heat from the GPU, memory, and VRM. Heat is supplied by several copper heat pipes, the heatsink is then ventilated by three 80 mm fans that are tilted in way that maximizes hot air to be pushed out of the rear panel and the top. Overclocked out of the box, the GV-R795WF3-3GD comes with clock speeds of 900 MHz core and 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz effective) memory. It is priced at US $489.99

A leading brand of graphics card maker VTX3D today releases HD7950 based on the latest AMD Tahiti GPU, brings the most revolutionary architectural design and powerful features to all demanding users. VTX3D HD7950 includes support for advanced DirectX 11.1, PCI-E Gen 3 and AMD Eyefinity 2.0, takes HD gaming experience to the ultimate.

VTX3D HD7950 is fitted with 3GB of GDDR5 memory, and together with 384-bit memory interface. Clocks at 800MHz core and 1250MHz (5.0Gbps) memory speed, bringing incredible performance and leaving rival behind. VTX3D HD7950 uses an innovative 28nm GCN Architecture which is designed for improving utilization and ensuring the GPU to make optimal use of its resources for maximum performance. VTX3D HD7950 is also designed to be installed in PCI-E Gen 3 that offers double bandwidth than previous generation, also minimizing latency between CPU and GPU.

XFX out performs the competition with the release of their AMD Radeon HD 7950s - the second in XFX's all new Radeon HD 7000 Series line-up. Available in four tantalising versions for you to choose from- Core Edition, the multi-award winning Double Dissipation, Black Edition Single Fan and Black Edition Double Dissipation - All featuring XFX's Ghost Thermal Solution.

Ghost Thermal technology is the optimal thermal design that allows air to pass through the heatsink directly to the PCB and core components. This exclusive design allows fan speeds to be kept lower, while allowing the heat to dissipate evenly through the card without excess noise. XFX's exclusive Ghost Thermal design is complimented by its highly efficient HydroCell thermal solution which is a vapor chamber based on the same principles as heat-pipe technology, which uses a recirculation process and wick system for vaporization. All of this combined with XFX's award-winning Double Dissipation dual-fan design makes it one of the coolest and quietest cards on the market while simultaneously increasing overall graphics card performance and lifespan.

Today, leading global graphics card and mainboard manufacturer MSI officially announces the R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC graphics card built on the latest AMD 28nm Radeon HD7950 GPU with PCI Express Gen 3 support. MSI's exclusive Twin Frozr III thermal design features dual 8cm Propeller Blade fans to achieve up to 10℃ lower GPU temperatures and 13.7dB less noise under full load! MSI's exclusive Afterburner overclocking software can be used to unleash the core and memory voltage potential providing up to 37.5% overclockability!

The R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC uses Military Class III components include Hi-c CAP, Super Ferrite Choke and All Solid capacitors that have passed MIL-STD-810G level testing to deliver the best graphics card performance and quality to gamers. MSI further expands its R7900 with two new products, the R7970-2PMD3GD5/OC and R7950-2PMD3GD5/OC to provide the best choice for gamers.

ASUS kicked off its Radeon HD 7950 graphics card lineup with three models, the HD7950-3GD5 which sticks to the cost-effective AMD reference design; the HD7950-DC2-3GD5, which is a DirectCu II model that sticks to AMD reference clock-speeds; and the HD7950-DC2T-3GD5, which is a DirectCu II TOP model, which features factory-overclocked speeds of 900 MHz core with 1250 MHz memory, while the other two models feature 800 MHz core with 1250 MHz memory.

The HD7950-3GD5, which likely sells for US $449, is based on AMD's cost-effective central-fan reference design. The HD7950-DC2-3GD5 uses the company's triple-slot DirectCu II cooler, which is also featured on the Radeon HD 7970 DirectCu II, and is known to provide excellent cooling with low noise, though at the expense of its size. This card will likely be $15-20 costlier. Lastly there's the HD7950-DC2T-3GD5, which likely charges a further $20 premium for its factory overclocked speeds, taking its price close to $490.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today announces the graphics solution for no-compromise gamers: the PowerColor HD7950 series. Armed with 28nm GCN architecture, PowerColor lined up PCS+ and standard editions to fulfill every hungry gamer's demand. Both editions support the latest PCI Express 3.0, easily maximizing performance by doubling the bandwidth of previous generation, delivering ground-breaking gaming experience like never before.

The PCS+ HD7950 has factory overclocked setting at 880MHz core and 1250MHz memory speed, with dual 92mm ultra huge fan and 3 units 8mm large heat pipes design, easily dissipating the heat from pure cooper base which fully covers the GPU, providing 15% lower temp. and 20% quieter noise level. The HD7950 clocks at 800MHz core and 1250MHz memory speed, ready to tackle all the demanding game titles.

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.

Sapphire today launched its Radeon HD 7950 lineup, consisting of two models, the base-model single-fan, and a dual-fan OC model. The base-model sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 800 MHz core with 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory, while the OC model features clock speeds of 900 MHz core and 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory. The base-model features a simple single-fan heatsink without heat pipes, while the OC model uses a more complex aluminum fin-array heatsink to which heat is fed by copper heat pipes, ventilated by two fans. Interestingly, Sapphire did not release an AMD reference design model. The base model is expected to be priced at US $449, and the OC model about $20 more.

AMD launched the Radeon HD 7950 graphics card, its second high-end product based on its new Graphics CoreNext architecture. Based on the same 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon as the HD 7970, the new SKU packs all its features, while being a tone-down in terms of specifications. To begin with, it features 1792 stream processors brought about by enabling 28 out of 32 of the GCN compute units on Tahiti. It features 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 3 GB of memory.

Its reference clock speeds include 800 MHz core, and 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz GDDR5 effective). Due to reduced power draw, the card requires two 6-pin power inputs, instead of 6+8-pin found on the HD 7970. AIB partners are free to provide custom-design and factory-overclocked models at speeds of up to 900 MHz core with 5.00 GHz memory. Models with AMD reference clock speeds should be typically priced at US $449, with factory-overclocked ones about $15-20 higher. The cards should be available in the markets right away.

A little earlier this month, we were treated to pictures of Sapphire's dual-fan Radeon HD 7950 OC graphics card. It appears that the card pictured earlier is not the only non-reference design HD 7950 from Sapphire, as it has a slightly more affordable single-fan model in the works. This model likely sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 800 MHz core, 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz GDDR5 effective) out of the box.

The single-fan HD 7950 appears to have a blue-colored PCB that is likely to be AMD's cost-effective reference design. The cooler appears to have a compact heatsink that is cooled by a single central fan. Display outputs include two mini-DisplayPort, and one each of HDMI and DVI. We're also hearing from the source that 900 MHz core with unchanged (1250/5000 MHz) memory will be the maximum factory-OC permitted by AMD to AIB partners. That is not to say that the HD 7950's OC potential beyond that will be limited in any way.Update: Augmented with more images from Expreview.

It looks like Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950 won't share a common design after all, as press-shots of the HD 7950 suggest. The HD 7950 is also said to use a different PCB design from the HD 7970, diminishing any chance of the HD 7950 being "unlockable" to HD 7970 using a BIOS update. The reference design card uses a cost-effective heatsink with internal ventilation using a top-flow fan, and not a fin-canal design the HD 7970 uses, which pushes hot air out of the case.

Not to be outdone by their US-based brethren, several European stores have jumped the gun and put up for pre-order the (still not officially announced) Radeon HD 7950 aka AMD's second 28 nm-powered graphics card. The listings in Europe reveal three HD 7950s, two that seem to be based on AMD's reference design (one from XFX, one only carrying the AMD brand) and a custom model coming from Gigabyte.

All three cards feature DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 4.2 support, 1792 Stream Processors, a 384-bit memory interface, 3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 5000 MHz, CrossFireX support, and include four display outputs - DVI x 1, HDMI x 1, mini DisplayPort x 2. The 'stock' models have a GPU clock of 800 MHz while Gigabyte's card (GV-R795W3-3GD) is listed with a core clock of 900 MHz (although it may be a typo). The GV-R795W3-3GD also has a blue PCB and a dual-slot, triple-fan (WindForce style) cooler.

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.