W1zzard
Jan 30, 2012, 10:35 AM
[page=Introduction & Specifications]
Introduction
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/logo.jpg
The cash-cow of AMD's 28 nanometer "Tahiti" silicon is finally here, as the company launched its new Radeon HD 7950 graphics card. The HD 7950 is an important model for AMD, as it allows more people access to the new Graphics CoreNext architecture as a result of its lower price. The new SKU was originally slated for a January 09, 2012 launch, but was faced with unforeseen delays. Regardless, today is its hard-launch date, meaning you should be able to find one at a store.
The Radeon HD 7950 qualifies as being a high-end graphics card due to its pricing, which is comparative to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580 with its current market pricing. AMD is aiming at higher energy efficiency compared to its market rival product, and a scope for aggressive cost-cutting, if competition from future NVIDIA product so dictate. In essence, HD 7950 will serve as a fulcrum for both today's high-end price-point, and tomorrow's gamer sweet-spot, again, depending on its competitive environment. This is what makes it an important model for AMD.
The Radeon HD 7950 is carved out of the 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon, on which the HD 7970 is based. This is done so by lowering the number of Graphics CoreNext Compute Units (CUs) from 32 on the HD 7970 to 28, resulting in a stream processor count of 1,792 compared to 2,048 on the HD 7970, and a TMU count lowered from 128 to 112. Every other component is left unchanged, including the memory interface and memory amount. Historically, with NVIDIA GPUs that have 384-bit wide memory interfaces, we have seen the second-best SKU having a narrower memory bus (such as 320-bit wide, for example). This is not the case with HD 7950, which has the full 384-bit wide memory interface with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.
We also have the following reviews for you today:
AMD Radeon HD 7950 Review (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7950_3432/) (reference design)
AMD Radeon HD 7950 CrossFire Review (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7950_CrossFire/) (two cards in CrossFire)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/pressshot.jpg
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ is a full custom implementation of the HD 7950. It comes with a revamped PCB design, a new dual fan cooler and increased clock speeds of 880 MHz out of the box. Unfortunately memory is still clocked at 1250 MHz, like the reference design.
In terms of pricing, PowerColor is asking a $15 price premium over the AMD reference implementation.
<table class="tputbl hilight" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<caption>
PowerColor HD 7950 PCS+ Market Segment Analysis
</caption>
<tr>
<th scope="col"> </th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br>
HD 6950</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br>
GTX 570</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 6970</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 580</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 7950</th>
<th scope="col"><strong>PowerColor <br />
HD 7950 PCS+</strong></th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 7970</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 6990</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 590</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Shader Units</th>
<td align="right">1408</td>
<td align="right">480</td>
<td align="right">1536</td>
<td align="right">512</td>
<td align="right">1792</td>
<td align="right"><strong>1792</strong></td>
<td align="right">2048</td>
<td align="right">2x 1536</td>
<td align="right">2x 512</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">ROPs</th>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">40</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right"><strong>32</strong></td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">2x 32</td>
<td align="right">2x 48</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Graphics Processor</th>
<td align="right">Cayman</td>
<td align="right">GF110</td>
<td align="right">Cayman</td>
<td align="right">GF110</td>
<td align="right">Tahiti</td>
<td align="right"><strong>Tahiti</strong></td>
<td align="right">Tahiti</td>
<td align="right">2x Cayman</td>
<td align="right">2x GF110</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Transistors</th>
<td align="right">2640M</td>
<td align="right">3000M</td>
<td align="right">2640M</td>
<td align="right">3000M</td>
<td align="right">4310M</td>
<td align="right"><strong>4310M</strong></td>
<td align="right">4310M</td>
<td align="right">2x 2640M</td>
<td align="right">2x 3000M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory Size</th>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">1280 MB</td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">1536 MB</td>
<td align="right">3072 MB</td>
<td align="right"><strong>3072 MB</strong></td>
<td align="right">3072 MB</td>
<td align="right">2x 2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">2x 1536 MB</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory Bus Width</th>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">320 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right"><strong>384 bit</strong></td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right">2x 256 bit</td>
<td align="right">2x 384 bit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Core Clock</th>
<td align="right">800 MHz</td>
<td align="right">732 MHz</td>
<td align="right">880 MHz</td>
<td align="right">772 MHz</td>
<td align="right">800 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>880 MHz</strong></td>
<td align="right">925 MHz</td>
<td align="right">830 MHz</td>
<td align="right">607 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory Clock</th>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">950 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1375 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1002 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>1250 MHz</strong></td>
<td align="right">1375 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">855 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Price</th>
<td align="right">$250</td>
<td align="right">$330</td>
<td align="right">$340</td>
<td align="right">$500</td>
<td align="right">$449</td>
<td align="right"><strong>$465</strong></td>
<td align="right">$549</td>
<td align="right">$700</td>
<td align="right">$750</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Packaging & Contents]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/package2.jpg)
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Graphics card
Driver CD + Documentation
CrossFire Bridge
Analog VGA Adapter
HDMI to DVI Adapter
Mini-DP to DP Adapter
[page=The Card]
The Card
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card2.jpg)
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ uses a menacing big cooler which promises great cooling performance.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card3.jpg)
The card requires two slots in your system.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/outputs_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/outputs.jpg)
Display connectivity options include one DVI port, one full size HDMI port and two mini-DisplayPorts. You may use all the outputs at the same time, thanks to AMD's superior display output architecture.
Please note that all the connectors are on the "first" slot now, which opens up the second one for a cooler grill through which hot air is blown out of the case. This also makes it possible to use the HD 7950 in a single slot configuration with a waterblock to cool the components.
An HDMI sound device is included in the GPU, too. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible which includes HD audio and support for Blu-ray 3D movies. The DisplayPort outputs are version 1.2 which enables the use of hubs and Multi-Stream transport.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/crossfire_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/crossfire.jpg)
You may combine up to four HD 7950 and HD 7970 cards from any vendor in a multi-GPU CrossFire configuration for higher framerates or better image quality settings.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/front_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/front.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/back.jpg)
Pictured above are photos of the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/front_full.jpg), back (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/back_full.jpg)). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.
[page=A Closer Look]
A Closer Look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cooler1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cooler1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cooler2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cooler2.jpg)
PowerColor's cooler uses two slow running fans to keep the card cool. Three heatpipes, that are doubled up to end up being as effective as five heatpipes transport heat away from the GPU core to the heatsink.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/power.jpg)
The card requires two 6-pin PCI-Express power cables for operation. This power configuration is good for up to 225 W of power draw.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/biosswitch_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/biosswitch.jpg)
The HD 7950 comes with AMD's dual BIOS feature that was introduced with the HD 6900 Series. It provides a safety net in case a BIOS flash goes wrong; simply switch to the second BIOS and flash back to the original BIOS.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/vreg_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/vreg.jpg)
For voltage control the card uses the CHiL CHL8228 chip, it is already well supported by overclocking software, as it is the same component as on the HD 7970.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/memory.jpg)
The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Hynix, and carry the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C. They are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/gpu_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/gpu.jpg)
AMD's new Tahiti graphics processor introduces a new shader architecture, it is also the first GPU to be produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The transistor count is 4.31 billion.
Please note the shiny metal shim around the GPU core, which is part of the GPU and prevents the crushing or chipping of the die during assembly. The GPU's model number is printed on the bottom right of the shim instead of on the die itself.
[page=Test Setup]
Test System
<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Test System - VGA Rev. 16</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th width="120" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td align="center">Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz<br />(Bloomfield, 8192 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td align="center">Gigabyte X58 Extreme<br />
Intel X58 & ICH10R</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td align="center">3x 2048 MB Mushkin Redline XP3-12800 DDR3 <br>
@ 1520 MHz 8-7-7-16</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td align="center">WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td align="center">Antec HCP-1200 1200W</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Software:</th>
<td align="center">Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">NVIDIA: 285.62<br />ATI: Catalyst 11.12<br />HD 7950 & 7970: 8.921.2 RC11</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Display:</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">
LG Flatron W3000H 30" 2560x1600<br /><img src="http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/zotac.jpg" width="120" height="40"></td>
</tr>
</table>
Benchmark scores in other reviews are only comparable when this exact same configuration is used.
All video card results were obtained on this exact system with the exact same configuration.
All games were set to their highest quality setting unless indicated otherwise.
AA and AF are applied via in-game settings, not via the driver's control panel.
Each benchmark was tested at the following settings and resolution:
1024 x 768, No Anti-aliasing. This is a standard resolution without demanding display settings.
1280 x 1024, 2x Anti-aliasing. Common resolution for most smaller flatscreens today (17" - 19"). A bit of eye candy turned on in the drivers.
1680 x 1050, 4x Anti-aliasing. Most common widescreen resolution on larger displays (19" - 22"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
1920 x 1200, 4x Anti-aliasing. Typical widescreen resolution for large displays (22" - 26"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
2560 x 1600, 4x Anti-aliasing. Highest possible resolution for commonly available displays (30"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
[page=Aliens vs. Predator]
Aliens vs. Predator
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/avp.jpg
Aliens vs. Predator is based on a merger of the Aliens and the Predators franchise: two legendary alien species that are in conflict with each other, fighting to the death with human marines caught in between. The first person shooter game was developed by Rebellion Studios, who also developed the first AVP PC title and released in February 2010. It is one of the first DirectX 11 games with support for new features like tesselation, which is why AMD heavily promoted it at the time of their DX 11 card launches. We use the AVP benchmark utility with tesselation and advanced DX11 shadows enabled.
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[page=Batman: Arkham City]
Batman: Arkham City
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/arkhamcity.jpg
Batman is back on the LCD screen with Arkham City, a sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum, by Rocksteady Games and WB. It was released to the PC platform in November. Batman is imprisoned in Arkham City, an infamous district of the DC Universe that contains the scum of Gotham, most of which Batman helped get in there. In order to get out he must go through scores of baddies, and encounter many of the iconic super-villains along the way. He's not entirely alone.
Batman Arkham City uses the same Unreal Engine by Epic, as Arkham Asylum, but thanks to the engine's modularity, it has been overhauled, outfitted with the latest technologies, including a graphics engine that takes advantage of DirectX 11.
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[page=Battlefield 3]
Battlefield 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/bf3.jpg
Arguably the most anticipated online shooter title among real gamers - PC gamers, Battlefield 3 is the latest addition to some of the most engaging online multi-player shooter franchises. It combines infantry combat with mechanized warfare including transport vehicles, armored personnel carriers, main battle tanks, attack helicopters, combat aircraft, pretty much everything that goes into today's battlefields. The infantry combat is coupled with role-playing elements, which makes the experience all the more engaging. It also has a single-player campaign which added a few gigabytes to its installer.
Behind all this is a spanking new game engine by EA-DICE, Frostbite 2. It makes use of every possible feature DirectX 11 has to offer, including hardware tessellation, and new lighting effects, to deliver some of the most captivating visuals gamers ever had access to. Not playing this game on PC is grave injustice to what's in store. Faster PCs are rewarded with better visuals.
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[page=BattleForge]
BattleForge
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/battleforge.jpg
BattleForge, a card based RTS, is developed by the German EA Phenomic Studio. A few months after launch the game was transformed into a Play 4 Free branded game. That move and the fact that it was included as game bundle with a large number of ATI cards made it one of the more well known RTS games of 2009. You as a player assemble your deck before game to select the units that will be available. Elemental force choices can be from forces of Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow to complement each other.
The BattleForge engine has full support for DX 9, DX 10 and DX 10.1, we use the internal benchmark tool in DirectX 11 mode with highest settings to acquire our results.
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[page=Call of Duty 4]
Call of Duty 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cod4.jpg
Call of Duty 4 is a first-person shooter that is built on the award winning Call of Duty Series. It is the first version to play in modern times. In a near-future conflict between the United States, Europe and Russia you get to play as a United States Marine and a British SAS operative. The engine is Infinity Ward's own creation and has true dynamic lighting, depth of field, dynamic shadows and HDR. Even though the game plot is scripted you will find yourself in intense battles, often working together with computer controlled team mates. Later installments of the Call of Duty Series use the same game engine, so this test is also representative of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 performance.
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[page=Civilization V]
Civilization 5
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/civ5.jpg
Sid Meier's Civilization V (or Civ 5 in common jargon), is the latest addition to the franchise of masterfully-crafted realtime strategy games that let you play God to a nascent civilization of your choice all the way up to the space-age. Civilization V uses large 3D worlds that are procedurally-generated, and takes advantage of hardware tessellation features offered by DirectX 11 to exponentially step up complexity of cities, models, terrains, and objects. It is also expected of this generation of GPUs to handle the larger texture loads that come with the eye-candy.
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[page=Crysis]
Crysis
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/crysis.jpg
After the tremendous success of Far Cry, the German game studio Crytek released their latest shooter Crysis in 2007. The game was by far the most hyped and anticipated game in 2007, and forums were full of "Can my system run Crysis?" threads because of the high hardware requirements of this game. Just like in Far Cry the plot evolves on a small island with a thick and richly detailed jungle world. A lot of attention has been given to small details like accurate physics. For example when you fire on a tree trunk, it will shatter and the tree will fall over leaving a stump behind. Enemies in a car can be stopped by shooting the tire of the car. The game graphics are top notch, even today, yet the game still runs well on most computers.
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[page=Crysis 2]
Crysis 2
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/crysis2.jpg
Crysis 2 takes the player into an alien-infested New York City. The game adds a tactical options mode that allows several approaches to attack a heavily infested enemy location. The new Nanosuit 2.0 that the player uses offers more freedom in ability use, for example multiple abilities can be used at the same time. To better accomodate a given play style weapons can be customized with silencers, laser sights or even a sniping scope.
For rendering Crytek's CryEngine 3 is used which comes with reduced system requirements compared to the first Crysis game. Since Crysis 2 is a multi-platform game, with major development focus on console, the graphics on launch day were only DirectX 9. DirectX 11 functionality was added later in a patch. We use the DX11 version and the high-res texture pack for our benchmarking.
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[page=DiRT 3]
DiRT 3
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The latest addition to the Collin McRae Rally franchise, DiRT 3, of multi-format rally motorsport. DiRT 3 introduced more of the same great racing experience Collin McRae DiRT 2 gave you, but with better gameplay, and the new Gymkhana freestyle motor-acrobatics mode, which you'll more likely love than hate. It uses a more polished, performance-optimized version of the EGO engine, version 2.0, which takes advantage of more DirectX 11 features than version 1.0 used on Collin McRae DiRT 2, did.
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[page=Dragon Age II]
Dragon Age II
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Dragon Age II is the second game in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise and was released in March 2011. As player, named Hawke, you will be able to pick your hero from several classes and grow him over the course of the adventure. Gameplay takes you through a linear narrated story of Hawke's rise to become the legendary "Champion of Kirkwall".
BioWare's Lycium Engine has support for DirectX 11, using tesselation, advanced dynamic lighting and camera effects like depth of field. We benchmark the DX11 version with details set to highest.
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[page=Hard Reset]
Hard Reset
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Developed by Flying Wild Hog, a studio that prides itself with the fact that its creation is PC-exclusive (bless them), Hard Reset is a first person shooter that's set in a future cyberpunk setting of a dystopian world. It reintroduces many of the gameplay mechanics that made classics such as Quake wicked fun, which today's tactical military shooters eroded, creating a 'void' for.
The game uses the studio's in-house Road Hog Engine, which isn't particularly heavy on new-generation DirectX features, but can still get taxing with some GPUs.
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[page=Metro 2033]
Metro 2033
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Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter game that is set in a post apocalyptic Moscow - as the name suggests inside the metro system. You will fight mutants or other humans who like to take away your shelter. The game has many gameplay elements similar to STALKER, also the engine has similar features. This is because two STALKER engine programmers left GSC Game World and started their own company which is now making Metro 2033.
The engine has support for all the latest eye candy like DirectX 11 and Tesselation. Unfortunately it leaves a less than optimized impression, making it a candidate to surpass Crysis for the highest hardware requirements. We test in DirectX 11 mode with details set to "Very High".
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[page=STALKER: Call of Pripyat]
STALKER: Call of Pripyat
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STALKER: Call of Pripyat takes places shortly after the events of the previous game STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. The player is one of many stalkers who are attracted by the Zone in hope of finding fame, wealth and artifacts. Over the course of the game you meet Strelok, the protagonist of the first STALKER game and team up with him to progress through the Zone.
An updated X-Ray Engine 1.6 powers the game with support for DirectX 11 using Compute Shaders for improved shadow rendering and tesselation to improve model quality.
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[page=StarCraft II]
StarCraft II
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StarCraft II, released in July 2010, is a sequel to Blizzard's award-winning strategy game StarCraft. In the 26th century three species Terrans, Protoss and Zerg are at war. The campaign takes you through many missions on different planets where you have to face the various enemy factions, sometimes several of them. StarCraft II features a similar number of units as the original game, some of them new. Due to the massive success of the first game, Blizzard chose to focus large aspects of the game on multiplayer combat through Battle.net. The campaign serves as a good introduction to units and concepts and competitive multiplayer is where the action is at.
The StarCraft 2 engine supports only DirectX 9, but several patches have improved rendering quality and available options considerably. We test using a recorded 1 vs. 1 multiplayer replay in the late game phase. Please note that Star Craft II is very CPU limited on high-end cards, especially on lower resolutions, so you may not see much scaling between some cards.
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[page=Total War: Shogun 2]
Total War: Shogun 2
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Set in 16th century feudal Japan, Total War: Shogun 2 takes the player on a quest for domination to conquer and unite the warlords of Japan. Moving away from the European setting of previous Total War games, the game is now designed around principles of the brilliant Chinese general Sun Tzu and his book "The Art of War". Gameplay is switched between real-time battles during which units on the battlefield are controlled and turn-based strategy which enable diplomacy, economy and production management. Taking control of a castles is comprised of several different stages which adds more complexity to warfare.
We benchmark using the highest settings in DirectX 11 mode, which was added via patch after release.
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[page=The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim]
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
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This isn't just a game, it's a masterpiece. A very large sandbox game that rejects the quality-quantity inverse-proportionality. By genre a role-playing game, TES: Skyrim combines some of the best elements of older titles in the franchise, with some new sandbox elements to churn out an extremely engaging, and addictive game. It makes use of Bethesda's Creation Engine, which isn't visually-intensive in that it doesn't use taxing graphics features, but the game's presentation itself, with large open worlds, end up taxing your hardware. Faster GPUs result in smoother gameplay with most eyecandy turned on.
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[page=World of Warcraft]
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
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World of Warcraft is the most successful massively multiplayer online game in the world with far over 12 milion monthly subscribers. The game is centered around the epic battle between the Horde and Alliance factions with many other races getting involved in a long and complex story line. Even though it has been released in 2004, Blizzard has always added incremental improvements to the graphics, especially with new expansions. One key success of World of Warcraft is that it will run on a large number of slower systems, but also delivers a decent graphics experience on high-end systems. We test in DirectX 11 mode with details set to "Ultra".
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[page=3DMark 11]
3DMark 11
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3DMark 11 is the very latest from the house of Futuremark, which has given out some of the most comprehensive benchmark applications for PC enthusiasts and gamers. 3DMark 11, as the name might probably suggest, makes use of Microsoft DirectX 11 API, and puts every feature at its disposal to use, creating astonishingly-realistic visuals. In the process, it evaluates DirectX 11 compliant GPUs, and lets gamers know what to expect from games from the near future that make use of the API, in terms of visual realism. The tessellation and depth of field tests are particularly of interest here.
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[page=Unigine Heaven 2.0]
Unigine Heaven 2.0
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Unigine Heaven was one of the first demos that supported DirectX 11. Heaven is a technology demonstration for Unigine engine which supports DirectX 9 through 11 and OpenGL too. Version 2.0 adds more scenes and optionally more complex tesselation features. While there is some controversy surrounding the benchmark whether it is an accurate representation of what to expect from future games in regards to DirectX 11 we still chose it as test to get an insight into potential future gaming.
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[page=Power Consumption]
Power Consumption
Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially when users are asking for quiet cooling solutions. That's why the engineers are now paying much more attention to power consumption of new video card designs. An optimized fan profile is also one of the few things that board vendors can do to impress with reference designs where they are prohibited to make changes to the thermal solution or components on the card.
For this test we measure power consumption of only the graphics card, via PCI-Express power connector(s) and PCI-Express bus slot. A Keithley Integra 2700 with 6.5 digits is used for all measurements. Again, the values here reflect card only power consumption measured at DC VGA card inputs, not the whole system.
We chose Crysis 2 as a standard test representing typical 3D gaming usage because it offers: - very high power draw - high repeatability - is a current game that is supported on all cards due to its DirectX 9 nature - drivers are actively tested and optimized for it - supports all multi-GPU configurations - test runs a relatively short time and renders a non-static scene with variable complexity.
Our results are based on the following tests:
Idle: Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024 32-bit) all windows closed, drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle until power draw is stable.
Multi-Monitor: Two monitors connected to the tested card, which use different display timings. Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024 32-bit) all windows closed, drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle until power draw is stable.
Average: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200, Extreme profile, representing a typical gaming power draw. Average of all readings (12 per second) while the benchmark was rendering (no title/loading screen).
Peak: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200, Extreme profile, representing a typical gaming power draw. Highest single reading during the test.
Maximum: Furmark Stability Test at 1280x1024, 0xAA. This results in a very high non-game power consumption that can typically be reached only with stress testing applications. Card left running stress test until power draw converged to a stable value. On cards with power limiting systems we will disable the power limiting system or configure it to the highest available setting - if possible. We will also use the highest single reading from a Furmark run which is obtained by measuring faster than when the power limit can kick in.
Blu-ray Playback: Power DVD 9 Ultra is used at a resolution of 1920x1200 to play back the Batman: The Dark Knight disc with GPU acceleration turned on. Playback starts around timecode 1:19 which has the highest data rates on the BD with up to 40 Mb/s. Playback left running until power draw converged to a stable value.
PowerColor changed their PCB design to use different components than the reference HD 7970. Such changes can often result in increased power consumption. The good news here is that PowerColor's card consumes the same power as the reference design.
The only significant increase in power is during 3D rendering, which is justified, since the card runs at higher clock speeds than the HD 7950 reference design.
A new feature of the HD 7900 Series is AMD ZeroCore Power, which will power off the card as soon as the monitor output is blanked, during screen saver for example. For additional power and noise reduction the fan will stop in this state, too. We measured a power consumption of 1.11 Watts for the whole graphics card during ZeroCore Power. As soon as you move the mouse the PC is back immediately, there is no lag or any delay.
Please note that ZeroCore Power seems to engage only when the screen is completely static. If you have an application running that draws to the screen, the monitor will go black, but the card will not enter the low power state or return from it quickly. To avoid this, minimize all applications and let Windows sit at the desktop.
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[page=Fan Noise]
Fan Noise
In the past years users would accept everything just to get more performance. Nowadays this has changed and people have become more aware of the fan noise and power consumption of their graphic cards.
In order to properly test the fan noise a card emits we are using a Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound level meter (~$4,000) which has the measurement range and accuracy we are looking for.
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The tested graphics card is installed in a system that is completely passively cooled. That is passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, passive cooling on the motherboard and a solid state drive.
This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified) the measurement is conducted at 100 cm distance and 160 cm over the floor. The ambient background noise level in the room is well below 20 dbA for all measurements. Please note that the dbA scale is not linear, it is logarithmic. 40 dbA is not twice as loud as 20 dbA. A 3 dbA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing is a bit different and it is generally accepted that a 10 dbA increase doubles the perceived sound level. The 3D load noise levels are tested with a stressful game, not Furmark.
PowerColor decided to scrap the AMD cooler and use their own dual fan design. Great choice! The HD 7950 PCS+ is so much quieter than the AMD reference board, especially under load.
After testing noise levels of the AMD version of HD 7970 and HD 7950 I was worried that we might have to live with super noisy cards for this generation, but PowerColor proved me wrong.
If you are looking for a low noise high-end card, then the PowerColor HD 7970 PCS+ should definitely be on your short list.
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[page=Performance Summary]
Performance Summary
The graphs on this page show a combined performance summary of all tests and resolutions from previous pages. Each graph shows the tested card as 100% and all other cards' performance relative to it. A sixth graph summarizes all tests in all resolutions to calculate the total relative performance of the review sample.
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[page=Performance per Watt]
Performance per Watt
Using the relative performance scores from the previous page and the typical gaming power consumption result, the following graphs show efficiency of the cards in our test group.
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[page=Performance per Dollar]
Performance per Dollar
If you are looking for the best bang for the buck, then you will love this graph. We looked up the current USD price of each card on the popular online shop Newegg and used it and the relative performance numbers to calculate the Performance per Dollar Index.
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[page=Overclocking & Voltage Tuning]
Overclocking
The overclocks listed in this section were achieved with the default fan and voltage settings as defined in the VGA BIOS. Please note that every single sample overclocks differently, that's why our results here can only serve as a guideline for what you can expect from your card.
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Maximum stable clocks of our card are 1075 MHz core (22% overclock) and 1775 MHz Memory (42% overclock).
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ shows just as impressive overclocking potential as the AMD reference design boards. This is evidence that PowerColor did a great job with their PCB design and didn't cripple OC capabilities.
Overclocked Performance
Using these clock frequencies we ran a quick test of Call of Duty 4 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.
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Actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 18.9%.
Temperatures
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Temperatures are great and even lower than on the HD 7950 with the AMD cooler, even though the card runs higher clock speeds and a lot quieter.
Voltage Tuning
It has been a long known fact that overclocking headroom increases as soon as you increase the operating voltage. Until recently, software voltage control on VGA cards has been the exception and most users were not willing to risk their warranty by performing a soldering voltmod. Nowadays almost all current graphics cards have voltage control in order to achieve low power consumption by lowering voltage when in idle or slightly loaded.
In this section we will increase the GPU operating voltage step by step and record the maximum clock speed possible. Voltage is listed as the value that the voltage regulator reports via software, not actual measured voltage. The card was installed in-case, with fan settings at default, memory will not be overclocked either. If a card has thermal throttling we will reduce the operating frequency to keep performance as high as possible for a given voltage. Please note that the fan profile will have an effect on observed temperatures: if the card gets hotter the fan will ramp up to reduce temperatures or keep them from rising fast.
The following graph shows the overclocking potential we saw on our sample. GPU clock is represented by the blue line, which uses the vertical clock scale on the left. The scale starts at the default clock to give a feel for the overclocking potential over the base clock. Temperature is plotted in red using the °C scale on the right side of the graph. An additional graph shows full system power draw in orange, measured at the wall socket when running at the given voltage, clock & temperature.
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Gains from voltage are not that big. At around 1.25 V we reach a maximum clock speed of 1160 MHz. Any further voltage increases yield lower maximum clock. Beyond 1.35 V the card will randomly shut off itself like the AMD reference design, probably due to OCP being triggered.
Clock Profiles
Modern graphics cards have several clock profiles that are selected to balance power draw and performance requirements.
The following table lists the clock settings for important performance scenarios and the GPU voltage that we measured. We measure on the pins of a coil or capacitor near the GPU voltage regulator.
<table class="tputbl">
<tr>
<th scope="col"></th>
<th align="center" scope="col" width="70">Core <br />
Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col" width="70">Memory <br />
Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">GPU Voltage <br />
(measured)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Desktop</th>
<td align="right">300 MHz</td>
<td align="right">150 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.85 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Multi-Monitor</th>
<td align="right">350 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.95 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Blu-ray Playback</th>
<td align="right">501 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.95 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">3D Load</th>
<td align="right">880 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1.09 V</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">CCC Overdrive Limits</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Core</th>
<td align="right">1200 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory</th>
<td align="right">1600 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ will come at $465, which is a $15 price premium over the AMD HD 7950 reference design.</td></tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Good performance increase vs. HD 6950
Overclocked out of the box
Excellent energy efficiency
Outstanding overclocking potential
Low noise output
Native full-size HDMI & DisplayPort output
Dual BIOS
3 GB of memory
Adds support for PCI-Express 3.0 and DirectX 11.1
Support for multiple independent audio streams
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
High price
CCC Overdrive limits too low
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.2</th>
<td>PowerColor is the first AIB partner to send us a custom-design HD 7950 card. Their HD 7950 PCS+ continues the legacy of many PCS (Professional Cooling System) cards before, delivering about 5% higher real life performance than the AMD reference design, thanks to the increased GPU clock speed of 880 MHz (vs. 800 on the reference design). Unfortunately memory has seen no clock increase, which would have been no problem - there is lots of clock headroom on memory.<br />
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ improves on one significant weakness of the HD 7950, and that is fan noise. Thanks to PowerColor's dual fan cooler the card is a lot quieter than the AMD reference design, and runs cooler too - pretty impressive! Overall I would say the card is "quiet", making it a good choice for high-end gamers who want to enjoy their games without a lot of fan noise coming from the graphics card.<br />
Power consumption of the PCS+ is pretty much unchanged from the AMD reference design, which is proof that PowerColor did a good job designing the custom PCB of their card. Since the card uses the same CHL8228 voltage controller as the reference designs, overclocking with existing tools will be a breeze, too. Compared to the AMD board we see pretty much the same overclocking potential (within random sample variation). Only when doing voltage increases the card ends up being a little bit lower than the AMD HD 7950, but the difference is fairly small.<br />
Pricewise PowerColor is asking a $15 price premium for their card compared to the AMD reference design's price, which is justified and actually puts the card at a better price/performance level than the AMD version. The greatly improved cooler and the overclock out of the box actually makes the choice a no brainer. However, just like all other HD 7900 series cards from all manufacturers, the pricing feels a tad bit high, but that's not PowerColor's fault. It seems AMD is keeping prices high to reap the benefits of being first to market.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/editorschoice.gif</td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/logo.jpg
The cash-cow of AMD's 28 nanometer "Tahiti" silicon is finally here, as the company launched its new Radeon HD 7950 graphics card. The HD 7950 is an important model for AMD, as it allows more people access to the new Graphics CoreNext architecture as a result of its lower price. The new SKU was originally slated for a January 09, 2012 launch, but was faced with unforeseen delays. Regardless, today is its hard-launch date, meaning you should be able to find one at a store.
The Radeon HD 7950 qualifies as being a high-end graphics card due to its pricing, which is comparative to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580 with its current market pricing. AMD is aiming at higher energy efficiency compared to its market rival product, and a scope for aggressive cost-cutting, if competition from future NVIDIA product so dictate. In essence, HD 7950 will serve as a fulcrum for both today's high-end price-point, and tomorrow's gamer sweet-spot, again, depending on its competitive environment. This is what makes it an important model for AMD.
The Radeon HD 7950 is carved out of the 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon, on which the HD 7970 is based. This is done so by lowering the number of Graphics CoreNext Compute Units (CUs) from 32 on the HD 7970 to 28, resulting in a stream processor count of 1,792 compared to 2,048 on the HD 7970, and a TMU count lowered from 128 to 112. Every other component is left unchanged, including the memory interface and memory amount. Historically, with NVIDIA GPUs that have 384-bit wide memory interfaces, we have seen the second-best SKU having a narrower memory bus (such as 320-bit wide, for example). This is not the case with HD 7950, which has the full 384-bit wide memory interface with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.
We also have the following reviews for you today:
AMD Radeon HD 7950 Review (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7950_3432/) (reference design)
AMD Radeon HD 7950 CrossFire Review (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7950_CrossFire/) (two cards in CrossFire)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/pressshot.jpg
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ is a full custom implementation of the HD 7950. It comes with a revamped PCB design, a new dual fan cooler and increased clock speeds of 880 MHz out of the box. Unfortunately memory is still clocked at 1250 MHz, like the reference design.
In terms of pricing, PowerColor is asking a $15 price premium over the AMD reference implementation.
<table class="tputbl hilight" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<caption>
PowerColor HD 7950 PCS+ Market Segment Analysis
</caption>
<tr>
<th scope="col"> </th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br>
HD 6950</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br>
GTX 570</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 6970</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 580</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 7950</th>
<th scope="col"><strong>PowerColor <br />
HD 7950 PCS+</strong></th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 7970</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 6990</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 590</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Shader Units</th>
<td align="right">1408</td>
<td align="right">480</td>
<td align="right">1536</td>
<td align="right">512</td>
<td align="right">1792</td>
<td align="right"><strong>1792</strong></td>
<td align="right">2048</td>
<td align="right">2x 1536</td>
<td align="right">2x 512</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">ROPs</th>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">40</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right"><strong>32</strong></td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">2x 32</td>
<td align="right">2x 48</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Graphics Processor</th>
<td align="right">Cayman</td>
<td align="right">GF110</td>
<td align="right">Cayman</td>
<td align="right">GF110</td>
<td align="right">Tahiti</td>
<td align="right"><strong>Tahiti</strong></td>
<td align="right">Tahiti</td>
<td align="right">2x Cayman</td>
<td align="right">2x GF110</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Transistors</th>
<td align="right">2640M</td>
<td align="right">3000M</td>
<td align="right">2640M</td>
<td align="right">3000M</td>
<td align="right">4310M</td>
<td align="right"><strong>4310M</strong></td>
<td align="right">4310M</td>
<td align="right">2x 2640M</td>
<td align="right">2x 3000M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory Size</th>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">1280 MB</td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">1536 MB</td>
<td align="right">3072 MB</td>
<td align="right"><strong>3072 MB</strong></td>
<td align="right">3072 MB</td>
<td align="right">2x 2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">2x 1536 MB</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory Bus Width</th>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">320 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right"><strong>384 bit</strong></td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right">2x 256 bit</td>
<td align="right">2x 384 bit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Core Clock</th>
<td align="right">800 MHz</td>
<td align="right">732 MHz</td>
<td align="right">880 MHz</td>
<td align="right">772 MHz</td>
<td align="right">800 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>880 MHz</strong></td>
<td align="right">925 MHz</td>
<td align="right">830 MHz</td>
<td align="right">607 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory Clock</th>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">950 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1375 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1002 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>1250 MHz</strong></td>
<td align="right">1375 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">855 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Price</th>
<td align="right">$250</td>
<td align="right">$330</td>
<td align="right">$340</td>
<td align="right">$500</td>
<td align="right">$449</td>
<td align="right"><strong>$465</strong></td>
<td align="right">$549</td>
<td align="right">$700</td>
<td align="right">$750</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Packaging & Contents]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/package2.jpg)
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Graphics card
Driver CD + Documentation
CrossFire Bridge
Analog VGA Adapter
HDMI to DVI Adapter
Mini-DP to DP Adapter
[page=The Card]
The Card
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card2.jpg)
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ uses a menacing big cooler which promises great cooling performance.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/card3.jpg)
The card requires two slots in your system.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/outputs_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/outputs.jpg)
Display connectivity options include one DVI port, one full size HDMI port and two mini-DisplayPorts. You may use all the outputs at the same time, thanks to AMD's superior display output architecture.
Please note that all the connectors are on the "first" slot now, which opens up the second one for a cooler grill through which hot air is blown out of the case. This also makes it possible to use the HD 7950 in a single slot configuration with a waterblock to cool the components.
An HDMI sound device is included in the GPU, too. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible which includes HD audio and support for Blu-ray 3D movies. The DisplayPort outputs are version 1.2 which enables the use of hubs and Multi-Stream transport.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/crossfire_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/crossfire.jpg)
You may combine up to four HD 7950 and HD 7970 cards from any vendor in a multi-GPU CrossFire configuration for higher framerates or better image quality settings.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/front_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/front.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/back.jpg)
Pictured above are photos of the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/front_full.jpg), back (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/back_full.jpg)). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.
[page=A Closer Look]
A Closer Look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cooler1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cooler1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cooler2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cooler2.jpg)
PowerColor's cooler uses two slow running fans to keep the card cool. Three heatpipes, that are doubled up to end up being as effective as five heatpipes transport heat away from the GPU core to the heatsink.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/power.jpg)
The card requires two 6-pin PCI-Express power cables for operation. This power configuration is good for up to 225 W of power draw.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/biosswitch_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/biosswitch.jpg)
The HD 7950 comes with AMD's dual BIOS feature that was introduced with the HD 6900 Series. It provides a safety net in case a BIOS flash goes wrong; simply switch to the second BIOS and flash back to the original BIOS.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/vreg_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/vreg.jpg)
For voltage control the card uses the CHiL CHL8228 chip, it is already well supported by overclocking software, as it is the same component as on the HD 7970.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/memory.jpg)
The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Hynix, and carry the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C. They are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/gpu_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/gpu.jpg)
AMD's new Tahiti graphics processor introduces a new shader architecture, it is also the first GPU to be produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The transistor count is 4.31 billion.
Please note the shiny metal shim around the GPU core, which is part of the GPU and prevents the crushing or chipping of the die during assembly. The GPU's model number is printed on the bottom right of the shim instead of on the die itself.
[page=Test Setup]
Test System
<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Test System - VGA Rev. 16</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th width="120" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td align="center">Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz<br />(Bloomfield, 8192 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td align="center">Gigabyte X58 Extreme<br />
Intel X58 & ICH10R</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td align="center">3x 2048 MB Mushkin Redline XP3-12800 DDR3 <br>
@ 1520 MHz 8-7-7-16</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td align="center">WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td align="center">Antec HCP-1200 1200W</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Software:</th>
<td align="center">Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">NVIDIA: 285.62<br />ATI: Catalyst 11.12<br />HD 7950 & 7970: 8.921.2 RC11</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Display:</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">
LG Flatron W3000H 30" 2560x1600<br /><img src="http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/zotac.jpg" width="120" height="40"></td>
</tr>
</table>
Benchmark scores in other reviews are only comparable when this exact same configuration is used.
All video card results were obtained on this exact system with the exact same configuration.
All games were set to their highest quality setting unless indicated otherwise.
AA and AF are applied via in-game settings, not via the driver's control panel.
Each benchmark was tested at the following settings and resolution:
1024 x 768, No Anti-aliasing. This is a standard resolution without demanding display settings.
1280 x 1024, 2x Anti-aliasing. Common resolution for most smaller flatscreens today (17" - 19"). A bit of eye candy turned on in the drivers.
1680 x 1050, 4x Anti-aliasing. Most common widescreen resolution on larger displays (19" - 22"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
1920 x 1200, 4x Anti-aliasing. Typical widescreen resolution for large displays (22" - 26"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
2560 x 1600, 4x Anti-aliasing. Highest possible resolution for commonly available displays (30"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
[page=Aliens vs. Predator]
Aliens vs. Predator
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/avp.jpg
Aliens vs. Predator is based on a merger of the Aliens and the Predators franchise: two legendary alien species that are in conflict with each other, fighting to the death with human marines caught in between. The first person shooter game was developed by Rebellion Studios, who also developed the first AVP PC title and released in February 2010. It is one of the first DirectX 11 games with support for new features like tesselation, which is why AMD heavily promoted it at the time of their DX 11 card launches. We use the AVP benchmark utility with tesselation and advanced DX11 shadows enabled.
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[page=Batman: Arkham City]
Batman: Arkham City
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/arkhamcity.jpg
Batman is back on the LCD screen with Arkham City, a sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum, by Rocksteady Games and WB. It was released to the PC platform in November. Batman is imprisoned in Arkham City, an infamous district of the DC Universe that contains the scum of Gotham, most of which Batman helped get in there. In order to get out he must go through scores of baddies, and encounter many of the iconic super-villains along the way. He's not entirely alone.
Batman Arkham City uses the same Unreal Engine by Epic, as Arkham Asylum, but thanks to the engine's modularity, it has been overhauled, outfitted with the latest technologies, including a graphics engine that takes advantage of DirectX 11.
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[page=Battlefield 3]
Battlefield 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/bf3.jpg
Arguably the most anticipated online shooter title among real gamers - PC gamers, Battlefield 3 is the latest addition to some of the most engaging online multi-player shooter franchises. It combines infantry combat with mechanized warfare including transport vehicles, armored personnel carriers, main battle tanks, attack helicopters, combat aircraft, pretty much everything that goes into today's battlefields. The infantry combat is coupled with role-playing elements, which makes the experience all the more engaging. It also has a single-player campaign which added a few gigabytes to its installer.
Behind all this is a spanking new game engine by EA-DICE, Frostbite 2. It makes use of every possible feature DirectX 11 has to offer, including hardware tessellation, and new lighting effects, to deliver some of the most captivating visuals gamers ever had access to. Not playing this game on PC is grave injustice to what's in store. Faster PCs are rewarded with better visuals.
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[page=BattleForge]
BattleForge
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/battleforge.jpg
BattleForge, a card based RTS, is developed by the German EA Phenomic Studio. A few months after launch the game was transformed into a Play 4 Free branded game. That move and the fact that it was included as game bundle with a large number of ATI cards made it one of the more well known RTS games of 2009. You as a player assemble your deck before game to select the units that will be available. Elemental force choices can be from forces of Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow to complement each other.
The BattleForge engine has full support for DX 9, DX 10 and DX 10.1, we use the internal benchmark tool in DirectX 11 mode with highest settings to acquire our results.
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[page=Call of Duty 4]
Call of Duty 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cod4.jpg
Call of Duty 4 is a first-person shooter that is built on the award winning Call of Duty Series. It is the first version to play in modern times. In a near-future conflict between the United States, Europe and Russia you get to play as a United States Marine and a British SAS operative. The engine is Infinity Ward's own creation and has true dynamic lighting, depth of field, dynamic shadows and HDR. Even though the game plot is scripted you will find yourself in intense battles, often working together with computer controlled team mates. Later installments of the Call of Duty Series use the same game engine, so this test is also representative of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 performance.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cod4_1024_768.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cod4_1280_1024.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cod4_1680_1050.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cod4_1920_1200.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/cod4_2560_1600.gif
[page=Civilization V]
Civilization 5
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Sid Meier's Civilization V (or Civ 5 in common jargon), is the latest addition to the franchise of masterfully-crafted realtime strategy games that let you play God to a nascent civilization of your choice all the way up to the space-age. Civilization V uses large 3D worlds that are procedurally-generated, and takes advantage of hardware tessellation features offered by DirectX 11 to exponentially step up complexity of cities, models, terrains, and objects. It is also expected of this generation of GPUs to handle the larger texture loads that come with the eye-candy.
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[page=Crysis]
Crysis
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After the tremendous success of Far Cry, the German game studio Crytek released their latest shooter Crysis in 2007. The game was by far the most hyped and anticipated game in 2007, and forums were full of "Can my system run Crysis?" threads because of the high hardware requirements of this game. Just like in Far Cry the plot evolves on a small island with a thick and richly detailed jungle world. A lot of attention has been given to small details like accurate physics. For example when you fire on a tree trunk, it will shatter and the tree will fall over leaving a stump behind. Enemies in a car can be stopped by shooting the tire of the car. The game graphics are top notch, even today, yet the game still runs well on most computers.
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[page=Crysis 2]
Crysis 2
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Crysis 2 takes the player into an alien-infested New York City. The game adds a tactical options mode that allows several approaches to attack a heavily infested enemy location. The new Nanosuit 2.0 that the player uses offers more freedom in ability use, for example multiple abilities can be used at the same time. To better accomodate a given play style weapons can be customized with silencers, laser sights or even a sniping scope.
For rendering Crytek's CryEngine 3 is used which comes with reduced system requirements compared to the first Crysis game. Since Crysis 2 is a multi-platform game, with major development focus on console, the graphics on launch day were only DirectX 9. DirectX 11 functionality was added later in a patch. We use the DX11 version and the high-res texture pack for our benchmarking.
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[page=DiRT 3]
DiRT 3
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The latest addition to the Collin McRae Rally franchise, DiRT 3, of multi-format rally motorsport. DiRT 3 introduced more of the same great racing experience Collin McRae DiRT 2 gave you, but with better gameplay, and the new Gymkhana freestyle motor-acrobatics mode, which you'll more likely love than hate. It uses a more polished, performance-optimized version of the EGO engine, version 2.0, which takes advantage of more DirectX 11 features than version 1.0 used on Collin McRae DiRT 2, did.
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[page=Dragon Age II]
Dragon Age II
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Dragon Age II is the second game in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise and was released in March 2011. As player, named Hawke, you will be able to pick your hero from several classes and grow him over the course of the adventure. Gameplay takes you through a linear narrated story of Hawke's rise to become the legendary "Champion of Kirkwall".
BioWare's Lycium Engine has support for DirectX 11, using tesselation, advanced dynamic lighting and camera effects like depth of field. We benchmark the DX11 version with details set to highest.
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[page=Hard Reset]
Hard Reset
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Developed by Flying Wild Hog, a studio that prides itself with the fact that its creation is PC-exclusive (bless them), Hard Reset is a first person shooter that's set in a future cyberpunk setting of a dystopian world. It reintroduces many of the gameplay mechanics that made classics such as Quake wicked fun, which today's tactical military shooters eroded, creating a 'void' for.
The game uses the studio's in-house Road Hog Engine, which isn't particularly heavy on new-generation DirectX features, but can still get taxing with some GPUs.
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[page=Metro 2033]
Metro 2033
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Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter game that is set in a post apocalyptic Moscow - as the name suggests inside the metro system. You will fight mutants or other humans who like to take away your shelter. The game has many gameplay elements similar to STALKER, also the engine has similar features. This is because two STALKER engine programmers left GSC Game World and started their own company which is now making Metro 2033.
The engine has support for all the latest eye candy like DirectX 11 and Tesselation. Unfortunately it leaves a less than optimized impression, making it a candidate to surpass Crysis for the highest hardware requirements. We test in DirectX 11 mode with details set to "Very High".
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[page=STALKER: Call of Pripyat]
STALKER: Call of Pripyat
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STALKER: Call of Pripyat takes places shortly after the events of the previous game STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. The player is one of many stalkers who are attracted by the Zone in hope of finding fame, wealth and artifacts. Over the course of the game you meet Strelok, the protagonist of the first STALKER game and team up with him to progress through the Zone.
An updated X-Ray Engine 1.6 powers the game with support for DirectX 11 using Compute Shaders for improved shadow rendering and tesselation to improve model quality.
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[page=StarCraft II]
StarCraft II
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StarCraft II, released in July 2010, is a sequel to Blizzard's award-winning strategy game StarCraft. In the 26th century three species Terrans, Protoss and Zerg are at war. The campaign takes you through many missions on different planets where you have to face the various enemy factions, sometimes several of them. StarCraft II features a similar number of units as the original game, some of them new. Due to the massive success of the first game, Blizzard chose to focus large aspects of the game on multiplayer combat through Battle.net. The campaign serves as a good introduction to units and concepts and competitive multiplayer is where the action is at.
The StarCraft 2 engine supports only DirectX 9, but several patches have improved rendering quality and available options considerably. We test using a recorded 1 vs. 1 multiplayer replay in the late game phase. Please note that Star Craft II is very CPU limited on high-end cards, especially on lower resolutions, so you may not see much scaling between some cards.
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[page=Total War: Shogun 2]
Total War: Shogun 2
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Set in 16th century feudal Japan, Total War: Shogun 2 takes the player on a quest for domination to conquer and unite the warlords of Japan. Moving away from the European setting of previous Total War games, the game is now designed around principles of the brilliant Chinese general Sun Tzu and his book "The Art of War". Gameplay is switched between real-time battles during which units on the battlefield are controlled and turn-based strategy which enable diplomacy, economy and production management. Taking control of a castles is comprised of several different stages which adds more complexity to warfare.
We benchmark using the highest settings in DirectX 11 mode, which was added via patch after release.
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[page=The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim]
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
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This isn't just a game, it's a masterpiece. A very large sandbox game that rejects the quality-quantity inverse-proportionality. By genre a role-playing game, TES: Skyrim combines some of the best elements of older titles in the franchise, with some new sandbox elements to churn out an extremely engaging, and addictive game. It makes use of Bethesda's Creation Engine, which isn't visually-intensive in that it doesn't use taxing graphics features, but the game's presentation itself, with large open worlds, end up taxing your hardware. Faster GPUs result in smoother gameplay with most eyecandy turned on.
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[page=World of Warcraft]
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
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World of Warcraft is the most successful massively multiplayer online game in the world with far over 12 milion monthly subscribers. The game is centered around the epic battle between the Horde and Alliance factions with many other races getting involved in a long and complex story line. Even though it has been released in 2004, Blizzard has always added incremental improvements to the graphics, especially with new expansions. One key success of World of Warcraft is that it will run on a large number of slower systems, but also delivers a decent graphics experience on high-end systems. We test in DirectX 11 mode with details set to "Ultra".
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[page=3DMark 11]
3DMark 11
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3DMark 11 is the very latest from the house of Futuremark, which has given out some of the most comprehensive benchmark applications for PC enthusiasts and gamers. 3DMark 11, as the name might probably suggest, makes use of Microsoft DirectX 11 API, and puts every feature at its disposal to use, creating astonishingly-realistic visuals. In the process, it evaluates DirectX 11 compliant GPUs, and lets gamers know what to expect from games from the near future that make use of the API, in terms of visual realism. The tessellation and depth of field tests are particularly of interest here.
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[page=Unigine Heaven 2.0]
Unigine Heaven 2.0
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Unigine Heaven was one of the first demos that supported DirectX 11. Heaven is a technology demonstration for Unigine engine which supports DirectX 9 through 11 and OpenGL too. Version 2.0 adds more scenes and optionally more complex tesselation features. While there is some controversy surrounding the benchmark whether it is an accurate representation of what to expect from future games in regards to DirectX 11 we still chose it as test to get an insight into potential future gaming.
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[page=Power Consumption]
Power Consumption
Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially when users are asking for quiet cooling solutions. That's why the engineers are now paying much more attention to power consumption of new video card designs. An optimized fan profile is also one of the few things that board vendors can do to impress with reference designs where they are prohibited to make changes to the thermal solution or components on the card.
For this test we measure power consumption of only the graphics card, via PCI-Express power connector(s) and PCI-Express bus slot. A Keithley Integra 2700 with 6.5 digits is used for all measurements. Again, the values here reflect card only power consumption measured at DC VGA card inputs, not the whole system.
We chose Crysis 2 as a standard test representing typical 3D gaming usage because it offers: - very high power draw - high repeatability - is a current game that is supported on all cards due to its DirectX 9 nature - drivers are actively tested and optimized for it - supports all multi-GPU configurations - test runs a relatively short time and renders a non-static scene with variable complexity.
Our results are based on the following tests:
Idle: Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024 32-bit) all windows closed, drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle until power draw is stable.
Multi-Monitor: Two monitors connected to the tested card, which use different display timings. Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024 32-bit) all windows closed, drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle until power draw is stable.
Average: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200, Extreme profile, representing a typical gaming power draw. Average of all readings (12 per second) while the benchmark was rendering (no title/loading screen).
Peak: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200, Extreme profile, representing a typical gaming power draw. Highest single reading during the test.
Maximum: Furmark Stability Test at 1280x1024, 0xAA. This results in a very high non-game power consumption that can typically be reached only with stress testing applications. Card left running stress test until power draw converged to a stable value. On cards with power limiting systems we will disable the power limiting system or configure it to the highest available setting - if possible. We will also use the highest single reading from a Furmark run which is obtained by measuring faster than when the power limit can kick in.
Blu-ray Playback: Power DVD 9 Ultra is used at a resolution of 1920x1200 to play back the Batman: The Dark Knight disc with GPU acceleration turned on. Playback starts around timecode 1:19 which has the highest data rates on the BD with up to 40 Mb/s. Playback left running until power draw converged to a stable value.
PowerColor changed their PCB design to use different components than the reference HD 7970. Such changes can often result in increased power consumption. The good news here is that PowerColor's card consumes the same power as the reference design.
The only significant increase in power is during 3D rendering, which is justified, since the card runs at higher clock speeds than the HD 7950 reference design.
A new feature of the HD 7900 Series is AMD ZeroCore Power, which will power off the card as soon as the monitor output is blanked, during screen saver for example. For additional power and noise reduction the fan will stop in this state, too. We measured a power consumption of 1.11 Watts for the whole graphics card during ZeroCore Power. As soon as you move the mouse the PC is back immediately, there is no lag or any delay.
Please note that ZeroCore Power seems to engage only when the screen is completely static. If you have an application running that draws to the screen, the monitor will go black, but the card will not enter the low power state or return from it quickly. To avoid this, minimize all applications and let Windows sit at the desktop.
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[page=Fan Noise]
Fan Noise
In the past years users would accept everything just to get more performance. Nowadays this has changed and people have become more aware of the fan noise and power consumption of their graphic cards.
In order to properly test the fan noise a card emits we are using a Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound level meter (~$4,000) which has the measurement range and accuracy we are looking for.
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The tested graphics card is installed in a system that is completely passively cooled. That is passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, passive cooling on the motherboard and a solid state drive.
This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified) the measurement is conducted at 100 cm distance and 160 cm over the floor. The ambient background noise level in the room is well below 20 dbA for all measurements. Please note that the dbA scale is not linear, it is logarithmic. 40 dbA is not twice as loud as 20 dbA. A 3 dbA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing is a bit different and it is generally accepted that a 10 dbA increase doubles the perceived sound level. The 3D load noise levels are tested with a stressful game, not Furmark.
PowerColor decided to scrap the AMD cooler and use their own dual fan design. Great choice! The HD 7950 PCS+ is so much quieter than the AMD reference board, especially under load.
After testing noise levels of the AMD version of HD 7970 and HD 7950 I was worried that we might have to live with super noisy cards for this generation, but PowerColor proved me wrong.
If you are looking for a low noise high-end card, then the PowerColor HD 7970 PCS+ should definitely be on your short list.
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[page=Performance Summary]
Performance Summary
The graphs on this page show a combined performance summary of all tests and resolutions from previous pages. Each graph shows the tested card as 100% and all other cards' performance relative to it. A sixth graph summarizes all tests in all resolutions to calculate the total relative performance of the review sample.
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[page=Performance per Watt]
Performance per Watt
Using the relative performance scores from the previous page and the typical gaming power consumption result, the following graphs show efficiency of the cards in our test group.
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[page=Performance per Dollar]
Performance per Dollar
If you are looking for the best bang for the buck, then you will love this graph. We looked up the current USD price of each card on the popular online shop Newegg and used it and the relative performance numbers to calculate the Performance per Dollar Index.
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[page=Overclocking & Voltage Tuning]
Overclocking
The overclocks listed in this section were achieved with the default fan and voltage settings as defined in the VGA BIOS. Please note that every single sample overclocks differently, that's why our results here can only serve as a guideline for what you can expect from your card.
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Maximum stable clocks of our card are 1075 MHz core (22% overclock) and 1775 MHz Memory (42% overclock).
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ shows just as impressive overclocking potential as the AMD reference design boards. This is evidence that PowerColor did a great job with their PCB design and didn't cripple OC capabilities.
Overclocked Performance
Using these clock frequencies we ran a quick test of Call of Duty 4 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.
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Actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 18.9%.
Temperatures
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/temp.gif
Temperatures are great and even lower than on the HD 7950 with the AMD cooler, even though the card runs higher clock speeds and a lot quieter.
Voltage Tuning
It has been a long known fact that overclocking headroom increases as soon as you increase the operating voltage. Until recently, software voltage control on VGA cards has been the exception and most users were not willing to risk their warranty by performing a soldering voltmod. Nowadays almost all current graphics cards have voltage control in order to achieve low power consumption by lowering voltage when in idle or slightly loaded.
In this section we will increase the GPU operating voltage step by step and record the maximum clock speed possible. Voltage is listed as the value that the voltage regulator reports via software, not actual measured voltage. The card was installed in-case, with fan settings at default, memory will not be overclocked either. If a card has thermal throttling we will reduce the operating frequency to keep performance as high as possible for a given voltage. Please note that the fan profile will have an effect on observed temperatures: if the card gets hotter the fan will ramp up to reduce temperatures or keep them from rising fast.
The following graph shows the overclocking potential we saw on our sample. GPU clock is represented by the blue line, which uses the vertical clock scale on the left. The scale starts at the default clock to give a feel for the overclocking potential over the base clock. Temperature is plotted in red using the °C scale on the right side of the graph. An additional graph shows full system power draw in orange, measured at the wall socket when running at the given voltage, clock & temperature.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/images/voltagetuning.jpg
Gains from voltage are not that big. At around 1.25 V we reach a maximum clock speed of 1160 MHz. Any further voltage increases yield lower maximum clock. Beyond 1.35 V the card will randomly shut off itself like the AMD reference design, probably due to OCP being triggered.
Clock Profiles
Modern graphics cards have several clock profiles that are selected to balance power draw and performance requirements.
The following table lists the clock settings for important performance scenarios and the GPU voltage that we measured. We measure on the pins of a coil or capacitor near the GPU voltage regulator.
<table class="tputbl">
<tr>
<th scope="col"></th>
<th align="center" scope="col" width="70">Core <br />
Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col" width="70">Memory <br />
Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">GPU Voltage <br />
(measured)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Desktop</th>
<td align="right">300 MHz</td>
<td align="right">150 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.85 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Multi-Monitor</th>
<td align="right">350 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.95 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Blu-ray Playback</th>
<td align="right">501 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.95 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">3D Load</th>
<td align="right">880 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1.09 V</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">CCC Overdrive Limits</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Core</th>
<td align="right">1200 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory</th>
<td align="right">1600 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ will come at $465, which is a $15 price premium over the AMD HD 7950 reference design.</td></tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Good performance increase vs. HD 6950
Overclocked out of the box
Excellent energy efficiency
Outstanding overclocking potential
Low noise output
Native full-size HDMI & DisplayPort output
Dual BIOS
3 GB of memory
Adds support for PCI-Express 3.0 and DirectX 11.1
Support for multiple independent audio streams
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
High price
CCC Overdrive limits too low
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.2</th>
<td>PowerColor is the first AIB partner to send us a custom-design HD 7950 card. Their HD 7950 PCS+ continues the legacy of many PCS (Professional Cooling System) cards before, delivering about 5% higher real life performance than the AMD reference design, thanks to the increased GPU clock speed of 880 MHz (vs. 800 on the reference design). Unfortunately memory has seen no clock increase, which would have been no problem - there is lots of clock headroom on memory.<br />
PowerColor's HD 7950 PCS+ improves on one significant weakness of the HD 7950, and that is fan noise. Thanks to PowerColor's dual fan cooler the card is a lot quieter than the AMD reference design, and runs cooler too - pretty impressive! Overall I would say the card is "quiet", making it a good choice for high-end gamers who want to enjoy their games without a lot of fan noise coming from the graphics card.<br />
Power consumption of the PCS+ is pretty much unchanged from the AMD reference design, which is proof that PowerColor did a good job designing the custom PCB of their card. Since the card uses the same CHL8228 voltage controller as the reference designs, overclocking with existing tools will be a breeze, too. Compared to the AMD board we see pretty much the same overclocking potential (within random sample variation). Only when doing voltage increases the card ends up being a little bit lower than the AMD HD 7950, but the difference is fairly small.<br />
Pricewise PowerColor is asking a $15 price premium for their card compared to the AMD reference design's price, which is justified and actually puts the card at a better price/performance level than the AMD version. The greatly improved cooler and the overclock out of the box actually makes the choice a no brainer. However, just like all other HD 7900 series cards from all manufacturers, the pricing feels a tad bit high, but that's not PowerColor's fault. It seems AMD is keeping prices high to reap the benefits of being first to market.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/editorschoice.gif</td></tr>
</table>