MSI and HIS Radeon HD 7970 Pictured, 3-way CrossFireX Tested

btarunr · Dec 30, 2011, 05:30 PM

Until now, any site that has reviewed the Radeon HD 7970 has done so, using the sample AMD provided. There are very few CrossFire reviews out there, because it's simply too hard to get more than one AMD sample. 3-way and 4-way CrossFire reviews could be even rare, if such reviews even exist to begin with. This will change on the 9th of January, when AMD's add-in board partners are officially allowed to launch their Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards, when retailers can start selling these cards, and for reviewers to end up with enough cards to do CrossFire reviews.

Apparently British retailer Overclockers.uk got its stock of Radeon HD 7970 from at least two manufacturers, MSI and HIS. The site proudly showed off stacks of HIS and MSI Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards (first picture below). We certainly hope those are not all the cards it has in its inventory. OCUK did get a chance to pull three cards out of those boxes, and set up a 3-way CrossFireX setup using an Intel Core i7 "Sandy Bridge-E" system. At least one of those three cards is an MSI card, which isn't much different from the reference card than the MSI badge on the fan. Since the system is PCI-Express Gen 3.0 compliant, we can expect there to be close to no interface bottlenecks. And the guy who set that system up for a few snaps did what every enthusiast would do - run some benchmarks.

To begin with, the setup was put through Unigine Heaven 1680x1050, the scores below are for single card, two cards, and three cards. The scaling looks decent at the outset.

Moving on to the resolution that matters for cards this powerful: 2560 x 1600. All three cards are part of the CrossFire array; Anisotropic filtering and Tessellation are cranked up between the two tests (below).

Pictures and Testing: Overclockers UK, Source: INPAI.com.cn

bear jesus · Dec 30, 2011, 05:49 PM

The main thing that caught my attention was the box stack compared to the 6970

6970

VS
7970

I bet both pictures are of the entire stock thus showing the difference in stock levels there will be between the 6970 and 7970

Really the 6970 pic was apparently around a third of their stock of 6970's... i wonder if that means the 7970 pic is about a third of the stock?

aameghoo · Dec 30, 2011, 06:10 PM

I feel like the price has a lot to do with it too...imagine how many more 6970s would be sold than 7970s just due to the fact that the 6970s are more affordable

Kovoet · Dec 30, 2011, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aameghoo

I feel like the price has a lot to do with it too...imagine how many more 6970s would be sold than 7970s just due to the fact that the 6970s are more affordable

Not just that I think they thought it would sell as well as the 5870 of which people could not get enough if.

btarunr · Dec 30, 2011, 06:23 PM

Anyone who can buy a GTX 580 can buy an HD 7970, and there must be plenty of such enthusiasts in the UK market.

Ferrum Master · Dec 30, 2011, 07:48 PM

I've got a boner... damn tpu pr0n...

SteelSix · Dec 30, 2011, 09:27 PM

yea I thought the big wall was 7970's. Still a nice lil stock of 7970's though. Someone had too much time on their hands. Looks like the work of a tweaker.

Edit: I just clicked the link.. the 6970 pic was from it's launch era. Still nice!

chaotic_uk · Dec 30, 2011, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by btarunr

Anyone who can buy a GTX 580 can buy an HD 7970, and there must be plenty of such enthusiasts in the UK market.

which 580 are you talking about ? , 3gb or the 1.5gb

gtx580 1.5gb=£380
7970 = £450

micropage7 · Dec 30, 2011, 11:29 PM

they need to work the cables

btarunr · Dec 31, 2011, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaotic_uk

which 580 are you talking about ? , 3gb or the 1.5gb

gtx580 1.5gb=£380
7970 = £450

I'm sure GTX 580's (1.5 TB base) launch price in the UK was close to what HD 7970's launch price is going to be.

bear jesus · Dec 31, 2011, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by btarunr

I'm sure GTX 580's (1.5 GB base) launch price in the UK was close to what HD 7970's launch price is going to be.

They came out at around £400, plus or minus a bit depending on brand and now they are around £360+ although go up to around £450 for standard models and up to around £600 to £700 for some custom models/ones with water blocks pre installed.

I would agree if people can afford a 580 they could afford a 7970 so the target consumers are the same.

kaneda · Dec 31, 2011, 04:42 PM

the OCuK link is dead

Prima.Vera · Jan 1, 2012, 10:04 AM

So where is the COMPARISON test, not just "the test"?? All I see are some numbers and that is it....

u2konline · Jan 1, 2012, 09:02 PM

All them boxes, they can just send me one for free. 0_0

Fourstaff · Jan 1, 2012, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by u2konline

All them boxes, they can just send me one for free. 0_0

Sure, I don't think they would mind sending you an empty one

u2konline · Jan 2, 2012, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fourstaff

Sure, I don't think they would mind sending you an empty one

lol

Dec 30, 2011, 05:30 PM	#1
btarunr Editor & Senior Moderator Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Hyderabad, India Posts: 15,030 (7.23/day) Thanks: 790 Thanked 13,028 Times in 5,719 Posts System Specs	MSI and HIS Radeon HD 7970 Pictured, 3-way CrossFireX Tested Until now, any site that has reviewed the Radeon HD 7970 has done so, using the sample AMD provided. There are very few CrossFire reviews out there, because it's simply too hard to get more than one AMD sample. 3-way and 4-way CrossFire reviews could be even rare, if such reviews even exist to begin with. This will change on the 9th of January, when AMD's add-in board partners are officially allowed to launch their Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards, when retailers can start selling these cards, and for reviewers to end up with enough cards to do CrossFire reviews. Apparently British retailer Overclockers.uk got its stock of Radeon HD 7970 from at least two manufacturers, MSI and HIS. The site proudly showed off stacks of HIS and MSI Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards (first picture below). We certainly hope those are not all the cards it has in its inventory. OCUK did get a chance to pull three cards out of those boxes, and set up a 3-way CrossFireX setup using an Intel Core i7 "Sandy Bridge-E" system. At least one of those three cards is an MSI card, which isn't much different from the reference card than the MSI badge on the fan. Since the system is PCI-Express Gen 3.0 compliant, we can expect there to be close to no interface bottlenecks. And the guy who set that system up for a few snaps did what every enthusiast would do - run some benchmarks. To begin with, the setup was put through Unigine Heaven 1680x1050, the scores below are for single card, two cards, and three cards. The scaling looks decent at the outset. Moving on to the resolution that matters for cards this powerful: 2560 x 1600. All three cards are part of the CrossFire array; Anisotropic filtering and Tessellation are cranked up between the two tests (below). Pictures and Testing: Overclockers UK, Source: INPAI.com.cn

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Dec 30, 2011, 05:49 PM	#2
bear jesus Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Britland Posts: 1,534 (1.47/day) Thanks: 328 Thanked 201 Times in 163 Posts System Specs	The main thing that caught my attention was the box stack compared to the 6970 6970 VS 7970 I bet both pictures are of the entire stock thus showing the difference in stock levels there will be between the 6970 and 7970 Really the 6970 pic was apparently around a third of their stock of 6970's... i wonder if that means the 7970 pic is about a third of the stock? __________________ The pastafarian jesus

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Dec 30, 2011, 06:10 PM	#3
aameghoo Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 35 (0.04/day) Thanks: 1 Thanked 6 Times in 3 Posts System Specs	I feel like the price has a lot to do with it too...imagine how many more 6970s would be sold than 7970s just due to the fact that the 6970s are more affordable

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Dec 30, 2011, 06:23 PM	#5
btarunr Editor & Senior Moderator Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Hyderabad, India Posts: 15,030 (7.23/day) Thanks: 790 Thanked 13,028 Times in 5,719 Posts System Specs	Anyone who can buy a GTX 580 can buy an HD 7970, and there must be plenty of such enthusiasts in the UK market. __________________ Gadgets, Gaming, Phones, Tablets, Cameras, TVs, HiFi...NextPowerUp

Dec 30, 2011, 07:48 PM	#6
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Dec 30, 2011, 09:27 PM	#7
SteelSix Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Atlanta, USA Posts: 225 (0.13/day) Thanks: 4 Thanked 49 Times in 30 Posts	yea I thought the big wall was 7970's. Still a nice lil stock of 7970's though. Someone had too much time on their hands. Looks like the work of a tweaker. Edit: I just clicked the link.. the 6970 pic was from it's launch era. Still nice!

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Dec 30, 2011, 11:29 PM	#9
micropage7 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Jakarta, Indonesia Posts: 3,713 (3.14/day) Thanks: 192 Thanked 852 Times in 558 Posts System Specs	they need to work the cables __________________ :: New Cases, Tips And All About Your Cases Visit CaseGear :: Don't Ever Ask About Love And Honesty That You Don't Ever Have

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Dec 31, 2011, 04:42 PM	#12
kaneda Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Rainy-old England Posts: 154 (0.08/day) Thanks: 22 Thanked 13 Times in 10 Posts System Specs	the OCuK link is dead

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Jan 1, 2012, 10:04 AM	#13
Prima.Vera Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Antagonia Posts: 1,424 (2.22/day) Thanks: 245 Thanked 184 Times in 123 Posts System Specs	So where is the COMPARISON test, not just "the test"?? All I see are some numbers and that is it....

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Jan 1, 2012, 09:02 PM	#14
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