AMD Readies Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

[btarunr]

AMD's Radeon HD 7970 could not hold on to the single-GPU performance crown for too long. It lost it to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, and the upcoming GeForce GTX 670 threatens to damage its competitiveness even further. Reports suggest that AMD is working on a new Tahiti-based graphics card SKU, the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. AMD unveiled the "GHz Edition" moniker to denote SKUs that come with engine clock speed ≥1 GHz. The new HD 7970 GHz Edition will come with reference core clock speed of 1050 MHz.

AMD needn't tinker with memory clock speed, as it already has a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface compared to the GeForce GTX 680 and its 256-bit memory bus width. Sources told Atomic PC that improved yields and manufacturing processes have benefitted Tahiti just as well as GK104, and ES Tahiti chips from the latest batches "easily" hit 1250 MHz core. These batches could make custom-design graphics cards with extremely high core clock speeds possible.



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[BarbaricSoul]

AMD needs to do something, GK110 is coming

 

[dieterd]

and now we (well not me, but...) are gona pay for MHz increase? if so - then they could sell underclocked versions too with "undercloked" price - then I will buy

 

[mrthanhnguyen]

price

$699 for 7990 is FTW. 690 EAT SH** with $1200 price tag.

 

[Fluffmeister]

AMD needs to do something, GK110 is coming

I think the GTX 670 is gonna be enough to ruin their party even more.

 

[Over_Lord]

They would need 1.1GHz core to match GTX680.

 

[ZoneDymo]

I think the GTX 670 is gonna be enough to ruin their party even more.

Nope, the GTX670 is going to ruin OUR (the enthusiast consumer) party.
It will now only take long for the real next gens from Nvidia to come out and for what?
Oh yeah, lame as price fixing.

 

[sc]

AMD needs to do something, GK110 is coming

Uhm... and when is that exactly? In one year time?
If they release GK110 now, they will ruin the profit they're making with 670/680/690.

 

[NinkobEi]

Looks like there are already cards that ship @ 1100 mhz and clock to 1250. I'm not sure if this is a big deal or not.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Uhm... and when is that exactly? In one year time?
If they release GK110 now, they will ruin the profit they're making with 670/680/690.

All I know is last I heard, GK110 is suppose to be released in Aug. Granted, it would make sence for Nvidia to hold back on launching it considering AMD has absolutely nothing that'll even come close ot it performance wise, but then again, if Nvidia did release it in Aug, they would basically bury AMD gfx card wise and it would take a looooonnnngg time for AMD to dig themselves out of that hole.

I don't know. I'm hoping for a Aug release as GK110 is what I plan on replacing my 5870 crossfire with.

 

[TheMailMan78]

All I know is last I heard, GK110 is suppose to be released in Aug. Granted, it would make sence for Nvidia to hold back on launching it considering AMD has absolutely nothing that'll even come close ot it performance wise, but then again, if Nvidia did release it in Aug, they would basically bury AMD gfx card wise and it would take a looooonnnngg time for AMD to dig themselves out of that hole.

I don't know. I'm hoping for a Aug release as GK110 is what I plan on replacing my 5870 crossfire with.

NVIDIA can hardly get enough time at the fab now for the 600 series. Also the 600 series doesn't in any way "bury" AMD. In a lot of benches AMD ties and even beats NVIDIA with a lesser price point now since the reduction. ALSO AMD is in a MUCH larger quantity in the market.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Also the 600 series doesn't in any way "bury" AMD. .

I wasn't referring to GK104 burying AMD. What I was thinking was that if AMD can only basically match what was originally slated to be a mid-grade gpu with thier top-end gpu, what's going to happen when Nvidia actually launches what was actually suppose to be the GTX680, which is the GK110 schedualed for release in August(so far, I havent seen or heard anything about the GK110 launch date being changed, although it very well may happen, especailly with the limited time Nvidia is getting at the fab).

I don't claim to be a expert, just going by what I've read and heard about GK110.

 

[Filiprino]

NVIDIA does not have performance crown this round. The problem is that AMD is having some weird stuff going on in its drivers.

 

[jman20nnsss]

NVIDIA does not have performance crown this round. The problem is that AMD is having some weird stuff going on in its drivers.

erm,does'n that mean AMD still loses the performance crown?its AMD's fault for not making good drivers plus the 680 wins the 7970 is almost all games and benchmarks except AvP which is sided towards AMD

 

[Am*]

AMD needs to do something, GK110 is coming

Not going to happen in the next 6 months at least, which makes it irrelevant. By then AMD will have their next gen GPUs ready. Nvidia will be spending those 6 months working on getting CUDA and GPGPU performance up to scratch on their CURRENT cards and getting Quadros out the door.

 

[entropy13]

NVIDIA does not have performance crown this round. The problem is that AMD is having some weird stuff going on in its drivers.

I thought AMD having bad drivers is a myth only propagated by Nvidia fanboys?

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Not going to happen in the next 6 months at least, which makes it irrelevant. By then AMD will have their next gen GPUs ready. Nvidia will be spending those 6 months working on getting CUDA and GPGPU performance up to scratch on their CURRENT cards and getting Quadros out the door.

Mind giving some source for the information your giving about a later release date, because all I can find point to Q3 2012, which equals August this year, or there about.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1234921/zol-gk110-and-possible-gk110-2-information

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/02/07/gk110-tapes-out-at-last/

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-kepler-gk110-diesize-specs-detailed-launch-expected-q3-2012/

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-flagship-gk110-midrange-gk107-detailed-dual-gk104-chip-gpu-slated-2012/

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2224710

http://videocardz.com/31650/geforce-gtx-685-gk110-features-4gb-512bit-memory

I'm seeing plenty of information about GK110 being released in Q3 2012

 

[cadaveca]

I thought AMD having bad drivers is a myth only propagated by Nvidia fanboys?

Nope, AMD user here with driver issues, just on desktop with multimonitor.

 

[Steevo]

I wasn't referring to GK104 burying AMD. What I was thinking was that if AMD can only basically match what was originally slated to be a mid-grade gpu with thier top-end gpu, what's going to happen when Nvidia actually launches what was actually suppose to be the GTX680, which is the GK110 schedualed for release in August(so far, I havent seen or heard anything about the GK110 launch date being changed, although it very well may happen, especailly with the limited time Nvidia is getting at the fab).

I don't claim to be a expert, just going by what I've read and heard about GK110.

I love that everyone thinks the king of rename company wouldn't pull shit like a GPU rename to generate talk amongst fanbois.

Where is this magical "110" chip that is so amazing it will make your girlfriend cum at the mere mention of it? Right, no where.....

What was supposed to be the 680 when they admit they had issues getting the actual 680 done and out, may in fact be, the 680 you may or may not be able to buy today. And why exactly are you thread crapping about green vaporware in this thread?

Saying it will happen in the future is like saying we will have interplanetary travel in the future as a daily occurrence, or that someone will win the lotto, of course it will happen, but between now and then.......

 

[20mmrain]

The GTX 670 won't ruin AMD's party even more. The people who talk this way I guarantee have never played with the GTX 680 or the HD 7970. I can tell you from owning both cards that the HD 7970 is a lot closer and even trades blows with the GTX 680 even at 925Mhz let alone 1000Mhz.
Remember AMD brought the HD 7970 really immaturely..... and once a driver update came out for the HD 7970 the performance went up quit a bit.
The benchmarks used to show how powerful the HD 7970 is compared to the GTX 680 is from a very immature launch driver. If these benchmarks were changed to use the 12.2 WHQL or 12.3 WHQL the story is very different.
Not to mention there are a few short comings that the GTX 680 has that I never hear anyone talking about. For example the Overlocking on the cards is capped for all intents and purposes in terms of voltages.
This is one of the reasons you don't see people blowing the HD 7970 out of the water when benchmarking with the GTX 680.
I have owned both cards and they are both really great! Just don't give in accurate information to people unless you know what you are talking about. I also don't care how many reviews you fire back at me either.... or say something like "Well the GTX 680 drivers are from launch too" yes this is true.... but Nvidia also released the card 3 months later.... I would hope they had time to better the drivers for the GTX 600 series. If they didn't they would be dumb not too.

 

[sanadanosa]

I thought AMD having bad drivers is a myth only propagated by Nvidia fanboys?

Most review site talk about bad 7970 crossfire performance on several game due to AMD bad driver and I`m sure they are not fanboys

 

[theoneandonlymrk]

cant really hurt ,they have had chips capable of it for a while with the right cooling so std cards at this speed neither surprise me nor confound me , if sold at a similar pricepoint then present 7970's i cant see them failing to sell, A gtx680 might well be capable of a bit more in some games but this should play pretty much anything v well to your average joe, and both available and the right price.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Personally none of this matters to me. Most games now don't even come close to warranting the power of the 7970 or the 680. My little 570 or a 6950 pretty much all thats needed for one of the most demanding games BF3. Sure more horse power is always welcome but really.....its not NEEDED anymore.

 

[phanbuey]

Drivers or not - if it performs worse then who cares.

Their biggest issue is really not performance but pricing. The pricing for the entire 7 series was way too high.

The 5 series was when AMD really pulled off a huge victory, mostly due to pricing.

Right now they are trying to pursue the Nvidia model of "offer the best performance and overcharge for it", and it seems that it is not working out for them.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Drivers or not - if it performs worse then who cares.

Their biggest issue is really not performance but pricing. The pricing for the entire 7 series was way too high.

The 5 series was when AMD really pulled off a huge victory, mostly due to pricing.

Right now they are trying to pursue the Nvidia model of "offer the best performance and overcharge for it", and it seems that it is not working out for them.

What are you talking about? They dropped the price and had it hiked before NVIDIA dropped the 680. Now AMD is a far better deal. Next we will go into "NVIDIA makes way more profit" BS.