30 replies to this topic

[Vulpesveritas]

http://www.techpower...Hz-Edition.html

Also comes with a Turboboost feature like the GK104 line. (albeit a power saving one instead of a performance boosting one... we'll see how that works out?)

MSRP: $499 (standard 7970 to remain at $450.)

Review:
http://www.techpower...70_GHz_Edition/



So faster than a 680 in every respect, for the same price.

Power draw:

Not that bad for the performance boost. 3 watts higher maximum load (average load sucks more though. Hoping the partner boards with better power regulation chips improve that. ) for 10% higher performance overall? I can live with that.

Downside... power draw still isn't as good as a 680, amount in stock is yet to be known, maximum overclocks on custom boards are yet to be known, board partner designs are yet to be known. (Where's that Sapphire Atomic version that was rumored?... maybe coming?... Oh hi toxic; http://www.techpower...ard-Models.html)
Though with the same PCB as a standard 7970;

It beats the GTX 590 and HD 6990... not bad.

DX 9/11 split?


Not certain. http://www.guru3d.co...ition-review/20
Looks like I'll be editing my GPU guide here in a week or so. If this thing hits higher than $500 at newegg I'll have to add a new tier perhaps?...

What do you guys think?


Also, lol at tomshardware article; http://www.tomshardw...hmark,3232.html
"AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Review: Give Me Back That Crown!". Priceless. Haven't heard that from a review site before. and "New Drivers Deliver; Radeon HD 7970 Claims A Symbolic Win"
No more problem drivers! (now will you please quit saying that you should get a Nvidia card versus an AMD 7xxx series on a driver only basis? Please? I know that Nvidia fanboys won't like that... but serioulsy, this is a good thing. AMD has a win in performance in both gaming and GPGPU, Nvidia has a win in power efficiency. This is the opposite of last year. If they keep flipping back and forth like this we'll see some amazing cards come out of the competition. Plus, it's made AMD step up on their driver quality more. I see that as a win for consumers.)

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 22 June 2012 - 12:41 AM.

[Natedog]

I think that it's just an overclocked HD7970. Nothing super special. Save the $50 and buy a regular HD7970 and use the MSI Afterburner to clock even faster.

[Vulpesveritas]

Natedog, on 21 June 2012 - 10:31 PM, said:

I think that it's just an overclocked HD7970. Nothing super special. Save the $50 and buy a regular HD7970 and use the MSI Afterburner to clock even faster.

It's a binned chip made to overclock higher. AMD even said so themselves. Though they did add on the new feature for powertune.
i.e. you're guaranteed to have a chip that is able to clock higher / use less power vs a standard 7970, plus you're getting higher stock clocks, and an improved Powertune feature.

[Scilya]

im just going to hang on and see where it stands vs the nomal 7970 im verry interested to see what kind of overclocking headroom these guys have. but i think its a good move by amd since it will be better stock and hopefully overclocked than the 680 so hopefully the nvidea trolls will see sence XD

[Natedog]

That's fine but I know guys who have already hit and surpassed those speeds on that chip. It's a card meant for the non-overclockers. Nothing wrong with it but, then again nothing special. Also, if you are running an HD7970 you not too worried about a few extra watts when you overclock it to the same speeds (I.E. you have the PSU and fan/cooling to handle it).

Now if they re-tuned the archecture to allow it to put those speeds with significantly better power useage, basically making it more efficient, then it would be something to get excited about.

[Vulpesveritas]

Natedog, on 21 June 2012 - 10:59 PM, said:

That's fine but I know guys who have already hit and surpassed those speeds on that chip. It's a card meant for the non-overclockers. Nothing wrong with it but, then again nothing special. Also, if you are running an HD7970 you not too worried about a few extra watts when you overclock it to the same speeds (I.E. you have the PSU and fan/cooling to handle it).

Now if they re-tuned the archecture to allow it to put those speeds with significantly better power useage, basically making it more efficient, then it would be something to get excited about.

Well, its good for overclockers without a ton of cash, seeing as you're guaranteed a higher binned chip. I can see people paying $50 for that.

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

A well I am still happy with my powercolor 7970 clocked at 1.1Ghz and if I want put it on 1.2 without worrying about anything

[Vulpesveritas]

Chiyeko Kuramochi, on 21 June 2012 - 11:10 PM, said:

A well I am still happy with my powercolor 7970 clocked at 1.1Ghz and if I want put it on 1.2 without worrying about anything

Just download the new catalyst drivers when they come out. You'll get a significant performance boost.

[Natedog]

Vulpesveritas, on 21 June 2012 - 11:06 PM, said:

Well, its good for overclockers without a ton of cash, seeing as you're guaranteed a higher binned chip. I can see people paying $50 for that.

$500 is for overclockers with out a ton of cash??? Judas, can I have your computer parts budget please?

The whole point of (originally....as in back when 386's were around) overclocking is to push your lower costing parts to a perform like the much more costly parts. Saving money in the end. Not so you can say "Yep, I used to run this game at 120FPS, now that I have my ultra giga-megahertz edition clocked to the speed of light to the nth degree I can now run it at 144FPS."

*Edit: And just because they are binned for 1Ghz does not neccessarily mean they will overclock that much better than their standard part. It just means they are guaranteed at 1Ghz at the wattage rating. The ceiling for both chips is the same, meaning theoretically the chips would overclock the same. I'm interested in the OC difference between the two, because I know there will be some but will it really be that big of a difference? Or will they stop at 1.2Ghz?

Edited by Natedog, 21 June 2012 - 11:51 PM.

[Vulpesveritas]

Natedog, on 21 June 2012 - 11:42 PM, said:

$500 is for overclockers with out a ton of cash??? Judas, can I have your computer parts budget please?

The whole point of (originally....as in back when 386's were around) overclocking is to push your lower costing parts to a perform like the much more costly parts. Saving money in the end. Not so you can say "Yep, I used to run this game at 120FPS, now that I have my ultra giga-megahertz edition clocked to the speed of light to the nth degree I can now run it at 144FPS."

*Edit: And just because they are binned for 1Ghz does not neccessarily mean they will overclock that much better than their standard part. It just means they are guaranteed at 1Ghz at the wattage rating. The ceiling for both chips is the same, meaning theoretically the chips would overclock the same. I'm interested in the OC difference between the two, because I know there will be some but will it really be that big of a difference? Or will they stop at 1.2Ghz?

AMD has already stated all the top binned Talahi chips are going to the GHZ edition, mid binned chips are mundane 7970s, and lower binned / partially damaged chips are 7950s.
So you're not going to get as good of a bin off the wafer. That's about it. for $50 more, I could easily see some overclockers see that as a deal, given that they are not going to get those bins in a standard 7970 now.

That's why.

And by budget, I mean someone with an actually limited fund supply versus someone with practically limitless money.

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 21 June 2012 - 11:56 PM.

[Natedog]

Until they manufacturers run out of mundane 7970 chips and start using the higher binned chips for the regular 7970's. It wouldn't be the first time that has happened for GPU's. And like I said the architecture for that chip has a ceiling and both 7970's could theoretically make it. The lower binned chip might need more voltage to reach the same speeds but they theoretically can reach the same speeds. The higher binned chips could be over-volted too but once you hit the ceiling you will damage the chip before you go farther.

Also, I could say $10K is my limit for my desktop build but for most that is considered a limitless money supply. Especially considering $1500 is more than enough to build a kick *** gaming rig. A $500 GPU is not considered, by the sane at least, a card for "those with out a ton of cash".

[Vulpesveritas]

Natedog, on 22 June 2012 - 12:08 AM, said:

Until they manufacturers run out of mundane 7970 chips and start using the higher binned chips for the regular 7970's. It wouldn't be the first time that has happened for GPU's. And like I said the architecture for that chip has a ceiling and both 7970's could theoretically make it. The lower binned chip might need more voltage to reach the same speeds but they theoretically can reach the same speeds. The higher binned chips could be over-volted too but once you hit the ceiling you will damage the chip before you go farther.

Also, I could say $10K is my limit for my desktop build but for most that is considered a limitless money supply. Especially considering $1500 is more than enough to build a kick *** gaming rig. A $500 GPU is not considered, by the sane at least, a card for "those with out a ton of cash".

Quite true. I was thinking more about for the overclockers who want a 24/7 OC in their rig and want to know they're buying a high binned model and not a low end one which simply refuses to overclock higher, or simply wants it to run cooler.

But that's me.

[Natedog]

Vulpesveritas, on 22 June 2012 - 12:12 AM, said:

Quite true. I was thinking more about for the overclockers who want a 24/7 OC in their rig and want to know they're buying a high binned model and not a low end one which simply refuses to overclock higher, or simply wants it to run cooler.

But that's me.

That's just it, though, that higher binned chip may only do 1.1Ghz "24/7" where as a regular binned chip may chug along at 1.2Ghz with out any issues at all. The higher binned chips are only guaranteed at 1Ghz. You can assume they will go much higher but you may not neccessarily get the same results. It is only 75Mhz faster than the original chip.

[Remarius]

Somewhat interesting news until you bear in mind you're comparing an overclocked hand picked high bin product to a stock one.... and being selective with the parts you're quoting. Ultimately the vast majority of reviews comparings stock products are rating the 680 far over the 7970 when you look at performance, noice etc across a range of games at high resolution etc levels (which is what someone spending £500 is going to be using unless they've very strange). That said the GHZ looks nice and finally having a proper driver update is good but thats something that should be standard not something to crow about. When they come up with a stock product thats clearly exceeeding the NVidia high end cards then I'll look again.

PS: Bear in mind the entire new range of NVidia products is supposed to be what 5 months away then I dread to think how far behind they'll then be unless they can come out with a heavily improved range soon.

[Vulpesveritas]

Natedog, on 22 June 2012 - 12:29 AM, said:

That's just it, though, that higher binned chip may only do 1.1Ghz "24/7" where as a regular binned chip may chug along at 1.2Ghz with out any issues at all. The higher binned chips are only guaranteed at 1Ghz. You can assume they will go much higher but you may not neccessarily get the same results. It is only 75Mhz faster than the original chip.

Actually they're guaranteed higher... not to mention they're binned to be the better chips off the wafer, not specifically on the base speed. That's what I took from AMD saying "better binning." at least.
I could be wrong of course.

Remarius, on 22 June 2012 - 12:33 AM, said:

Somewhat interesting news until you bear in mind you're comparing an overclocked hand picked high bin product to a stock one.... and being selective with the parts you're quoting. Ultimately the vast majority of reviews comparings stock products are rating the 680 far over the 7970 when you look at performance, noice etc across a range of games at high resolution etc levels (which is what someone spending £500 is going to be using unless they've very strange). That said the GHZ looks nice and finally having a proper driver update is good but thats something that should be standard not something to crow about. When they come up with a stock product thats clearly exceeeding the NVidia high end cards then I'll look again.

PS: Bear in mind the entire new range of NVidia products is supposed to be what 5 months away then I dread to think how far behind they'll then be unless they can come out with a heavily improved range soon.

This isn't an overclocked card, this is a whole new SKU that is outperforming the 680. And keep in mind, the new range of AMD products is coming 5 months down the line as well. "and selective of the parts I'm quoting?"
Really?
this chip was only released a few hours ago. Kinda hard to be that selective there. Especially given TPU has the most through GPU testing process of any website I've seen. Here are a few more if you want them;
http://www.techspot....70-ghz-edition/
http://www.tomshardw...hmark,3232.html
http://www.anandtech...g-up-to-gtx-680
http://www.pcworld.c...ion_review.html
http://www.guru3d.co...edition-review/

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 22 June 2012 - 12:38 AM.

[Catamount]

Natedog, on 22 June 2012 - 12:29 AM, said:

That's just it, though, that higher binned chip may only do 1.1Ghz "24/7" where as a regular binned chip may chug along at 1.2Ghz with out any issues at all. The higher binned chips are only guaranteed at 1Ghz. You can assume they will go much higher but you may not neccessarily get the same results. It is only 75Mhz faster than the original chip.

Sure, in the same way that a really good Phenom II X4 940 might blow past the best overclock of a bad 970, but that's not an argument against the 970, nor even the 970 being more expensive.

If this is a new bin, this it isn't a factory overclocked 7970 as compared to a normal 7970; it's more like a 7970 compared to a 7950, and yes, it's also entirely possible for a really good 7950 to blow past the best overclock on a bad 7970, but that's not an argument against the 7970, either, anymore than that would be an argument against this card.


Honestly, AMD should have just called it the 7980 to avoid all this if it's a new bin, but regardless, that's effectively what it is from the sounds of it.

Edited by Catamount, 22 June 2012 - 05:22 AM.

[Vulpesveritas]

Catamount, on 22 June 2012 - 05:22 AM, said:

Sure, in the same way that a really good Phenom II X4 940 might blow past the best overclock of a bad 970, but that's not an argument against the 970, nor even the 970 being more expensive.

If this is a new bin, this it isn't a factory overclocked 7970 as compared to a normal 7970; it's more like a 7970 compared to a 7950, and yes, it's also entirely possible for a really good 7950 to blow past the best overclock on a bad 7970, but that's not an argument against the 7970, either, anymore than that would be an argument against this card.


Honestly, AMD should have just called it the 7980 to avoid all this if it's a new bin, but regardless, that's effectively what it is from the sounds of it.

This is completely true. AMD needs new training for thier marketing department, maybe they could hire Apple's marketing department trainers?...

[Natedog]

AMD and Nvidia have done this in the past, I.E. "Binned" a better chip for a mild (in this case about 7%) overclock. It's nothing new. Browsing through Newegg.com and you already have 7970 cards pushing 1Ghz or faster for about $450 or less.

Like I said, it's nice but it's just a way for AMD to say they are "king of the hill" for awhile. And a better comparison would be the AMD Phenom II X4 965 vs the 970. Some people are faster on the 965, some on the 970 but they both hit roughly the same speed. No, they shouldn't have called it the 7980 because it's just an overclocked 7970 (which is how they are marketing it). If they had tweaked something other than just increasing the core speed by 75mhz I could see but they didn't do that.

[Vulpesveritas]

Natedog, on 22 June 2012 - 08:11 AM, said:

AMD and Nvidia have done this in the past, I.E. "Binned" a better chip for a mild (in this case about 7%) overclock. It's nothing new. Browsing through Newegg.com and you already have 7970 cards pushing 1Ghz or faster for about $450 or less.

Like I said, it's nice but it's just a way for AMD to say they are "king of the hill" for awhile. And a better comparison would be the AMD Phenom II X4 965 vs the 970. Some people are faster on the 965, some on the 970 but they both hit roughly the same speed. No, they shouldn't have called it the 7980 because it's just an overclocked 7970 (which is how they are marketing it). If they had tweaked something other than just increasing the core speed by 75mhz I could see but they didn't do that.

Actually they did. They added a new feature that allows for variable clock rates, alongside the processor bin. Not much of a change, but it is one.

[Natedog]

Well that changes everything.....

I will say this, I hope you are right and that this will overclock just as well as the regular one (I.E. instead of hitting 1.1Ghz regularly they hit 1.2 or higher on a regular basis). I am also interested in how this chip will perform in an overclock as well.