7970 GHz edition incoming!

[HurleyBird]

Sounds like AMD will be taking the crown back from Nvidia at the expense of higher power consumption.

Special thanks to Alexko at B3D forums for digging up the inf:

From Tridam (Hardware.fr):
"AMD nous a indiqué hier avoir l'intention de proposer une version GHz Edition de la Radeon HD 7970, sans préciser la forme exacte que cette déclinaison prendrait."

Which you could translate as:

"Last night, AMD told us that they intend to launch a GHz Edition of the Radeon HD 7970, without specifying exactly what it would be."

Link to article where comment was found: http://www.hardware.fr/articles/857...nsport=fragment&type=resize&height=20&ackData

 

[Absolute0]

Hope this entails more than a 1.0 Ghz core clock because that wouldn't be enough to "take the crown back"

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Hope this entails more than a 1.0 Ghz core clock because that wouldn't be enough to "take the crown back"

This.

 

[railven]

The clock race is on! First one to blow up loses. haha.

 

[Will Robinson]

Well,Tahiti XT has shown really good overclocking headroom so far.
Pushed hard it will beat an overclocked 680,both in single card and XFire/SLI comparisons.
Hopefully they'll clock it up and really throw down a good challenge.:thumbsup:

 

[exdeath]

Good. nVidia won't be able to milk their budget chip they released as a x80 for too long and will be forced to release the REAL high end chips.

 

[ArchAngel777]

They will probably raise the voltage specification limit. Giving the nod to allow 1.3+v or something like that. Or perhaps they will cherry pick the good chips.

Pretty sure that the clock speed would have to 1050Mhz just to equal the performance of the GTX 680. So if they want the crown back in any meanigful way, they are going to have to clock it at 1200Mhz, IMO. Anything less wouldn't be worth the time and effort to release a new product.

If they did what nVidia did with the 480 GTX, they could probably create a 300 TDP chip clocked at 1.3-1.4Ghz with cherry picked chips and an improved cooler and different fan profile. Course, it would be hot and loud, but I doubt we wouldn't hear a peep from the nVidia fans, cuz, after all, they didn't care when it applied to the 480 ... Oh wait, it doesn't work that way. They are now performance/per watt bandwagoners. And... VLIW sucks, right?

 

[Olikan]

They will probably raise the voltage specification limit. Giving the nod to allow 1.3+v or something like that. Or perhaps they will cherry pick the good chips.

actually, i won't be surprised if the power consuption actually lowers, since the process is more mature...

 

[ArchAngel777]

actually, i won't be surprised if the power consuption actually lowers, since the process is more mature...

No doubt that as the process matures so do the chips. But you are not going to get 925 to 1.2Ghz and lower power consumption with a mere few months of fine tuning 28nm. I can see some improvement, but that seems a bit drastic. I think power consumption will definitely go up if they are going to be running at 1.2Ghz, reglardless of the node process improvement/refinement.

 

[-Slacker-]

Quelle est la vitesse du le GPU?

 

[OCGuy]

You think the crown was lost because of 75mhz in clock speed?


Sorry, AMD needs to put out something real here or they are going to be behind for a while. This feels like a AMD marketing ploy to keep the AMD loyalists from going green.

 

[Olikan]

No doubt that as the process matures so do the chips. But you are not going to get 925 to 1.2Ghz and lower power consumption with a mere few months of fine tuning 28nm. I can see some improvement, but that seems a bit drastic. I think power consumption will definitely go up if they are going to be running at 1.2Ghz, reglardless of the node process improvement/refinement.

well, lookin at pitcairn and kepler... the process did matured very nicely in 3 months...

but yeah, 1.2Ghz is too hardcore

You think the crown was lost because of 75mhz in clockspeed?

well, it's 8% more than tahiti, enought to beat or tie to kepler

 

[blackened23]

You think the crown was lost because of 75mhz in clock speed?


Sorry, AMD needs to put out something real here or they are going to be behind for a while. This feels like a AMD marketing ploy to keep the AMD loyalists from going green.

Calm down for a second, you sound like a cheerleader (I kid)

I've already gone green but I can tell you an OC 7970 will certainly keep up or beat 680 OC. Check the benchmarks out at hardware.fr, they did max OC 7970 vs 680 max OC head to head.....the 7970 scales better with overclocks.

 

[skipsneeky2]

No doubt that as the process matures so do the chips. But you are not going to get 925 to 1.2Ghz and lower power consumption with a mere few months of fine tuning 28nm. I can see some improvement, but that seems a bit drastic. I think power consumption will definitely go up if they are going to be running at 1.2Ghz, reglardless of the node process improvement/refinement.

Using 1.186v my 7970 has no problem running at 1200 core,unless they improve the stock cooler,improve performance per watt,or sell this at the same price as a gtx680 or lower....i doubt it will get much interest.

Overclockers unite!

 

[Subyman]

The Lightning is already over 1000mhz.

 

[notty22]

You think the crown was lost because of 75mhz in clock speed?


Sorry, AMD needs to put out something real here or they are going to be behind for a while. This feels like a AMD marketing ploy to keep the AMD loyalists from going green.

Agreed , beyond a press release, little to see here. There are o/c models selling @1ghz, so what changed ? AMD does not have to re-announce a higher TDP ?

 

[Madcatatlas]

So you are not interested in a higher factory clocked AMD referance card that beats the 680?

 

[Pandora's Box]

would have to be around 1.2-1.3ghz for it to be worthwhile.

 

[Nintendesert]

So you are not interested in a higher factory clocked AMD referance card that beats the 680?

Not for the prices AMD is selling cards at. They need to announce a price drop more than a few more mhz.

 

[blackened23]

Not for the prices AMD is selling cards at. They need to announce a price drop more than a few more mhz.

agreed

 

[Mopetar]

Good. nVidia won't be able to milk their budget chip they released as a x80 for too long and will be forced to release the REAL high end chips.

Or they'll just release higher clocked versions of the 680

Based on all of the information I've been reading, this generation excites me.

AMD has the bigger chip which given high enough clocks can get the performance edge, but at the expense of using a good deal more power.

nVidia has the smaller chip which can get nearly as much performance, but does so with much less power.

The fanboys are going to end up fighting against each other with arguments that the other group was using last generation. It's so deliciously funny that it's like having your cake, eating it too, and giving it to a friend to eat.

 

[Stoneburner]

The fanboys are going to end up fighting against each other with arguments that the other group was using last generation. It's so deliciously funny that it's like having your cake, eating it too, and giving it to a friend to eat.

This is so damn true.

If AMD doesn't give me a $400 7950 within 7 days, I will be getting a 680 just because! It will be bottlenecked by my P2 X4 and it will be overkill for my 20 inch 1680x1050 display, but goddamn it, I haven't upgraded in almost 1.5 years.

 

[Grooveriding]

Not for the prices AMD is selling cards at. They need to announce a price drop more than a few more mhz.

Yeah it will take a combination. Put out a reference 7970 @ 1000 or 1050, whatever the core speed is that makes it faster than a 680 and charge $499 or $475. Whatever makes it the same or cheaper.

Then they can say we're faster for the same or faster and cheaper.

Looking on the current state of gtx680 SLI scaling, if they had some awareness, they would send some sort of release about such a card to a few review sites with some multi-gpu scaling comparison numbers and put them in a good light. Certainly would combat that whole 'AMD drivers' thing some people believe. Right now it looks like the 7XXX series came with much better multi-gpu scaling out the gate than the gtx 680 has.....

 

[skipsneeky2]

This is so damn true.

If AMD doesn't give me a $400 7950 within 7 days, I will be getting a 680 just because! It will be bottlenecked by my P2 X4 and it will be overkill for my 20 inch 1680x1050 display, but goddamn it, I haven't upgraded in almost 1.5 years.

It would last years,no worries i think,talk about longevity hell i would do it.

I know a buddy who is rolling with a 9800gt still,he has a 22'' 1680x1050 and wants a new 1080p monitor,but i'm like bro,get your silly ass a 7870 ffs first

 

[f1sherman]

Yeah it will take a combination. Put out a reference 7970 @ 1000 or 1050, whatever the core speed is that makes it faster than a 680 and charge $499 or $475. Whatever makes it the same or cheaper.

Then they can say we're faster for the same or faster and cheaper.

Looking on the current state of gtx680 SLI scaling, if they had some awareness, they would send some sort of release about such a card to a few review sites with some multi-gpu scaling comparison numbers and put them in a good light. Certainly would combat that whole 'AMD drivers' thing some people believe. Right now it looks like the 7XXX series came with much better multi-gpu scaling out the gate than the gtx 680 has.....

no, not really.

SLI scales much better


http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7970_CrossFire/images/perfrel_2560.gif

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_680_SLI/images/perfrel_2560.gif

That's on 680 with day 1 drivers. So how about them apples??