AMD Radeon 7 Series

[ArchAngel777]

@ArchAngel777

Yeah 460 SLI is like ~10% away from a 580 in performance, your basically just about as fast as a 6970.

At most a stock 7970 would be like 40% or so for you... kinda like if you had a 6970. If you overclocked the hell out of it (compaired to stock 460 SLI) the most performance differnce would be like ~55-60% gain.

Maybe you dont like SLI? or feel mircostuttering?
That said, 460 SLI is pretty sweet on its own, and even having 6970 ish performance, with the current games on the market is more than enough (unless you game at like 2560x resolutions).

I have mine clocked at 560 stock speeds (not the TI version). So 560 SLI is basically what I have. I am a good bit faster than the 580 (20% faster or so). Microstutter hasn't been an issue. I ran FRAPs and there is less than a 5% variance in frame times. I tested both single card and multi card and both were within 5% of each other, making microstutter a moot point (for the games that I play, at least). BTW, for those interested, someone made a microstutter.exe program that processes the data from the FRAPs frame times. Pretty cool program. I believe it can be found on the Extreme Systems site somewhere... Very good eye opener.

With that said... I still want a 7970.

 

[Vdubchaos]

The things I see coming from AMD below the 7950 don't appear that impressive on paper. I don't see them offering 20-40% more performance than comparable parts for the same price brackets we are seeing now.

That's where I get discouraged by the 7970's price/performance. AMD is fully justified selling it where they are, but any theorizing I do about 7870/7850 performance leaves me feeling that they won't be faster than 6950/6970. I'm guessing AMD is going for 15% or so less performance each step down in their lineup.

Agreed

I'm kind of counting on Nvidia to strike back

 

[SirPauly]

The things I see coming from AMD below the 7950 don't appear that impressive on paper. I don't see them offering 20-40% more performance than comparable parts for the same price brackets we are seeing now.

That's where I get discouraged by the 7970's price/performance. AMD is fully justified selling it where they are, but any theorizing I do about 7870/7850 performance leaves me feeling that they won't be faster than 6950/6970. I'm guessing AMD is going for 15% or so less performance each step down in their lineup.

Hence, what I did see as well. It is exciting to see AMD regain the crown and enjoy the benefits, but if one takes a step back from just the excitement there really isn't a lot performance/dollar value based on the change of direction on pricing and the new arch/node.

This nit-pick may trickle down as well and the performance value specifically for the sweet spot, one may raise an eye brow, considering how strong they were in the past. So, the area for me, is to see what kind of performance/dollar value this sweet spot generation did compared to past ones.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

On the bright side we could be getting 6970 performance around $200 which isn't necesarrily a bad thing. With the overclocking potential of these cards it could very well be within spitting distance of a gtx580. Assuming of course that the 7950 is 10% faster than the gtx580.

 

[dainthomas]

I'd be interested in some of the "bargain basement" 28nm (77xx) series Radeon video cards.
When might those start appearing on Newegg/Amazon/etc.?
Preferably with a cooling fan such as used on the MSI Cyclone series of Radeon cards.

I wonder if prices on 67xx will come down much after these come out in Feb? I'd love to crossfire my 6770.

 

[Lonyo]

I wonder if prices on 67xx will come down much after these come out in Feb? I'd love to crossfire my 6770.

Prices will drop by March at the latest.
If the HD7950 does come out on Jan 9th, then it will offer almost certainly better than GTX580 performance at lower than GTX580 prices.
That should push the GTX580 down in price, which will then knock on to the lower NV cards, and consequently the competing AMD cards, or AMD will just lower their prices anyway and NV will have to respond to that as well as pressure from the top.

You might also be able to find someone selling a used 5770/6770 anyway in preparation for a new card, meaning you don't even have to wait for prices to drop in retail (if you don't mind used).

 

[dainthomas]

You might also be able to find someone selling a used 5770/6770 anyway in preparation for a new card, meaning you don't even have to wait for prices to drop in retail (if you don't mind used).

That's a good idea. Maybe I'll start poking around on CL and FS/T.

 

[Vesku]

Based on the rumored full card list it seems AMD has gone with a strategy of 20-25% more performance at each price tier. Other than the 7970/7950 it seems that before the first price drops happen these cards will mostly be a good value to new builds and those still on AMD 4000 series and NVIDIA 200 series or older. After first price drop it's pretty compelling if you are running R5000/GTX400 series. Of course it will all depend on preferred games, Shooter-style players have more upgrade incentive since 60+/120+ FPS is a common target.

Also, speculating on rumored card list, AMD is anticipating ~GTX 760 type card to show up in March and possibly a GTX 790 dual 760 single card to attempt to gain the top single board spot.

On the bright side we could be getting 6970 performance around $200 which isn't necesarrily a bad thing. With the overclocking potential of these cards it could very well be within spitting distance of a gtx580. Assuming of course that the 7950 is 10% faster than the gtx580.

 

[skipsneeky2]

This gpu series is pretty intense.

Love the line up while most are focusing on the higher end i am eyeballing the lower end and am quite impressed.

The 7750 looks like a gpu that will blow the doors off the 6770 12 more texture units 32 more stream processors a overall higher bandwidth with this series using much lower power consumption this gpu may hit the 80watt tdp.

We may very well see 6770 performance or slighter better with a 7670 sucking off 65watts off a pci-e port:biggrin:

 

[MrTeal]

I don't think we'll be seeing 6970 performance at $200, unless you happen to find a 6970 at $200AR. If the quoted pricing and specs are true, a 7790 @ $200 won't be equal to a 6790. Maybe we'll be able to pick up a 7850 for around that price and get it up to the performance of a 6970 with a big overclock for around $250.
Games like Civ5 where the 6970 does really poorly will be an outlier, of course.

 

[David_]

How do initial product launches like this go? I mean will XFX, Gigabyte, etc. all have their own 7970s on offer January 9?

 

[96Firebird]

How do initial product launches like this go? I mean will XFX, Gigabyte, etc. all have their own 7970s on offer January 9?

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how long they've had the chips. Usually it is just the reference cards for a week or so, then the custom coolers start to show up.

 

[utahraptor]

Does anyone remember off the top of their head how long it was before the MSI lightning variants started to show up for 6970 or 580? I will try to research it myself if nobody remembers.

Edit:

Based off what I just found the AMD 6970 came out 12/15/2010. I think the MSI Lightning 6970 came out 3/25/2011. This is a 3 month window... That means I should be able to score one about the time I can score an Ivy Bridge setup! Sounds like good things are coming to me if I can wait.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...0-and-GTX-580-Lightning-Series-Graphics-Cards

 

[Dark Shroud]

I'm looking forward to seeing what the HD 7800s & the HD 7790 cards can do. I know a few people in need of upgrades and I have new builds planned.

On top of that if AMD uses VLIW4 in these units with the new updated geomety engines AMD will have a win across the board.

 

[Sephire]

Eyefinity gaming should be much better experience for a $200 card :biggrin:

 

[Grooveriding]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Radeon-HD-7...732?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3cc043e8c4

$600 for one on ebay

 

[96Firebird]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Radeon-HD-7...732?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3cc043e8c4

$600 for one on ebay

Delivery estimate is for when the cards are released...

Has anyone gotten a card early? Except, of course, reviewers...

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I don't think we'll be seeing 6970 performance at $200, unless you happen to find a 6970 at $200AR. If the quoted pricing and specs are true, a 7790 @ $200 won't be equal to a 6790. Maybe we'll be able to pick up a 7850 for around that price and get it up to the performance of a 6970 with a big overclock for around $250.
Games like Civ5 where the 6970 does really poorly will be an outlier, of course.

If the $200 cards overclock anything like the 7970 we could very well be seeing that type of performance.

 

[Grooveriding]

Delivery estimate is for when the cards are released...

Has anyone gotten a card early? Except, of course, reviewers...

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1662199

Retail card did 1125 core / 1575 memory (maximum possible in AMD overdrive) No additional voltage.

Once Afterburner supports these, we are going to see some insane overclocks I reckon.

 

[96Firebird]

Nice, I tried searching their website but I can't type those funky letters. ^_^ Is it still up?

Has anyone tried ordering from those sketchy US sites, and get your card yet?

Edit - I thought you had a link to the site he got it from, but now its not there...

Edit 2 - Found it in the other thread. *mind asplodes*

 

[skipsneeky2]

Nice, I tried searching their website but I can't type those funky letters. ^_^ Is it still up?

Has anyone tried ordering from those sketchy US sites, and get your card yet?

Edit - I thought you had a link to the site he got it from, but now its not there...

Is the current driver set even supporting the 7000 series yet?

Would hate to have such a awesome card but no official drivers giving you all kinds of hell in game titles.

I toyed with a 6990 when only one set of drivers supported it and the big game BC2 was giving me worst then gtx460 performance...the noise and performance numbers had me refunding my money.

 

[96Firebird]

Is the current driver set even supporting the 7000 series yet?

Would hate to have such a awesome card but no official drivers giving you all kinds of hell in game titles.

I toyed with a 6990 when only one set of drivers supported it and the big game BC2 was giving me worst then gtx460 performance...the noise and performance numbers had me refunding my money.

Hey, the performance of a GTX 460 is nothing to laugh at.



It looks like a CD came with the card, which I'm guessing contains the same drivers used in reviews. Since they wouldn't want to have the card reviewed on a game the drivers did poorly with, I'm sure most games work fine...

 

[skipsneeky2]

Hey, the performance of a GTX 460 is nothing to laugh at.



It looks like a CD came with the card, which I'm guessing contains the same drivers used in reviews. Since they wouldn't want to have the card reviewed on a game the drivers did poorly with, I'm sure most games work fine...

GTX 460 is the new 8800gt of this generation.

Will not surprise me if people are still using this card in 4 years with all the console ports around a 8800gt is still a capable card.

 

[hdfxst]

Nice, I tried searching their website but I can't type those funky letters. ^_^ Is it still up?

Has anyone tried ordering from those sketchy US sites, and get your card yet?

Edit - I thought you had a link to the site he got it from, but now its not there...

Edit 2 - Found it in the other thread. *mind asplodes*

there's an embargo until jan. 9 so if you order from any site in the us they won't ship until then,i'm sure newegg has them in stock.The guy from hardocp is from greece

 

[96Firebird]

GTX 460 is the new 8800gt of this generation.

Will not surprise me if people are still using this card in 4 years with all the console ports around a 8800gt is still a capable card.

And I have an 8800GT 512MB in my other build, still chugging along.

But I fear I have gone too far off-topic, back to the 7 series.