7970 now (which?) vs. 7990 later (when?)

[zombie67]

So, I decided on ATI instead of nVidia for my next GPU. First choice, 7970 now or 7990 later. When is the 7990 due? I thought June? Second choice, if I go with a 7970 now, which is the one to buy? They are all within $60, so I really don't care about using $ as a deciding factor. Advice?

Edit: I *do* care about # of slots used, so the 3-slot card is out. Also, the water-cooled card is out.

[DrPop]

7990 should be announced at Computex 2012, which means literally any day now! :) If you can hold off just a couple more days - maybe even hours at this point - I would definitely wait at least until the launch so we know exact specs and pricing for our best informed decision.:-B

[zombie67]

7990 should be announced at Computex 2012, which means literally any day now! :) If you can hold off just a couple more days - maybe even hours at this point - I would definitely wait at least until the launch so we know exact specs and pricing for our best informed decision.:-B

Good news! I'll wait for now. But let's assume that they do not announce, or announce availability in September, or announce a cost of $2k, or whatever. If so, what is the best 7970?

[Aux10]

Did someone say Computex (http://www.bjorn3d.com/2011/06/computex-2011-booth-babes/#.T9p8UI4Tvw4)?

[zombie67]

Did someone say Computex (http://www.bjorn3d.com/2011/06/computex-2011-booth-babes/#.T9p8UI4Tvw4)?

Booth Babes are one of the best inventions ever.

[DrPop]

Booth Babes are one of the best inventions ever.

LOL! :D Are we sure they're ALL over 18??? :)) J/K ;)

[zombie67]

LOL! :D Are we sure they're ALL over 18??? :)) J/K ;)

Yeah, it's sometimes very hard to judge the age of some asian females. That hot chick? Could be anywhere from 12 to 42. Hell, in some countries, it could be a male. Caution is advised. X_X

But back to the question...which is the best of the current crop of 7970s?

[Mike029]

Yeah, it's sometimes very hard to judge the age of some asian females. That hot chick? Could be anywhere from 12 to 42. Hell, in some countries, it could be a male. Caution is advised. X_X

But back to the question...which is the best of the current crop of 7970s?

I'm in the same position as you Z. I too am waiting to hear the 7990 price and release date. I look more at manufacturer than price when they are close. EVGA does not make AMD cards so I'll be going with the XFX, Sapphire or Diamond cards. I've had good experiences with these manufacturers and very bad exp. with Asus. The other companies, never tried them.

I'm looking at these cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103210

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150586

Hope that helps a little bit.

[EmSti]

As I understand it there is a 2nd generation version of the 7970s coming out. Faster and less power needed. Apparently manufacturing has gotten better. They are due out this month, at a minimum I would wait for them. I have 5 7970s, 2 are a pain in the arse to deal with and on the bad end of ASIC quality. The 2nd generations (so called Ghz edition) is suppose to improve the quality range.

Following the new 7970s, the 7990 will be release based on those newer chips, that sounds like August. However, there has been a stir the last few days that AMD may have just shown a 7990 at a recent show (three fan version). But then again the rumors have been off.

[EmSti]

You may find this useful:

http://www.techpowerup.com/167711/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970-GHz-Edition-quot-Tahiti-XT2-quot-Detailed.html

[zombie67]

Thanks. Power consumption is important to me, so I will be waiting for the ghz version at least.

[EmSti]

The new 7970 Ghz Edition released

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6025/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-catching-up-to-gtx-680

The trick now is to find them for sale and make sure it's the Ghz Edition and not the vanilla 7970. I am still waiting for 7990.

[EmSti]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review/25

[zombie67]

So it's not a new chip, or a "tick" (intel term) die shrink, after all. Maybe I mis-read the earlier articles. It's just better chip binning and new Catalyst and BIOS features. "widespread availability isn’t expected until July", which isn't too far off.

Still, if this get's them to the 7990, I will be very happy.

[John P. Myers]

From what i'm seeing, the "7990s" shown at computex are being called 7970 x2. I've seen 1 from HIS and PowerColor. Both are triple slot cards due to massive cooling, but are actually as fast or faster than 2 7970s and only take up 3 slots instead of 4. Most likely double the price as well at around $1000.

The Asus Ares 2 should also be out soon which is a 7870 x2 and will also be a triple slot. Not as fast as a 7970 x2, but much faster than a plain 7970. Will also be a bit cheaper than the 7970 x2's at around $800

Edit: Also the Asus Mars III is due out soon, which is a GTX 680 x2 and is 2 slots wide. 8GB RAM on this beast. Faster than any 690 as well, but exact clocks haven't been released yet. Has 3 8-pin power connectors, same as the 7970 x2's.

EVGA is also about to release a GTX 680 2Win with 4GB RAM also with 3 8-pins.

[zombie67]

Any new news?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600286767&IsNodeId=1&name=Radeon%20HD%207000%20series

I see GHz versions of lesser chips. But nothing with the 79xx. Also none of the "x2" yet.

I am in need of a new GPU prematurely. One of my 590s was recently killed. I'll post more on that later.

[EmSti]

Any new news?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600286767&IsNodeId=1&name=Radeon%20HD%207000%20series

I see GHz versions of lesser chips. But nothing with the 79xx. Also none of the "x2" yet.

I am in need of a new GPU prematurely. One of my 590s was recently killed. I'll post more on that later.

Not really, a week ago they were publishing that they would be available in a week and that hasn't happen yet. Maybe post holiday.

[John P. Myers]

http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-radeon-hd-7990-debuts-as-a-very-limited-edition-in-july-/16567.html

fingers crossed it'll be in a couple of weeks. Gotta admit the possible 12GB versions sound really sexy :D

[zombie67]

http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-radeon-hd-7990-debuts-as-a-very-limited-edition-in-july-/16567.html

fingers crossed it'll be in a couple of weeks. Gotta admit the possible 12GB versions sound really sexy :D

Cool!

[John P. Myers]

Edit: Also the Asus Mars III is due out soon, which is a GTX 680 x2 and is 2 slots wide. 8GB RAM on this beast. Faster than any 690 as well, but exact clocks haven't been released yet. Has 3 8-pin power connectors, same as the 7970 x2's.


Update: Clocks have been released. It will run at 1006 MHz, making it 10% faster than a 690 and still using 2 slots. The 8GB of RAM will run at the same speed as a 690.

...not that i recommend getting an Nvidia GPU to crunch with. AMD is still far better imo. It's just something neat worth mentioning.

[Slicker]

http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-radeon-hd-7990-debuts-as-a-very-limited-edition-in-july-/16567.html

fingers crossed it'll be in a couple of weeks. Gotta admit the possible 12GB versions sound really sexy :D

So for apps that can acutually use the video memory, you may need 12GB of system RAM just to feed it which means another 2GB per core @ 8 cores for BOINC CPU projects with high RAM requirementsand you could need as much as 28GB just to crunch with it! Then again with that much memory and video power, one should almost feel like they are on the halodeck when viewing the screen.

[EmSti]

http://www.techhum.com/amd-planning-hd-7000-series-price-cuts/

Sounds like price cuts are coming too.

[John P. Myers]

Bad news.

Rumor has it the 7990 won't be released now until late August. Also, instead of using 2 of the the new and improved XT2 GPU chips, it'll just use 2 regular Tahiti XT chips.

And to make things more interesting (confusing), it may also require 4 6-pin plugs instead of using 8-pins. Also, the 12GB version may no longer be made.

[Mike029]

Bad news.

Rumor has it the 7990 won't be released now until late August. Also, instead of using 2 of the the new and improved XT2 GPU chips, it'll just use 2 regular Tahiti XT chips.

And to make things more interesting (confusing), it may also require 4 6-pin plugs instead of using 8-pins. Also, the 12GB version may no longer be made.

Great.. :mad: Why dumb it down? Can't get enough of the improved chips for mass distribution or so they can release an "Extreme Version" of the 7990?

[John P. Myers]

Well...now it's late August. Let's see what's news...

http://videocardz.com/34560/powercolor-hd-7990-devil13-detailed-and-pictured :)

Also http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/video/powercolor-to-launch-their-own-hd-7990-tomorrow/ same product but more info.

Most importantly, it seems AMD will not be making any reference designed 7990s, meaning any of them you see will be 100% designed by the individual companies themselves. It also means availability will be very scarce and the minimum price not quite as low as it could've been since each company must now do their own R&D.

[DrPop]

Oh wow...is that a triple slot card???:confused::o:p

[zombie67]

Dang. This is taking too long!!

[John P. Myers]

Oh wow...is that a triple slot card???:confused::o:p

It is :) And technically it's a 7970 x2, not a 7990, since the clocks are the same as on a 7970, not held back as they always are to reduce heat and power draw, and since it's using the same Tahiti XT chip as the 7970 instead of the XT2. But since AMD isn't making their own 7990s, they gave permission to these board makers to use that number. Hopefully they don't, but we'll see.

[Duke of Buckingham]

I am lost with one simple card, how lost I would be with a triple one?

But I AM NOT ALONE.

http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/18/lost.jpg

Lost Duke http://2daysports.com/img/articles/images/lehigh-beat-duke-shirt.jpg YEHA and you are not the only one.

[Fire$torm]

Oh wow...is that a triple slot card???:confused::o:p


It is :) And technically it's a 7970 x2, not a 7990, since the clocks are the same as on a 7970, not held back as they always are to reduce heat and power draw, and since it's using the same Tahiti XT chip as the 7970 instead of the XT2. But since AMD isn't making their own 7990s, they gave permission to these board makers to use that number. Hopefully they don't, but we'll see.

And its not the first triple slot GPU to hit the market. Asus has been making triple slot cards for awhile like this one I posted about ---> http://www.setiusa.us/showthread.php?2903-The-Radeon-HD-7970-you-Really-want&p=32442&viewfull=1#post32442