Review: AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

Final thoughts and rating

AMD's Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition graphics card has been designed to be the fastest single-GPU board on the market, so it needs to beat NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 if it is realise this aim. On the back of better yields AMD introduces higher clock speeds for both core and memory, providing this GHz Edition with, on average, 10 per cent more performance than a regular Radeon HD 7970.

Throw in some basic auto-overclocking by way of PowerTune with Boost and accompany the launch with a set of drivers that deliver performance gains in key titles and this 'new' Radeon is a good match for the GTX 680, especially at sky-high resolutions. Think of it as a Radeon HD 7970 with a reasonable dollop of overclocking and you won't go far wrong.

Be mindful that the same kind of Radeon performance is already available from a slew of partner-clocked boards that ship with better-than-reference coolers. Add-in board partners will need to capitalise on the higher frequencies and launch yet-faster models, though all the while keeping costs in check. Assuming the pricing status quo remains intact from NVIDIA's side, which is no given, a partner-overclocked Radeon HD 7970 GHz+ Edition will need to retail for no more than £450, preferably £400 all in.

We can make a reasonable case for declaring the GHz Edition the best/fastest gaming GPU in town when running super-high resolutions and appropriately rich image-quality settings. AMD, however, wants potential users to appreciate that it's more than a pixel-muncher; it's a veritable GPGPU monster, with an ever-increasing catalogue of Open CL-powered apps in tow. But our focus in this review is on gaming, so would we buy it if priced at £400? The answer is probably no, because an overclocked GeForce GTX 670 is better value.

As a final note, expect to see retail examples of the reviewed GPU available from week commencing July 2nd.

The Good

Nice clock-speed bump over vanilla HD 7970
Can make a case for it being best single-GPU card
Ever-increasing app ecosystem based on Open CL

The Bad

Super-stiff competition from NVIDIA's GTX 670 OC
Price, potentially

HEXUS Rating

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

HEXUS Awards

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

HEXUS Where2Buy

TBC.

HEXUS Right2Reply

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I propably live in the past but seriously..who cares about 5 to 10 fps here or there? Whatever happened to ‘'claiming the throne’' with 30-40% more GPU power than competition? Forgive my mood but AMD, this is quite pathetic attempt to re-claim teh mastery..

The trio boost the GPU clock from 925MHz to at least 1,000MHz and, depending upon card, inch up the memory from an effective 5,500MHz to, say, 5,700MHz. The lean overclocking indirectly confirms that the Tahiti GPU doesn't have a whole heap of headroom, right?

Wrong. (Or maybe I'm missing something in your article?)

The vanilla 7970 is just about the easiest card to overclock in existence. Even AMD confirmed they were a bit timid on the clocks. As long as you bump the power control setting up to +20%, you can just bump the GPU clock up to 1125 without even thinking about it. No voltage modification required. The memory clock is just as easy. I've had my card sitting stable for hours at 1175/1625 with no voltage modification. That's a 27% and 18% overclock on the GPU and memory respectively with no effort required other than moving three sliders to the right. Just an amazing card. And for the £330 quid I bought it, more powerful and a lot less money than a 680. Uses a *lot* more juice though!

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-overclock-guide/1

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa/2

Fraz
Wrong. (Or maybe I'm missing something in your article?)

The vanilla 7970 is just about the easiest card to overclock in existence. Even AMD confirmed they were a bit timid on the clocks. As long as you bump the power control setting up to +20%, you can just bump the GPU clock up to 1125 without even thinking about it. No voltage modification required. The memory clock is just as easy. I've had my card sitting stable for hours at 1175/1625 with no voltage modification. That's a 27% and 18% overclock on the GPU and memory respectively with no effort required other than moving three sliders to the right. Just an amazing card. And for the £330 quid I bought it, more powerful and a lot less money than a 680. Uses a *lot* more juice though!

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-overclock-guide/1

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa/2

You might want to ask AIBs about their reluctance to really, really push the GPU core. The way you overclock and the way they have to qualify products is entirely different. It also depends on when you bought your card; the first batch wasn't brilliant in terms of overclocking.

So ATI are testing all the GPUs, taking all the best ones that overclock the most, and charging extra for them just so they can say they are the fastest.

Kinda screwing over the overclocking scene aren't you?

ATI doesnt exist anymore and hasnt done for 4 years - its AMD now ^^

btw you might want to check the writing vs chart for teh crysis 2 page , article says aAMD is 7% faster whereas the chart says the GTX is fastest ;)