AMD Radeon 7990 reviews thread

[Leadbox]

Why is the guru3D review referring to the 13.5beta2 driver as the prototype driver?
Pcper states that the prototype driver is somewhere in the 13.2 stack and is not available to the public but 13.5beta2 is

 

[bystander36]

Even with it's first 13.5B2 driver,7990 is rocking the show...

so if you don't believe Kitguru review,then it's not my concern

7990 is the fastest card till now(except CFX)...hardwareheaven does the most extensive testing among all other reviews(min,max,avg fps+frame time observed fps) and 7990 came on top of 690...

also,a/anandtech review,7990 besides gaming also topples 690 at ease in every compute related works as Folding @ Home,bitcoin mining,lux mark,cl bench,etc..
overall,7990 is much better choice than 690...

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...d-7990-graphics-card-review-introduction.html

also another reviews on 7990 as winner,
http://www.computershopper.com/components/reviews/amd-radeon-hd-7990#review-body

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_hd_7990_review,1.html

Unfortunately, the review is using Fraps, and not FCAT. Both AMD and Nvidia have agreed that Fraps is not measuring things well. Take a look at any review site that has used FCAT and things are different. Fraps does not look at the output, but rather when frames start to be rendered. Looking at the output is quite different.

 

[Silverforce11]

It doesnt matter even if AMD release their new "smooth" drivers, the 7990 is simply way overpriced.

When AMD fix the microstutter, its the CF 7950 that will benefit the most.

 

[-Slacker-]

According to the Tomshardware review, SLI does not experience micro stutter. Ever. Isn't that amazing for a multiple card setup?

 

[bystander36]

According to the Tomshardware review, SLI does not experience micro stutter. Ever. Isn't that amazing for a multiple card setup?

Where does it say that? It does show they don't have runt frames, ever, but I don't recall anything about saying they have no microstutter, just it has much less than AMD.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Where does it say that? It does show they don't have runt frames, ever, but I don't recall anything about saying they have no microstutter, just it has much less than AMD.

I think he's being sarcastic about their praise for sli.

 

[bystander36]

I think he's being sarcastic about their praise for sli.

Its hard to recognize some times.

They definitely praised SLI a lot, so it was believable he thought that.

 

[-Slacker-]

What I don't understand is how are amd CF setups maintaining approx. the same average framerate with the prototype drivers after getting rid of what looks to be over 90% of the runt frames? They just doubled what tom's calls the "practical framerate" in one driver update, simply as that.

 

[Cloudfire777]

Stop reading Tomshardware. Biggest joke of a site

 

[Fx1]

What I don't understand is how are amd CF setups maintaining approx. the same average framerate with the prototype drivers after getting rid of what looks to be over 90% of the runt frames? They just doubled what tom's calls the "practical framerate" in one driver update, simply as that.

Because runt frames are actually full frames. They arent evenly spaced out. Drivers just tell the screen to display a frame every 16ms or some evenly spaced out interval.

Everyone assumes AMD is cheating by rendering a full frame but then rendering a few pixels and counting it as a full frame in fraps. But this isnt the case.

The card is doing the hard work and thats whats most important because drivers can fix anything else

 

[bystander36]

What I don't understand is how are amd CF setups maintaining approx. the same average framerate with the prototype drivers after getting rid of what looks to be over 90% of the runt frames? They just doubled what tom's calls the "practical framerate" in one driver update, simply as that.

As Fx1 said, the runt frames are still fully rendered, they just are getting stomped out by a following frame from the other card. They also are defining a runt frame as a frame that is 20 rows high. It didn't take much to make a frame larger than that, and it only takes a few small adjustments to do so. That said, there is still fairly high frame variance, but it is improving. That is why it is a prototype, there is still time to work on it.

 

[bystander36]

Stop reading Tomshardware. Biggest joke of a site

They had the most complete review of the 7990. Not only did they use FCAT, Fraps, and frame variance charts, they included testing by live gamers. No other site can clam to have included the live gamer test and only a few tested the FCAT results.

Or are you only upset with them because they didn't like the 7990?

 

[wand3r3r]

I really want to see if these can be significantly undervolted.

If the reference 7950s are at 1.25v (and some undervolt to around 1-1.05v) and binned chips are at 1.2 then I'm curious if these can be way undervolted.

 

[blackened23]

U jelly? Use Nvidia and play games now, use AMD and play games after several months.

"U Jelly?"?? How old are you?

I don't have a problem with your message about the 7990, in fact I agree that it is not equal to the 690 or Titan. but your delivery method is over the top and has been for some time - you can certainly make a compelling argument without hurling insults and calling everyone a lunatic. Now, on top of this, you bring piracy into it.

Now you're truly being a class act. Picture of a pirated game. I surely hope this kind of nonsense isn't allowed on this forum - I've mentioned this elsewhere but there are various developers that frequent forums such as this and openly posting about piracy isn't allowed at other forums because of this, it is disrespectful. Keep it to yourself if you pirate. I only have one word for people who pirate games: scum.

 

[cmdrdredd]

"U Jelly?"?? How old are you?

I don't have a problem with your message about the 7990, in fact I agree that it is not equal to the 690 or Titan. but your delivery method is over the top and has been for some time - you can certainly make a compelling argument without hurling insults and calling everyone a lunatic. Now, on top of this, you bring piracy into it.

Now you're truly being a class act. Picture of a pirated game. I surely hope this kind of nonsense isn't allowed on this forum - I've mentioned this elsewhere but there are various developers that frequent forums such as this and openly posting about piracy isn't allowed at other forums because of this, it is disrespectful. Keep it to yourself if you pirate. I only have one word for people who pirate games: scum.

It's off topic but I agree. I respect the developer, any developer for their time and effort to make a game they think that someone might enjoy. They are proud of their products and deserve to be paid if someone enjoys and plays their game. You don't have to like every game, and I frequently call a lot of developers trash. I do however, understand that they spend a lot of time and money and lose a lot of sleep and family time to make a game that they hope someone will like playing. I can respect that, even if I don't like their ideas or how they do business.

 

[Jaydip]

It's off topic but I agree. I respect the developer, any developer for their time and effort to make a game they think that someone might enjoy. They are proud of their products and deserve to be paid if someone enjoys and plays their game. You don't have to like every game, and I frequently call a lot of developers trash. I do however, understand that they spend a lot of time and money and lose a lot of sleep and family time to make a game that they hope someone will like playing. I can respect that, even if I don't like their ideas or how they do business.

Both blackened23 and cmdrdredd Amen to that

 

[smeg1161]

Not impressed at all by this.

Its just two 7970's glued to one PCB, which in its self is fine, but they already exist, and for less money!

AMD had an opportunity here to make something different and new, Fail!

Where is your imagination, AMD?

 

[Silverforce11]

If it was $800, it would be great, as its essentially 2x 7970 with much less power use and it runs cool and quiet. I could see a case for it then.

But compare 690 vs SLI 670/680.. same deal. Overpriced. The story of this gen.

 

[Will Robinson]

For $750 it would have been a hot shot card to get.:awe:
At $999.....meh. :hmm:
I think I'd rather have a Titan.

 

[crashtech]

Well don't go overboard on being hard on this new offering. The cheapest 7970s are $399, and it's not too much to expect to pay a premium for the binned, cool running chips. I don't think $899 would be out of line at all. Once the driver issues are sorted I can see guys having a blast running 2 of these in Quadfire. I'd love to see benchmarks from such a setup, with the beta driver of course.

 

[BoFox]

I apologize to BoFox in name of AMD for releasing this card.


3dcenter 7990 launch analysis
(in which Anandtech is featured with prevailing statistical weight )

Hey, what for??? I actually predicted that AMD would finally release official HD 7990.

AMD just needed to do something every once in a while, rather than nothing at all.

I think the $999 price tag is because AMD has indeed been selling Tahiti GPUs well enough thanks to the BTC miners snatching them up (and due to the scarcity of cherry-picked chips that can meet the criteria for ultra-low power consumption in trying to come as close as possible to the unmatchable GTX 690). I could see that several of the good brands on Newegg have been sold out fairly quickly, only to come back in stock for a short time and then sold out again. AMD has been moving these cards very well for now.

With the 7990s being a paper launch for now, it seems that it was a last minute decision finally set in motion (after long months of indecision). The golden Tahiti chips were probably used for premium 7970GE's up until recently, when AMD should have been cherry-picking the "extreme Golden" chips all along so that AMD could have been ready to sell a decent quantity right now without it being a paper launch.

As to the runt frames and microstuttering issues, all I can say is that it's finally time for these issues to go the way of the dodo, or the crapper - with the runt being exposed for what it is now. For centuries before the last one, we have been content with eating heavily salted and peppered beef stored without refrigeration - after removing the maggots from it - as a treat. Now, we do not even touch the thing with a 10-foot pole (actually, we do, when feeding it to the dogs). Wonderful times ahead, finally - with respect to quality multi-GPU gaming, thanks to the evolving intelligence of the mass mind-set! :thumbsup:

 

[jackstar7]

Agree with all those saying $800 or less for this card would actually get sales. Perhaps they'll try some aggressive rebates or something after seeing how the PR shakes out from all these reviews.

If I could get one for a reasonable cost and sell one of my 7970s to offset, then I'd gladly go tri-fire and bank on their driver optimizations to suit my needs.

 

[blastingcap]

Well don't go overboard on being hard on this new offering. The cheapest 7970s are $399, and it's not too much to expect to pay a premium for the binned, cool running chips. I don't think $899 would be out of line at all. Once the driver issues are sorted I can see guys having a blast running 2 of these in Quadfire. I'd love to see benchmarks from such a setup, with the beta driver of course.

Quadfire scales horribly, diminishing returns.

Cheapest 7970s are lower than $399. Get in on a sale. And further 7970 Xfire is FASTER THAN THIS 7990. Look at performance charts. This thing is more like 7950 Xfire, just oc the Xfire pair and it's possibly faster than the 7990.

No evidence of super high bins or anything from what I have seen.

 

[crashtech]

Quadfire scales horribly, diminishing returns.

Cheapest 7970s are lower than $399. Get in on a sale. And further 7970 Xfire is FASTER THAN THIS 7990. Look at performance charts. This thing is more like 7950 Xfire, just oc the Xfire pair and it's possibly faster than the 7990.

No evidence of super high bins or anything from what I have seen.

Might be interesting to see if the driver improvements also improve scaling. Part of the price premium is heat reduction, the binned chips were chosen for their ability to stay under a certain power consumption, not necessarily speed. But if someone is able to expose overclocking abilities via a modded BIOS etc., we might see some interesting performance numbers. Running cooler than the average chip bodes well for OCing ability, yes?

 

[Will Robinson]

Quadfire scales horribly, diminishing returns.

Cheapest 7970s are lower than $399. Get in on a sale. And further 7970 Xfire is FASTER THAN THIS 7990. Look at performance charts. This thing is more like 7950 Xfire, just oc the Xfire pair and it's possibly faster than the 7990.

No evidence of super high bins or anything from what I have seen.

I would have thought not having the production costs of 2x PCBs and duplication of all the compute hardware would have made a dual GPU card much cheaper to produce than 2 separate cards...and therefore "doable" at around $750?