7950 release today 1/31/2012

[DeltrusDisc]

Just watched the video... seems like the 7950 is the shy champion, of sorts. It is so close at stock to the 7970 at stock, then OC'd the 7950 peels ahead pretty clearly almost all over. Thoughts? Discuss the 7950 here, and how angry Drunkenvalley may be when he wakes up today! :P

[Fuzzykins]

Meh. That's how I tend to take all graphics cards. A heavily oc'd 6870 beats a stock 6950. A heavily oc'd 6950 beats a 6970 and so on. I know this isn't exactly how it works, but in very general terms, it blankets most of the graphics cards today.

[BicycleMafioso]

... Not that guy again -.-
I won't watch that video.

But yes, yes the HD7950 blows the HD7970 out of the water if you weigh in price, heat dissipation, power draw and it's enormous overclocking headroom (which to be fair, I haven't got a conclusive picture of the HD7970, but I expect it to be 25% worse than the HD7950)

In raw performance, the HD7970 is, of course, better. But the HD7950 is looking to be a scary, scary success. All hail the king.

[Fuzzykins]

I can't watch the video now, how much is it going to be? It'd be cool to go dual 7950's and an IvyBridge platform whenever IvyBridge gets released.

[DeltrusDisc]

I don't get you guys... TTL loves the Fractal Design cases to death, just like you two... yet you both bag on him. Whyyyy? D:

Either way, while I realize all graphics cards tend to do this, like tetris alluded to, the 7950 may very well be the new king... we'll know for sure when NVidia releases their new graphics cards.

[kidsafe]

$450 initially. Not amazing, not horrible considering it's generally faster than a $500 GTX 580.

Basically while Tahiti is faster and overclocks well, it's not a jump in performance like the HD 5870 was over the GTX 285. It's also not priced as well as the HD 6970 was vs the GTX 580. I did buy an HD 7970, but if Kepler ends up being a significantly better architecture, I won't hesitate to put it up for sale.

[BicycleMafioso]

I can't watch the video now, how much is it going to be? It'd be cool to go dual 7950's and an IvyBridge platform whenever IvyBridge gets released.

Less power-draw than two GTX 560 Ti's, less money than two GTX 580, yet more oomph, depending on the aftermarket cooler of choice, less noise and less heat as well. Not to mention that the card can be expected (in single GPU) to overclock at least 30-40%, where other GPUs have to be lucky to reach those numbers.

But like kidsafe said, it's not as revolutionary as the HD5870 was, which the GTX 480 barely could budge.
But it is likely the best we'll have for a time. And I donot take it for granted that Kepler will have a sure walk in the park here.

[sizzlinsauce]

So the card is finally out, people post your website links with reviews benchmarks etc etc.

so far i see its 1792 stream processers over the 2048 on the 7970. at a price average for the US($) of 479, over the average of $559 for the 7970, BUT im seeing newegg offering DIRT3 free with each 7950.

they both have 3gb of vram, but only 2 6 pin power instead of a 6pin + 8 pin.

heres elric's review of it.

The 7950 does get beat out by the GTX 580 3gb version(that retails around $550) but by a small margin. so the 7950 is $100 cheaper than the best GTX 580 but runs about close to the same.

[pizz]

This article here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/a...on-7950-review

and this one: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...mark,3123.html


doesn't seem to bad. Now it's up to ordering 2 in CrossFire

[muCephei]

According to the source I use the price average is $449 which I'd expect considering this is supposed to be targeting the GTX580.

My benchmarking site:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...o-arrives.html







There doesn't seem to be too much of a difference between it and the GTX 580, only a few frames, but hey, if you're going for the best bang for your buck it doesn't look too bad.

[DeltrusDisc]

Kind of made a thread on the subject already.... http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...waste-of-money

[Deleted]

I can't watch the video now, how much is it going to be? It'd be cool to go dual 7950's and an IvyBridge platform whenever IvyBridge gets released.

I'll see your dual 7950 and raise you a Quadfire 7950 Obviously Tetris wont watch it but I believe Deltrus will enjoy it.

[BicycleMafioso]

Threads merged.

(Also, they are to be less expensive than most GTX 580s in Sweden, but more expensive than the cheapest ones. Prices will fall fairly quickly)

[Drakoes]

It's a nice card and a non-reference design should be able to beat a non-reference contending GTX 580 without any problems.

That being said, I would still wait for NVIDIA's offering since they've been working very hard as well on their upcoming lineup. I'm using a GTX 580 myself atm, and the HD7970 does look like it is a nice upgrade, but I'm still more interested in seeing what NVIDIA have.

[sizzlinsauce]

I just got my entire new rig and my 7970 smokes my old 6950 :P definitly worth it.

[Rennadrel]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814125414

So getting one of those

[Deleted]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814125414

So getting one of those

I read the SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB performs really well, quiet and cool.

[Acquilae]

I just got my entire new rig and my 7970 smokes my old 6950 :P definitly worth it.

Yea I just bought the Sapphire 7970 for my new build and it's been flawless with maxing out Catalyst's OC settings(I'll see how much it changes if I decide to go with Crossfire).

Anyways back to the 7950...I have no idea why AMD went with $450 for the MSRP; at that price for a video card the target buyer is in the high-end range and would most likely end up leaning towards and buying a 7970 for $100 more. $375-$400 would be a much better price level since it will compete with the GTX 570 price bracket and steer nvidia to lower the 570 price in the process.

[Rennadrel]

Yea I just bought the Sapphire 7970 for my new build and it's been flawless with maxing out Catalyst's OC settings(I'll see how much it changes if I decide to go with Crossfire).

Anyways back to the 7950...I have no idea why AMD went with $450 for the MSRP; at that price for a video card the target buyer is in the high-end range and would most likely end up leaning towards and buying a 7970 for $100 more. $375-$400 would be a much better price level since it will compete with the GTX 570 price bracket and steer nvidia to lower the 570 price in the process.

Benchmarks are already proving that it's better or just as good as similarly priced cards from Nvidia like the GTX 580, even if it is targeted at high end gamers, the 7800 series is going to be targeted toward more of the mid range and lower end, so as to why they would market it at a lower price then that does not make sense to me. The 7900 series is their high end/flag ship range of cards, they obviously are going to market it at a higher price. It seems like that's a better strategic move on AMD's part, to compete with Nvidia in a higher price bracket with flag ship models but still maintain a very good mid range series of cards.

[zakayron]

Yea I just bought the Sapphire 7970 for my new build and it's been flawless with maxing out Catalyst's OC settings(I'll see how much it changes if I decide to go with Crossfire).

Anyways back to the 7950...I have no idea why AMD went with $450 for the MSRP; at that price for a video card the target buyer is in the high-end range and would most likely end up leaning towards and buying a 7970 for $100 more. $375-$400 would be a much better price level since it will compete with the GTX 570 price bracket and steer nvidia to lower the 570 price in the process.

The pricepoint is there because it is new. Also because it has 600/700 series competition because obviously those aren't out yet. Once 600/700 series starts to roll out the prices on AMD's new hotness will drop. At the moment, however, it is basically a 580 with the bandwidth of PCI-E 3.0, not that that matters, and so it is at a similar price point. For example Asus's 580 and 7950 are the same price before MIR.