AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Review: Battling For The Performance Crown
by Ryan Smith on June 22, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- GCN
- Radeon HD 7000
Battlefield 3
Its popularity aside, Battlefield 3 may be the most interesting game in our benchmark suite for a single reason: it’s the first AAA DX10+ game. It’s been 5 years since the launch of the first DX10 GPUs, and 3 whole process node shrinks later we’re finally to the point where games are using DX10’s functionality as a baseline rather than an addition. Not surprisingly BF3 is one of the best looking games in our suite, but as with past Battlefield games that beauty comes with a high performance cost.
Battlefield 3 continues to be NVIDIA’s ace, but the 7970GE combined with some minor driver performance improvements AMD has eroded that lead some. At 2560 the GTX 680 enjoys a 11% lead over even the 7970GE and even the GTX 670 can overtake the 7970GE, but at the very least AMD is on the threshold of 60fps here. More optimistically they have improved their performance over the 7970 by 11%, which is an above average performance gain for the 7970GE. AMD will likely never close the gap on current hardware but it will be in their best interests to keep it narrow for future Frostbite Engine 2 games.
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clumsyalex - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
the first chart, the regular 7970 is priced higher than the ghz edition. the second chart shows it as lower howeverRyan Smith - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
Actually those are a list of launch prices up top. The 7970 launched at $550, which is indeed higher than the $500 launch price of the 7970GE.EnerJi - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
It's confusing and misleading. The first thing I thought when I saw it was that you had accidentally reversed the prices between the two models.Iketh - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
that certainly isn't what I thought... i understood what was being presented to meCeriseCogburn - Saturday, June 23, 2012 - link
I love how amd has a birthday for tahiti at 6 months....Why wait a year for a birthday when you're a lying sack of crap corporate monster rip off crummy drivers fan boy mass brainwash co ?
Heck, two birthdays a year !!! amd is so great, they get two birthdays a year !
silverblue - Monday, June 25, 2012 - link
People in the first few months of a relationship like to mention anniversaries a lot despite the (rather obvious) point that the word denotes a yearly period. "Milestone" would be more appropriate though it does sound less glamourous and perhaps a bit pessimistic (well, in the case of relationships, anyway). Might even seem cynical.Captmorgan09 - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
Just read the chart and it's not confusing... I did a double take the first time I glanced at it, but when I actually read it it made perfect sense. :)Ryan Smith - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
In case it's not clear, since we have a price comparison chart at the bottom, the purpose of the prices up top is to help describe the cards. The fact that the 7970GE is listed for $500 next to the $550 7970 for example is to make it clear that it's launching at a lower price than the 7970. It helps offer some perspective on capabilities and the market segment it's designed for.That said, we can always get rid of it if it's a problem.
QChronoD - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
Could I suggest adding when they launched on the line right above the prices? I can easily see how that is confusing, but also knowing how old each generation would be useful to see.Ryan Smith - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
Now that's an excellent idea!