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
Starcraft II
Our next game is Starcraft II, Blizzard’s 2010 RTS megahit. Much like Portal 2 it’s a DX9 game designed to run on a wide range of hardware so performance is quite peppy with most high-end cards, but it can still challenge a GPU when it needs to.
Starcraft II has traditionally favored NVIDIA and neither driver improvements nor higher clockspeeds can change that. The 7970GE closes the gap, but it still leaves the GTX 680 ahead by 3% at 2560. This is however a solid improvement over the 7970, with the 7970GE having increased its performance by 9% over its predecessor. With the next edition of Starcraft II still technically due this year it will be interesting to see if performance shifts at all or whether NVIDIA maintains their lead.
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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!