Review of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

AMD released Radeon HD 7970 in December 2011, and for a moment, it held the title for the best graphics card. Regaining the No. 1 spot as the greatest single-GPU graphics card for gaming was Nvidia's GTX 680, which was released some months later.

The GTX 680, on the other hand, is a strange beast. While Nvidia has been reticent to give GPU compute performance, some have speculated that Nvidia deemphasized the compute performance to achieve gaming glory. Even though the current GTX 680 drivers do not support OpenCL 1.2, Nvidia's CUDA framework may still be used for GPU computation.

Using DirectCompute or OpenCL to integrate GPU computing capabilities into the game has proven to be a successful product approach. In the future, we'll have a look at these games. Let's look at the main distinctions between the old and new cards.

Is Overclocked Radeon HD 7970 Better Than GTX 680?

Six months have passed since the launch of the Radeon HD 7970. Nvidia's GeForce GTX 680 is now the fastest graphics card in the world after AMD claimed the single-GPU performance championship and developed a full line of graphics cards based on its powerful GCN architecture. For the film, I'm writing a script.

However, we've been curious about the company's pricing strategy along the road. AMD continued to sell the Radeon HD 7970 for $550 even after Nvidia released a faster, less costly card. Even though it dropped $70, the competitor came out with an even more affordable board that outperformed the 7970 in most games.

The System of Examination

This is where we ran all of our performance and power tests:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X, running at 3.3 GHz
• Asus P9X79 motherboard
• Intel RT2011 liquid-cooled CPU
• Corsair DDR-1600, 16GB (quad-channel)
• AX1200 power supply from Corsair
• Seagate 7200.12 1TB Hard Drive
• Asus Blu-ray Disc writer and reader
• The Corsair Graphite 600T case

Overclocking was not a factor in this case. An external USB power metre called Watts Up Pro was used. A 2560 x 1600 resolution and 4x multisampling antialiasing are used in all game testing.

WithDrawal of Power

Every aspect of AMD's reference card, from the fan to its display connections, is nearly similar to the Intel version's. As a result, the new HD 7970's idle power consumption is somewhat lower than the original, at 120W, but its full load power consumption is a monstrous 384 watts, which is 18 per cent more than the 324W maximum draw on the previous HD 7970.

When idle, the GTX consumes only 119W of electricity, but under load, it uses 318W. There are still two power ports on board—one 8-pin PCIe and one 6-pin—which is expected because this is the second generation of the HD 7970 GHz Edition.

Using a 1200W PSU, these are the system's power consumption ratings.

Depending on the cooling system, the card may be noisier due to this. If you're looking for quiet, the reference HD 7970 doesn't come close. Noise may be reduced with the correct case and cooling system.

The 3D Marks

Tessellation performance on Nvidia's GTX 680 is seen in the 3DMark 2011 result. It's the only test in which the GTX 680 had a clear edge. Using DirectX 10, 3DMark Vantage is a more competitive test.

Aspects of the Game's Performance

However, our games' performance matters, so let's look at how well they operate on each of the three GPUs. We'll start with older tests that don't require as much GPU computational power. A minor advantage for the original 7970 over the GTX 680 is seen in Crysis 2. The GHz Edition Radeon has widened the gap in the competition.

The original HD 7970 had a big lead over the GTX 680, but the GHz Edition 7970 pulls ahead.. and wins. Both Radeons in Metro 2033 have little difference. However, the GTX 680 lags in this game test compared to other games. The new GHz Edition 7970's faster memory, a larger memory bus, and higher core speeds provide DiRT 3 with a significant performance gain.

Compared to the GTX 680, the latest Radeon performs far better. Combined with the 384-bit memory interface, these two factors significantly impact. Here are a few more recent games that heavily use the GPU.

Summary

Consumers benefit greatly from increased competition. Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition will be available in the next several weeks for $499, $100 less than the original model and in the same price range as the GTX 680. The new Radeon beats the GTX 680 in terms of performance, although with a significant power penalty. In comparison to the GTX 680, the GTX 680 is quieter, uses less power, and takes up less space in your case. That might have an impact on your decision. With that said, AMD appears to have regained its title as the world's fastest single-GPU card.