AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

A place to give your thoughts on our reviews!
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Apoptosis »

AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

AMD has officially launched the Radeon HD 7000 series of graphics cards with the introduction of the companies new flagship single GPU graphics card, the AMD Radeon HD 7970. We put the AMD Radeon HD 7970 to the test on with an Intel Core i7-3960X on the Intel X79 platform with PCI Express 3.0 enabled to see how this card performs. We also overclock it as far as we could to see what the Radeon HD 7970 can do!

Image
As good as the performance is with the stock clock speeds of 925 MHz core and 1375 MHz memory the true beauty of the Radeon HD 7970 was found when it was overclocked. We were able to push the card all the way up to 1165MHz core and 1625 MHz, which increased the performance of the card by over 20% in the benchmarks. With the Radeon HD 7970 overclocked to the max it was able to compete with the AMD Radeon HD 6990 OC and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590. It's nice to see the flagship single GPU card of the current generation flirting with the dual-GPU behemoths! ...
Article Title: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1805/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $549.99 SRP
Find us on Facebook to discover the faces behind the names!
Follow Me on Twitter!
User avatar
ratNukit
Legit Fanatic
Legit Fanatic
Posts: 240
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:38 am
Location: Hamburg - Germany

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by ratNukit »

Awesome, gonna get one :)
Image
Sttm
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 383
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:31 pm
Location: San Jose CA

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Sttm »

Great review! So it looks like depending on overclocking, the 7970 was between 15-35% faster then a 580 while consuming significantly less power. An all around win,

except I keep thinking of that slide you guys have up on the front page, possibly a fake I know, but still 80-120% for Nvidia's 580 replacement compared to 15-35%. What If?
Core i7 2600k/ ASUS P8Z68-V Z68/ 8gb Corsair Vengeance 1600 Blue/ EVGA Geforce GTX 560ti Maximum Graphics Edition/Windows 7/Antec 300/Antec 650w/LG Blu Combo/Hp 27inch 2710M/Samsung P2770HD

"I think sharing is overrated...and helping others. And what's all this crap I've been hearing about tolerance?"
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Apoptosis »

Sttm wrote:Great review! So it looks like depending on overclocking, the 7970 was between 15-35% faster then a 580 while consuming significantly less power. An all around win,

except I keep thinking of that slide you guys have up on the front page, possibly a fake I know, but still 80-120% for Nvidia's 580 replacement compared to 15-35%. What If?
I agree with you... Is this enough to keep AMD in the lead after NVIDIA's next GPU launch? I honestly have no clue and I'm guessing that slide is fake too. NVIDIA said their next launch is in the first half of 2012, but I am guessing it will be later rather than sooner.
Find us on Facebook to discover the faces behind the names!
Follow Me on Twitter!
rigburning
Legit Little One
Legit Little One
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 8:19 am

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by rigburning »

Hi guys, great review

Maybe you could make a photo of the test system with a new Radeon instead of Classified video card...
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Apoptosis »

rigburning wrote:Hi guys, great review

Maybe you could make a photo of the test system with a new Radeon instead of Classified video card...
Thanks for the kind words and just for you:

Image
Image
Find us on Facebook to discover the faces behind the names!
Follow Me on Twitter!
User avatar
Major_A
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 3793
Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 2:11 pm
Location: Houston, TX

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Major_A »

I like the power state feature. I have my monitor set to turn off after 3 minutes. Now if we could figure out how to get the rest of system to cool down. The room my main computer is in runs on average 5 degrees (F) hotter than the rest of the house.

Sorry but I can't resist. Are we sure AMD got the transistor count right?
http://www.legitreviews.com/news/11977/
:P
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Apoptosis »

Major_A wrote:I like the power state feature. I have my monitor set to turn off after 3 minutes. Now if we could figure out how to get the rest of system to cool down. The room my main computer is in runs on average 5 degrees (F) hotter than the rest of the house.

Sorry but I can't resist. Are we sure AMD got the transistor count right?
http://www.legitreviews.com/news/11977/
:P
You saw in the review that I put +/- 800 million transistors right?
Find us on Facebook to discover the faces behind the names!
Follow Me on Twitter!
User avatar
Major_A
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 3793
Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 2:11 pm
Location: Houston, TX

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Major_A »

LOL, I missed that part. Good one though.
jnanster
Legit Fanatic
Legit Fanatic
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:09 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by jnanster »

Thanks for the great review Apo, hot card!.
I second the preference for the “ single GPU solutions.”
At only $30 more than the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win, it’s a steal.
My GTX 295 has always been a bit of a PITA and it appears the dual GPU dilemma only continues.
It took’um years (YEARS!) to get a stable driver for Fallout 3 (the GTX 295 every 20 second shutter)! :evil:
It’s pathetic they can’t get the drivers to work, but so it goes. Never again.
My next system will have a single GPU system.
ga-z77-dh3 (great & cheap O/C'er from Gigabyte)
i2600k/16 gigs Kingson 1600 (OC'ed to 4.5Ghz)
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 + (lapped, smok'in deal, 38C idle, 65C loaded)
MSI GTX 660ti Power Edition
Antec 900 case (quiet)
User avatar
eunoia
Legit Aficionado
Legit Aficionado
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:29 pm

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by eunoia »

It's exciting news, looking forward to 2012. High hopes for the 7950.

Transistor counts? We don't need no stinkin' transistor counts! :D
No one would talk much in society, if he knew how often he misunderstands others. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)
User avatar
pwcmed
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 564
Joined: Fri May 02, 2008 2:03 pm

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by pwcmed »

Now if the can only work on that price. Lower it to $400-450 and they things will fly off the shelf.
User avatar
hark
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 362
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 3:02 am

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by hark »

The greater compute abilities are very exciting. I'm looking forward to all the interesting applications that developers can create with more flexible GPUs. Discrete digital multi-point audio also sounds amazing, though I only use a single monitor. The lack of a backplate has me scratching my head, but if I spring for an HD 7970, I'll likely go with a non-reference card. I love the cooling improvements, even if they do mean a bigger card and removed second DVI port. When I got to the performance sections, it seemed a little disappointing, but at the power consumption section, the difference is staggering. Hopefully better drivers will make up for the performance, but yeah, that power consumption is excellent. ZeroCore Power is especially awesome as there are periods of time where I keep my computer on but the monitor shuts off after 10 minutes, so the GPU is needlessly taking up power. I'd likely see a significant power bill savings with this card. The overclocking potential sounds very delicious and with the overclock the performance looks even better.

I don't tend to spend a lot on upgrades, but this card is tempting, especially with how it compares to similarly-priced cards.
CoachAub
Legit Aficionado
Legit Aficionado
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:15 am

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by CoachAub »

Great review on an awesome card! I was chomping at the bit for a review of this new GPU series!!! I hate to say anything negative since it is clearly a winner, but I'm disappointed that PCIE 3.0 didn't make a difference. Maybe Catalyst tweaks can help later? I don't know. I figure NVIDIA will release later rather than sooner, especially if they can figure out how to take advantage of the PCIE 3.0 and jump ahead. The battles between these 2 manufacturers is great since we users make out in the end.
_______________________________________________________
Rig#1: Intel i5-3570K, MSI-B75MA-P45 mobo, G-Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 2x4gb, MSI-7870 2gd5t/oc gpu, Tt TR2-600w psu, Tt Commander Snow ed. Case, Cooler Master Hyper212+ HSF, OCZ Agility3 SSD 120GB, WE Caviar Black 750GB
Rig#2: AMD Phenom 2-970, MSI-890FXA-GD-65 mobo, 6GB Geil DDR3-1333, HIS Radeon HD6870 1GB gpu, Antec Quattro-850 psu, Rosewill Conqueror Case, Zalman CNPS-9500 hsf, 1TB Toshiba Sata3 HD
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Apoptosis »

CoachAub wrote:Great review on an awesome card! I was chomping at the bit for a review of this new GPU series!!! I hate to say anything negative since it is clearly a winner, but I'm disappointed that PCIE 3.0 didn't make a difference. Maybe Catalyst tweaks can help later? I don't know. I figure NVIDIA will release later rather than sooner, especially if they can figure out how to take advantage of the PCIE 3.0 and jump ahead. The battles between these 2 manufacturers is great since we users make out in the end.

I was told that PCIe 3.0 will become noticeable when running a ton of monitors or even a 4k monitor off one card... Sadly, I don't have a 4k monitor for LR. For all of us running 1920x1080 monitors it doesn't mean anything from what I can tell. I benchmarked all the games in this review in Gen 2 and Gen 3 mode on the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe motherboard and didn't notice a significant difference in anything.
4k-gaming.jpg
4k-gaming.jpg (114.59 KiB) Viewed 11103 times
4k-gaming2.jpg
4k-gaming3.jpg
4k-gaming3.jpg (78.99 KiB) Viewed 11103 times
Find us on Facebook to discover the faces behind the names!
Follow Me on Twitter!
User avatar
sbohdan
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2005 9:33 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by sbohdan »

I have a question:

I've been using the CUDA in converting my cam recordings since the days of 8800 series Nvidia with software that takes advantage of CUDA (mainly TMPGEnc). How is the new radeon doing with those kind of tasks?
Main rig: NZXT Phantom modded case with Danger Den WC, Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite, Ryzen 5800X @ stock, 32GB Patriot Viper DDR4 3200Mhz 16-18-18-36-1T, AMD RX 5700XT + AlphaCool WC, ACER Nitro XV2 27", SP 1TB nvme PCiE GEN3, Samsung 2TB; Cooler Master MW Gold 650W, Win10 Pro 64
my complete GFX tuneup & cooling mod: http://forums.legitreviews.com/viewtopi ... highlight=
neko77025
Legit User
Legit User
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 8:40 pm

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by neko77025 »

OMG ... Just wait till the MSI 7970 Lighthing comes out ... ... ...

10k 3dmark with one GPU ... thats what I see.
CoachAub
Legit Aficionado
Legit Aficionado
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:15 am

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by CoachAub »

RE: Cuda: I think the "Cuda" software is geared for Nvidia cards. However, other programs like Adobe use Cuda and they work on AMD cards. It may work, but I'm guessing not as well, not as bad as Physix on AMD though. I can't say for certain. Nvidia is opening up their CUDA compiler source code for other programmers to use now. (See T**'s Hardware article) If AMD catalyst engineers work with the CUDA structure, they may be able to release updates that will take advantage of it. Great question!
_______________________________________________________
Rig#1: Intel i5-3570K, MSI-B75MA-P45 mobo, G-Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 2x4gb, MSI-7870 2gd5t/oc gpu, Tt TR2-600w psu, Tt Commander Snow ed. Case, Cooler Master Hyper212+ HSF, OCZ Agility3 SSD 120GB, WE Caviar Black 750GB
Rig#2: AMD Phenom 2-970, MSI-890FXA-GD-65 mobo, 6GB Geil DDR3-1333, HIS Radeon HD6870 1GB gpu, Antec Quattro-850 psu, Rosewill Conqueror Case, Zalman CNPS-9500 hsf, 1TB Toshiba Sata3 HD
User avatar
Kaos Kid
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 958
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:31 am
Location: 40 clicks West of the Gateway

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Kaos Kid »

Xilosofts' HD converter software works with Radeon hardware acceleration, it loads up with my HD4200 onboard IGP graphics, you don't even need a descrete card, just a fairly recent Radeon chipset that enables it.
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm" :roll:
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Re: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card Review

Post by Apoptosis »

I'd love to get a GPGPU test for my reviews, but the last time I did video comparisons I couldn't compare times as the quality was different due to the algorithms.
Find us on Facebook to discover the faces behind the names!
Follow Me on Twitter!
Post Reply