AMD’s latest architecture together with TSMC manufacturing technology makes HD 7970 the best graphics card on the market, but it comes at a high price. The clock frequencies of the somewhat reduced version is out.
We have known about the hardware specifications of HD 7950 for a while, sans the frequencies. According to sources to Donanimhaber the new graphics card from AMD will be clocked at 800 MHz, and 1250 MHz (5 000 MHz effectively) on the memory. The clock frequency of the card is a bit below 900 MHz rumors mentinoed, but AMD probably decided to hold back a bit to make the difference between the cards bigger.
| Model | HD 7970 “Tahiti XT” | HD 7950 “Tahiti Pro” |
| Technology | 28nm | 28nm |
| Circuit size |
365mm² | 365mm² |
| GCN units |
32 | 28 |
| Radeon cores |
2048 | 1792 |
| GPU frequency |
925 MHz | 800 MHz |
| GFLOPS | 3789 | 2867 |
| Memory buffer |
3 GB GDDR5 | 3 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory bus |
384-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory frequency |
1375 MHz (5500 MHz effectively) |
1250 MHz (5000 MHz effectively) |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 |
| Texture units |
128 | 112 |
| Price | ~500€ | ~400€ |
According to the lucky few users that have managed to get a HD 7970, but also our own tests HD 7970 has a really high overclockingn potential. Most seem capable of 1100 MHz without higher voltage, and since HD 7950 is basically the same circuit, there should be the same room for overclocking.
The launch of Radeon HD 7950 was postponed for a hard launch after harsh critique from the media. The new date is January 31st, but we have still not heard from AMD. HD 7970 costs about 500€ and HD 7950 should cost about 100€ less.
