Radeon HD 7000:  HD 7790 |  HD 7850 |  HD 7870 |  HD 7870 XT |  HD 7950 |  HD 7970 |  HD 7990 |  Radeon HD 8000:  HD 8750 |  HD 8770 |  HD 8850 |  HD 8870 |  HD 8950 |  HD 8970 |  HD 8990 
GeForce 600:  GTX 650 Ti Boost  |  GTX 660  |  GTX 660 Ti  |  GTX 670  |  GTX 680 |  GTX 690 |  Titan: GTX TITAN |  GeForce 700:  GTX 760  |  GTX 760 Ti  |  GTX 770  |  GTX 780 |  GTX 790 

June 15th, 2012

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Featuring 1.1 GHz Clock

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Featuring 1.1 GHz Clock radeon 7970 ghz
A new iteration of Tahiti XT chip, called XT2, will be powering the upcoming Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. Card, that is eagerly awaited by true AMD fans, will be released in near future.

According to OCAholic, the new Radeon HD 7970, which is also known as GHz Edition, will be featuring a 175 MHz higher clock than original (1100 MHz). This was possible thanks to better cooperation of AMD and TSMC, to produce more refined Tahiti XT2 chips. While this new silicon is being prepared (production starts next week), there are some leaks regarding it’s performance.

As we all know that it was designed to compete with GeForce GTX 680 cards, and it will. Actually even a clock of 1070 MHz is making HD 7970 comparable to NVIDIA’s solution. Additional 30 MHz of factory-overclocking will give it even more speed. While it’s hard to tell whether HD 7970 GE will be faster in every game, it will surely be a worth consideration. You will probably ask yourself, how is this card any better than already released GeForce GTX 680. Well, it will all come to two important aspects – power consumption and the price. Radeon HD 7970 is known for high TDP, noticeably higher than NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture. What is more, under some serious overclocking TDP rises dramatically. The only hope for this product is to release it with a TDP similar to 925 MHz version. It all appears that AMD did just that.

The source also mentions that AMD has included some improvements to the default voltage of this model, lowering it to 1.02 V, which is 0.15 less than original card. This indicates that new HD 7970 GHz Edition will be offering a better performance with similar TDP. Previously released information suggested that this model will consume ~10 Watts  more than original — that’s a very small price for almost 200 MHz more. And yes, the real price. This will probably depend on AMD’s AIB partners. But if they decide to increase its the price over GTX 680′s, then the upcoming HD 7970 GHz Edition, may not find many owners.

TSMC will start the production of new Tahiti XT2 chips next week, so we may expect new Radeons in July. Stay tuned for more information.

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Featuring 1.1 GHz Clock radeon 7970 ghz
This chart was based on comprehensive review from HT4U.

  • francmic

    Is this gonna make a gtx670 vs old 7970 vs 7950v2 market? I’d love for this revision to bring down the current 7970 to 400$.

  • Jerome

    Its too bad for gamers that AMD using GNC is very compute focused architecture, if the 7970 would have been a pure gaming card like the Nvidia 600 series it would have been miles better than the GTX 680.

  • fomoz

    I love the scale on that chart.

  • BestJinjo

    That’s probably true. However, right now we can bitcoin mine and make some $ back to cover the cost of HD7900 series. Also, if HD7970 was 20-25% faster than GK104, you can be sure that NV would have launched a much larger Kepler chip. GK104 is just 294mm^2. Overall, HD7970 Ghz Edition will probably surpass GTX680 slightly and that’s impressive for AMD since HD4870/4890/5870/6970 all trailed GTX280/285/480/580 by 10-20% depending on the generation. AMD has caught up to NV in single-GPU performance and as a result is now able to sustain higher profits by selling their GPUs at higher prices. It’s not great for us consumers but since AMD has been losing $ in their graphics card division for years, this is a nice turn around for them.

    At 1320mhz, HD7970 is going to be almost 2x faster than HD6970, which is a huge performance increase. Hopefully this XT2 chip will actually overclock beyond 1.3ghz!

  • BestJinjo

    AMD is going to have to do something. Right now a $400 Gigabyte Windforce GTX670 beats a stock HD7970 for $400, while consuming less power and using a quieter fan.

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GeForce_GTX_670_Windforce/28.html

  • http://videocardz.com/ VideoCardz.com

    Fixed :)

  • francmic

    The 670 windforce is def a real player. Gonna be my backup for my itx build if none of these dual gpu cards can put up.

  • vigilantcitizen.com

    oh boy cannot wait:
    Good games are coming out: spec ops the line,hitman absolution,far cry3,moh,watch dogs,crysis3.

  • Altechi

    Now just waiting for price….

  • gathel

    everything just B.S from AMD, like garbage

  • BestJinjo

    Spec Ops is a console port. It can easily be maxed out on an HD6970/GTX570.

    http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/spec-ops-the-line-demo-test-gpu.html

    The other games you listed are not launching until the fall and Watch Dogs and Crysis 3 not until 2013.

    Far Cry 3: Sept 4, 2012

    MOH Warfighter: October 23, 2012
    Hitman Absolution: Nov 20, 2012
    Watch Dogs: Dec 31, 2012 (but most likely will be delayed to 2013)
    Crysis 3: Feb 28, 2013

    By the time these games are released, it’ll be awfully close to HD8000 series. If you waited this long to upgrade, I am not sure I’d drop $500 on an almost 1 year old GPU for these games, unless we get more info that HD8000 series gets delayed past Q1 2013. Also Far Cry 3 looks like a console port as well. It shouldn’t be too GPU demanding.

  • BestJinjo

    Why is it garbage? HD7970 @ 1100mhz will beat a GTX680, while retaining strong double precision compute capability. This is actually embarrassing for NV since for the first time since GeForce 8, AMD will have a more well-rounded GPU, and still have 3GB of VRAM for heavy mods for games such as SKYRIM and GTA V. Perhaps this will force NV to launch GTX670/680 cards with factory unlocked BIOS that allows voltage control. Voltage modded 680s get above 1.4ghz on air.

  • Jerome

    Yeah definitely the 7970 is the most well rounded card out right now

  • Peter

    The Gtx 680 is about 10-15% faster than the 7970. Even faster width new drivers.

    What Since Geforce 8 series? Diden`t Ati have an better gpu than the 400 series?

  • BestJinjo

    Yes, GTX680 is faster against a stock 7970. However, with 1100mhz clocks, that’s an 19% overclock.

    Also, your 10-15% estimate seems too high. GTX670/680 do particularly well in Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2 but overall it’s more like 9-10% at 1080P/1200P, really the only reasonable resolution for 1 of these cards to play games at 50-60 fps.

    Computerbase has GTX680 beating a 925mhz HD7970 by 9% at 1080P and they are tied at 2560×1600 (but I think for that rez, you’d want 2 of such cards or 2x GTX670/HD7950s):
    http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-670/4/

    Techpowerup has GTX680 beating a 925mhz HD7970 by 7% at 1920×1200 and by 2% at 2560×1600:
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GeForce_GTX_670_Windforce/28.html

    So I think it’s reasonable to expect an 1100mhz HD7970 to beat a stock 680 but be more or less similar to factory pre-overclocked 680s.

    Also, regarding your second comment, GTX470/480 were faster than HD5850/5870 but cost more, ran hotter. AMD provided better bang for the buck, while NV ultimately provided more performance that generation (especially now when HD5850/5870 tank in tessellation scenarios such as Batman AC, Crysis 2). AMD won in price/performance with 4870/4890/5850/5870/6950/6970 but it didn’t have a faster single-GPU card since X1900XTX / X1950XTX series, which is like 6 years ago…..

  • Faris

    Even if the Gtx 680 is 10-15% faster (Which is not accurate) the 7970 is 40-50% faster in compute application.
    If you use your PC strictly for gaming then the GTX 680 is the card to get, otherwise the 7970 is a no brainer.
    AMD GPU architecture seems much more superior than Nvidia this time around in my opinion, my only complaint about the 7970 is the power consumption.

  • Peter

    Here you can see that the 680 is 11% faster than the 7970. And Even faster width new drivers.
    http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/15196-geforce-gtx-680-kepler-samt-sli/18#pagehead

    (I go after 1080P)

    According to the pic above the Ghz Edition is 12 % faster than 7970. If Gtx 680 is 11% faster than the 7970 + additional drivers for the 680. They will look about the same. My guess is that the 680 will perform 1-2% better than the 7970Ghz .

  • BestJinjo

    Ya that makes sense. However, at equal performance level, I would take the HD7970:

    - Bitcoin mining on the side (if electricity costs where you live is not too expensive)
    - 3GB of VRAM may not be that beneficial right now, but why not for the same price? Perhaps it’ll come in handy with GTA V mods
    - The XT2 chip may overclock better than 1200-1250mhz of the current version. I personally doubt it’ll overclock much better but it’s a possibility.
    - Either way, I agree with you that the performance between 680 and the variants of 7970 is splitting hairs.

    Still, this generation is missing the 8800GT/GTX460 style $200-250 sweet spot GPU. If only HD7950 dropped to $275-300, we’d have a new sweet spot card for people who don’t want to spend $400-500 on GPUs!

  • BestJinjo

    Oh snap! Just stumbled on this:

    “The Sea Islands series GPUs have already entered tape-out and should start manufacturing at the end of 2012 and will be announced in the first quarter of 2013.”

    http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120615PD210.html?mod=2

    Q1 2013 for HD8000 series. Who cares about a $500 XT2 at this point then with next gen less than 9 months away!

  • Peter

    Agree.