7979 GPU "Ranking"

Thats as fast as it gets for single GPU cards, only thing faster is the Titan.

when it comes to single chip gpus, the strongest is Gtx Titan followed by the 7970ge

The 7970GHz competes in a segment, in that segment it has the best overall performance. Now these $1000 cards such as the GTX Titan are niche product, meaning its exclusive and definitely not worth the price but awesome to own if you can. The 690 and 7990 are a another story entirely.

So all that being said the 7970GHz is no slouch and I would not consider it a step down from anything.

Exactly. I wish the Titan created a new $700 segment of Ultra GPU's, but alas Nvidia has left the card to be an obscure luxury product...

you are aware that a cut down version of titan is going to be released right? at a lower cost

Put simply, yes. Though a 7950 offers better value for money, the 7970 Ghz is unquestionably the fastest of the sort of 'non stupid' cards.

TITAN vs GTX690 vs HD7970 GE vs GTX680 vs Asus GTX680 DC2T:

The Titan is still getting some driver tweaks, but all the benchmarks I analyzed shake out ROUGHLY (as in don't flame me) like this:

GTX690 vs Titan:
GTX690 scores higher (forget numbers) but the Titan has far less stutter. Many/most experts recommend the Titan.

HD7970 GHz:
Titan is about 25% faster.

GTX680:
Titan is about 33% faster:

Asus GTX680 DC2T:
Titan is about 25% faster.

So for roughly $500 you can get a graphics card that performs 80% as well as the Titan in most games (again, varies). Factor in the the three games for an HD7970 and you're comparing the card at $400 versus at Titan at ($1000, $1200?). So possibly 3x the cost for 25% better performance.

*These numbers should be within a few percent of accepted results but I don't have the links (and it varies between reviews due to driver updates and choice of games to benchmark).

If I had the money, AND could justify it to myself though, a 2xTITAN setup is really appealing; normally I don't recommend but so far the micro-stutter is minimal (though I'm not certain why). No, it's not a great "value" but it would play FC3 ($30 on sale at Steam) without stuttering and that's really, really important when spending $2000+ on graphics cards.

60FPS vs 60FPS:
It is interesting to note however, that the same system running a game that is at 60FPS (VSYNC'd) will run smoother if you upgrade the graphics card (say from a GTX670 to TITAN). Most people think that if you hit 60FPS and it's synched to the monitor that it's POINTLESS to have a better graphics card. NOPE.

The reason is a little confusing if you don't understand the basics. The dumbed-down version is that while the game may be updating certain elements at 60FPS, it's NOT updating all of them at 60FPS. Nor is the recorded "60FPS" usually comprised of individual frames of exactly the same time (frame times).

Long story short, it's ONLY pointless to upgrade the graphics card (and possibly CPU) if the game is creating ALL elements at 60FPS with individual frame times of 1/60 seconds each.

In other words, you can justify that expensive Titan to yourself even for games you already play at 60FPS.

I was jotting down the cards I knew were available. Last I googled the HD7990 it was a paper launch. I checked online stores today and couldn't find them (the closest I got was DISCONTINUED) so I didn't want to include the performance if it didn't exist.

There's also the CONS to consider (Crossfire micro-stuttering, NOISE).

So I'll just link this:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/52329-club3d-radeon-hd-7990-6gb/?page=9

Currently there is no "official" 7990 on the market, only what manufacturers like ASUS, Powercolour and HIS have managed to create on their own. There is no AMD designed 7990 on the market yet.
However, it will be happening soon. From the looks of it, it will outperform the manufacturer designed cards and be far more power efficient (the aftermarket 7990's were pulling something ridiculous like 500W under load).

Far as I know, reviewers are in the process of receiving and benching their 7990's, but they have to wait for the embargo to lift before they can publish their results. So for now, we have no idea how an "official" 7990 performs.

Yeah because micro-stutter does not exist on Nvidia based hardware.....

I recommend not getting the platinum unless you are willing to forego your warranty. Platinums can ONLY be overclocked by using asus' gpu tweak(unless bios moded) and gpu tweak isnt one of the best tools to OC with.