Is the 7990 still worth?

HeptTech · Aug 19, 2014

Hi,
I've seen the prices of these monstrous cards go wayyy down. I can buy one around $450. But my question is, is this card still viable in today's games? Or is the architecture of the gpu old an not worth it anymore. I've looked up benchmarks and this cards destroys most games that support crossfire. Does this card have the same CF problems like the actually cross-firing two cards? When I saw the benchmarks I was amazed and very curious on buying one.
I'm also gaming on a intel rig.
Does this gpu support games like League of Legends ans WoW?

prit87 · Aug 19, 2014

HeptTech :

yes its still a monster......

Gaidax · Aug 19, 2014

It is basically 280X Crossfired on a single PCB, so yes it's still very good and it can easily crush any alternative setup you can get until like $800 mark where you can land crossfired 290s to beat it and it will beat ANY single GPU card currently on the market as well including 780Ti overclocked.

The downside, of course, is reliance on crossfire (not always works and has a tendency to not work with new titles in the first month) and power consumption/noise.

As for WoW - I used to run 6990 in WoW just perfectly - it supports Crossfire flawlessly so I expect it to be great with 7990 too, since it's the same idea really.

As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure it will beat (or at least be on par) any single GPU card that will come out in 2015 as well.

ingtar33 · Aug 19, 2014

HeptTech :

Yes

HeptTech :

the r9-280x/hd7970 (which is the chip used on that dual gpu card) is roughly comparable to a GTX770, it's still quite relevant and powerful

HeptTech :

Yep it does

HeptTech :

Yes, of course

17seconds · Aug 19, 2014

The 7990 was discontinued after three months on the market for a reason.

Quote from Tom's Hardware review of the 7990 "The Red Wedding of Graphics":
"When it launched, a generous eight-game bundle had me on the fence about the 7990’s prospects. But after spending time evaluating its thermals and acoustics (to say nothing about its crashes and performance hiccups in CrossFire, which could become a story unto itself), I can’t think of one reason to recommend 7990 to a friend. And, at the end of the day, that’s what this job is all about.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-crossfire-overheat,3539-3.html

TechPowerUp's conclusion from their 7990 review:
"However, we've also seen many games that do not scale well, and they make up a significant portion of our tests. Out of eighteen titles, five did not scale, or worse, showed negative scaling. These are not small titles, but big AAA games: Assassin's Creed 3, Batman: Arkham City, F1 2012, StarCraft II, Skyrim, and World of Warcraft. What really surprises me is that this long list is the same as the one we had with our reviews of HD 7990 "New Zealand" implementations by board partners, like the ASUS ROG ARES II and PowerColor Devil 13. So either AMD does not care or can't fix CrossFire support with these games millions of people play."

"What is a major issue, though, is the extremely annoying coil whine the card emits as soon as it runs a 3D application. The whine is generated by resonating power circuitry coils and is a problem that can be resolved; it's just an engineering challenge. NVIDIA did so for the GTX 690 and GTX Titan; both cards don't have such coil whine issues. On the HD 7990, however, it is very apparent, and I don't understand how AMD missed such a glaring problem. I talked to five other reviewers and they all confirm it, so it's not an isolated issue. What makes the whine even more apparent is that it is constantly changing pitch and volume, drawing your attention to it by effectively overpowering the fans' "whoosh" sound."
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7990/31.html

HeptTech · Aug 19, 2014

17seconds :

The 7990 was discontinued after three months on the market for a reason.

Quote from Tom's Hardware review of the 7990 "The Red Wedding of Graphics":
"When it launched, a generous eight-game bundle had me on the fence about the 7990’s prospects. But after spending time evaluating its thermals and acoustics (to say nothing about its crashes and performance hiccups in CrossFire, which could become a story unto itself), I can’t think of one reason to recommend 7990 to a friend. And, at the end of the day, that’s what this job is all about.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-crossfire-overheat,3539-3.html

TechPowerUp's conclusion from their 7990 review:
"However, we've also seen many games that do not scale well, and they make up a significant portion of our tests. Out of eighteen titles, five did not scale, or worse, showed negative scaling. These are not small titles, but big AAA games: Assassin's Creed 3, Batman: Arkham City, F1 2012, StarCraft II, Skyrim, and World of Warcraft. What really surprises me is that this long list is the same as the one we had with our reviews of HD 7990 "New Zealand" implementations by board partners, like the ASUS ROG ARES II and PowerColor Devil 13. So either AMD does not care or can't fix CrossFire support with these games millions of people play."

"What is a major issue, though, is the extremely annoying coil whine the card emits as soon as it runs a 3D application. The whine is generated by resonating power circuitry coils and is a problem that can be resolved; it's just an engineering challenge. NVIDIA did so for the GTX 690 and GTX Titan; both cards don't have such coil whine issues. On the HD 7990, however, it is very apparent, and I don't understand how AMD missed such a glaring problem. I talked to five other reviewers and they all confirm it, so it's not an isolated issue. What makes the whine even more apparent is that it is constantly changing pitch and volume, drawing your attention to it by effectively overpowering the fans' "whoosh" sound."
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7990/31.html

Well that's not very pleasing...

It looked like it would have been an amazing card to have. So in the end, was it AMD's drivers that caused most of the issues or the the hardware itself?

17seconds · Aug 19, 2014

HeptTech :

Both, but if you're still wanting a similar, yet improved experience, a pair of 280X's will be just as fast, but without the coil whine (hopefully). A pair of cards can manage heat better than a single dual GPU card as well. They will have the exact same Crossfire issues, as will any Crossfire setup. The main issues will be drivers, game compatibility, and frame pacing problems, which still haven't been fixed for DirectX 9 (Skyrim) and OpenGL games.

Honestly, the call for anyone looking to drop $400-$500 right now is to wait to see what happens when Nvidia releases the GTX 880 in a few weeks. It might be the card to get, and/or it will push down the prices of other cards in this current generation.

HeptTech · Aug 19, 2014

17seconds :

HeptTech :

Both, but if you're still wanting a similar, yet improved experience, a pair of 280X's will be just as fast, but without the coil whine (hopefully). A pair of cards can manage heat better than a single dual GPU card as well. They will have the exact same Crossfire issues, as will any Crossfire setup. The main issues will be drivers, game compatibility, and frame pacing problems, which still haven't been fixed for DirectX 9 (Skyrim) and OpenGL games.

Honestly, the call for anyone looking to drop $400-$500 right now is to wait to see what happens when Nvidia releases the GTX 880 in a few weeks. It might be the card to get, and/or it will push down the prices of other cards in this current generation.

Yea, the GTX 880 seems promising. The Sapphire Vapor-X r9 290 has caught my attention. For 1080p gaming, I've read that its overkill before the overclocking. Also, with 1080p gaming and overclocking, would you prefer a gtx 780 or r9 290?

17seconds · Aug 20, 2014

HeptTech :

I personally prefer the GTX 780 for several reasons:

- Better reliability
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Failure-Rates-by-Generation-563/
- Better drivers with better support for new games
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/04/2012_amd_nvidia_driver_performance_summary_review/#.U_Q4vJUg-Uk
- Exclusive graphics settings and technology: PhysX, Adaptive VSync, TXAA, FXAA, HBAO+, Transparency Supersampling, etc.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/04/16/nvidia_adaptive_vsync_technology_review/#.U_Q4d5Ug-Uk
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/hbao-plus/technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6a4MbYAPFU
- Quieter noise levels, even the reference GTX 780 is quieter than a custom cooled high-end 290.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_290_Vapor-X/24.html

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Is the 7990 still worth?

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