A sample of AMD's next-generation Radeon HD 7970 landed in our lab just before Santa. Don't cross your fingers for one of these in your stocking, though. It's not available yet. Is it fast, though? Our benchmarks suggest yes, but more testing remains!
Leading into December, we didn’t really expect to see a next-generation graphics card in the 31 days before 2012. In fact, even mid-month, after we’d already been briefed, the plan was to launch in January. Windows 8 and its accompanying DirectX 11.1 API update aren’t expected for months still, and today’s high-end graphics cards are well-equipped to handle modern games. Despite the fact that AMD purportedly stopped production of its Radeon HD 6990 months ago, we were worried that rumors of poor 28 nm yields at TSMC meant there was no way a new GPU could be readied in time.
When AMD moved its launch date up to today, we were even more bowled over. The official line from AMD was that “After collecting feedback from our partners and evaluating our overall readiness…we believe this new date allows us to get ahead of the Christmas season rush and CES.” Getting ahead of the Christmas rush by launching 72 hours before the big day is a tough line to swallow, especially after a follow-up confirming that cards won't be shipping until January 9th. The unfortunate result is that a lot of AMD’s software partners were unprepared to provide us with the applications needed to properly test the GPU’s new features. So, this article officially goes down as a preview, rather than a review. We will, of course, follow up when all of the proper tools are available for testing.

Meet Radeon HD 7970
Regardless of whether or not it’s ready for the world, or the world is ready for it, AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 is up and running in the Tom’s Hardware lab. This card is no minor revision of the Radeon HD 6000 series. The company’s ”Southern Islands” architecture was re-designed from the ground up with a long list of new features and capabilities, including DirectX 11.1 compatibility. Composed of 4.31 billion transistors etched on a 28 nm process, the flagship Tahiti GPU sports about 160% of the Cayman design’s reported transistor count. However, adopting the latest lithography node allows AMD to cram that extra complexity into a 365 mm² die, which is smaller than its predecessor’s 389 mm² surface area.
Before we delve into the major architectural redesign, let’s have a closer look at the new card’s specifications compared to its competition.
| Radeon HD 7970 | Radeon HD 6970 | Radeon HD 6990 | GeForce GTX 580 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stream processors | 2048 | 1536 | 3072 | 512 |
| Texture Units | 128 | 96 | 192 | 64 |
| Full Color ROPs | 32 | 32 | 64 | 48 |
| Graphics (Shdr) Clock | 925 MHz | 880 MHz | 830 MHz | 772 (1544) MHz |
| Texture Fillrate | 118.4 Gtex/s | 84.5 Gtex/s | 159.4 Gtex/s | 49.4 Gtex/s |
| Memory Clock | 1375 MHz | 1375 MHz | 1250 MHz | 1002 MHz |
| Memory Bus | 384-bit | 256-bit | 2x 256-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 264 GB/s | 160 GB/s | 160 GB/s | 192.4 GB/s |
| Graphics RAM | 3 GB GDDR5 | 2 GB GDDR5 | 2 GB GDDR5 | 1.5-3 GB GDDR5 |
| Die Size | 365 mm2 | 389 mm2 | 2 x 389 mm2 | 520 mm2 |
| Transistors (Billion) | 4.31 | 2.64 | 5.28 | 3 |
| Process Technology | 28 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 8-pin, 1 x 6-pin | 1 x 8-pin, 1 x 6-pin | 2 x 8-pin | 1 x 8-pin, 1 x 6-pin |
| Maximum power (TDP) | 250 W | 250 W | 375 W | 244 W |
| Price | $549 MSRP | $340-$380 (Newegg) | $700-$750 (EOL) | $500-$530 (1.5 GB) $590-$730 (3 GB) |
This product boasts notable advantages over the Radeon HD 6970, with 33% more stream processors and texture units, and a 65% net memory bandwidth increase thanks to its 384-bit memory bus. The only specifications that these cards share are 32 ROPs and a 250 W TDP. Based on those figures alone (and the fact that this is apparently going to be a $550 card), we’d expect the Radeon HD 7970 to decimate the 6970, edge past the GeForce GTX 580, and fall behind AMD’s Radeon HD 6990. There’s frankly a lot more to this story than gaming performance, though, and we’ll get to that in an in-depth exploration of AMD’s new Graphics Core Next architecture.
But first, we’ll share what we know about the Radeon HD 7000 series. Despite rumors to the contrary, all of the 28 nm Radeon 7000 series GPUs, previously code-named Southern Islands, are based on the Graphics Core Next architecture. That includes the Radeon HD 7700 series (Cape Verde Core), 7800 series (Pitcairn), and 7900 series (Tahiti), at the very least. AMD may include some 40 nm products under the 7000-series umbrella, and those would employ rebranded VLIW4/5 architectures.
The Southern Islands-based cards share the same features and abilities, which is good news. Here is a slide showing the placement of new product families relative to the Radeon HD 6000 series:

As you’ll see in our tests, the Radeon HD 7900 series appears to perform as its position in the deck would suggest. Note the Q1, 2012 expected date and the unnamed dual-GPU product at the top of the food chain.
With the relative performance of Radeon HD 7000-series cards established by AMD’s marketing department, let’s have a look at the family’s unique features. We’ll start with the basics: the Southern Islands architecture.
- Radeon HD 7970: A Holiday Surprise That You Can't Buy
- Graphics Core Next: The Southern Islands Architecture
- Bringing It All Together: The Tahiti GPU And Radeon HD 7970
- PRTs, DirectX 11.1, Eyefinity, Stereoscopic 3D, And More
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Synthetic And Tessellation Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: Crysis 2
- Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 3
- Benchmark Results: World Of Warcraft
- Benchmark Results: Batman: Arkham City
- Benchmark Results: Metro 2033
- GPGPU Benchmarks: This Time, With A Preface
- 2D Performance Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Overclocking
- Power, Temperature, And Noise Benchmarks
- Radeon HD 7970: Fast, Forward-Looking, But Not Fully Baked
If I ever find someone that will buy me a $500 graphics card for Valentine's Day I'll be proposing on the spot.
Not at all, actually. It offers great gaming performance, and for everything else...we have to wait, because it's not fully baked yet. They say fools rush in. This thing launched today. We were given less than a week with it. It won't be available to even *buy* for another three weeks. Are you telling me you're ready to crown a paper winner, and you're not biased? Please...
I'll be trolling Newegg for the next couple weeks on the off-chance they pop up before the 9th. A couple in CrossFire could be pretty phenomenal, but it remains to be seen if they maintain the 6900-series scalability.
Hate to break it to you, but there won't be, unless you celebrate Christmas in mid-January.
Start treating your SO super-nice and ask for one for Valentine's Day!
If I ever find someone that will buy me a $500 graphics card for Valentine's Day I'll be proposing on the spot.
While I have little doubt that 2x of these cards would be very impressive, so would the $1100+ pricetag. I guess coming from the 580 SLI standpoint it might not seem like much, but if you've been considering the $750 ($900 for mobo+psu difference) 3x 6950 route like myself it seems like a major jump.
Of course this is all just initial reaction towards the earliest of benchmarks. Given awhile to really dig around the new 7xxx, while allowing it to mature from a driver standpoint might make the 3x6950 seem foolhardy.
Not at all, actually. It offers great gaming performance, and for everything else...we have to wait, because it's not fully baked yet. They say fools rush in. This thing launched today. We were given less than a week with it. It won't be available to even *buy* for another three weeks. Are you telling me you're ready to crown a paper winner, and you're not biased? Please...
Dude!!! I'm will be glued to NewEgg via my PDA and PC...I'm sooooo ooohhhh getting two of these!! If they sell for $549, I still think they provide the best value based on current high-end single GPU solutions (e.g., GTX 580, 6970, etc). Nvidia may want to consider a 20%-30% price reduction on the 580's once the 7970's are out.
You have a valid argument there. However, it's not like we need to wait for Windows 8 to see what this GPU is made of, as was the case with Bulldozer. What you see is what we will get give or take 5%?????? Heck, I don't even care for the overclocking potential. If the performance was capped at what is shown here today, I'm certain everyone will be happy. But, of course thats not the case, which brings me back to your point; it's too early, don't get excited, it's just on paper right? LOL...sure buddy...I'm so glad NewEgg was sold out of the GTX580 Classified's the past few weeks; would have regretted that purchase.
WOW...Go ATI!!!!
To bad these cards wont be out this year they would make a lot of money. Oh well parents usually buy them self stuff after christmas i guess.
I can't wait to get the 7850 or 7870 and OC the crap out of it!