Report: AMD to Discontinue Radeon HD 7990 in Q3 2013

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A report indicates that AMD might be ending the life of the Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" graphics card.

A report from Overclockers.ru indicates that AMD might be discontinuing the Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" graphics card in Q3 2013, with the main reason specified as weak demand.

The Radeon HD 7990 graphics card is essentially two Radeon HD 7970s pressed onto a single PCB, with a built-in CrossFire link setup. The problem with this is that recently AMD has been having problems with frame latency, and though it has announced that it is working on new drivers to fix these problems, they aren't out yet. It appears that a number of people are holding off on buying this monster card.

For that reason, it wouldn't surprise us if indeed the graphics card will go out of retail in September. That said, other reports indicate that it won't be too long until AMD comes out with the next generation of graphics cards -- the Volcanic Islands series. The launch is said to take place in October, so a September end-of-life for the Radeon HD 7990 may not be surprising.

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Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

37 Comments Comment from the forums
  • smeezekitty
    Unconfirmed
    Reply
  • JJ1217
    Understandable. You can't expect people to buy a $1000 card especially when AMD cards are littered with crossfire issues. And it is most of the time $200 more than two 7970's (close to $400 if you caught those 7970's near $330).
    Reply
  • jdlobb
    The GeForce Titan really changed the game for the $1000 GPU market. I simply can't imagine why anybody would buy one of these dual GPU cards, either the 690 or the 7990, when you can buy a Titan for the same price, have nearly the same overall speed without all of the SLI/Crossfire issues. I remember reading in one of the GPU reviews not long ago, i think it was the one about testing crossfired 7990s, where a rep from one of the custom gaming rig assemblers said that when the Titan came out demand for the 690 and 7990 dropped to near nothing.

    What AMD needs to do is push out their own response to the Titan, a monster single GPU card with an enterprise pedigree.
    Reply
  • Azn Cracker
    ^ actually the gtx 690 was faster than the titan by a pretty big margin. Either way, both are expensive and not worth it.
    Reply
  • smeezekitty
    What AMD needs to do is push out their own response to the Titan, a monster single GPU card with an enterprise pedigree.
    Absolutely
    Reply
  • blppt
    I really dont get it....if AMD is having CFX latency issues with the 7990, shouldnt the problem be even worse with crossfired 7970s, or at the very least, the same? Wouldnt they in effect be admitting that their entire CFX driver base is flawed?

    Because, based on my understanding, having both chips on the same board should DECREASE the SLI/Crossfire issues, not make them worse.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    It wouldn't really surprise me. Quite a few sources have indicated that the card hasn't been selling well since launch, likely due to AMD's ongoing micro stutter issues. What gets me is that they were aware of the driver issues long before launch, yet they still chose to release the card, and on top of that charge top dollar for it.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    11128202 said:
    Wouldnt they in effect be admitting that their entire CFX driver base is flawed?
    Well ya, it is. They acknowledged the problem a long time ago and have been actively working on a solution since.
    Reply
  • renz496
    11128127 said:
    ^ actually the gtx 690 was faster than the titan by a pretty big margin. Either way, both are expensive and not worth it.

    690 is faster but Titan was able to out sell the total sold 690 for a year just in three months. even nvidia themselves are surprised with that. anyway i bet most titan end up with professional or small company that can't afford to get full fledged Tesla

    Reply
  • bystander
    11128202 said:
    I really dont get it....if AMD is having CFX latency issues with the 7990, shouldnt the problem be even worse with crossfired 7970s, or at the very least, the same? Wouldnt they in effect be admitting that their entire CFX driver base is flawed?

    Because, based on my understanding, having both chips on the same board should DECREASE the SLI/Crossfire issues, not make them worse.

    The crossfire problem isn't a latency issue, it is a frame metering issue. Crossfire on a single board or on two different cards does not fix the metering issue. They are working on a new set of drivers which will make the frame variance between multiple GPU's more consistent.
    Reply