Benchmarking AMD's 768-Shader Pitcairn: Not For Public Consumption

Features
By Benjamin Kraft, Igor Wallossek
published

Last week we reported that an engineering sample card with 768 shaders accidentally found its way into our lab instead of the HD 7850 we were expecting. This GPU may be meant for engineers, but it piqued our interest, since it happens to fill a large gap.

Benchmark Results: Metro 2033, AvP, And Crysis 2

Metro 2033

The Pitcairn-based engineering sample once more triumphs over the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, slotting in between that card and the GTX 560 Ti 448 Core. Metro 2033 is a rather demanding title, and a good showing here proves AMD's deliberately-handicapped GPU is capable of handling DirectCompute-enabled games and applications. This is especially relevant in the context of Nvidia’s desktop Kepler-based cards that give up most of their compute potential at the hands of branding.

Alien vs. Predator

AvP repeats the established pattern one more time, with our engineering sample board delivering another strong showing.

Crysis 2

Starting with the most recent driver update, the GCN-based Radeons can finally compete with the GeForce pack even in DirectX 9. We have already updated our VGA charts to reflect the new results. The Pitcairn-based engineering sample ends up within spitting distance of a Radeon HD 6950 and just ahead of the vanilla GeForce GTX 560 Ti and its Ti-less derivative.

Benjamin Kraft
Benjamin Kraft
71 Comments Comment from the forums
  • woe96
    i want one, that a amazing place in performance and probably only be $200
    Reply
  • s3anister
    I would never buy this card for myself but I would find myself recommending a 1GB model, like you mentioned, to family and friends. If the price is right AMD could have a great mid range card.
    Reply
  • wolley74
    while a nice card, the 6850 is incredibly close and nearly $60 cheaper, the only thing is it does consume more power
    Reply
  • borden5
    oh man that single slot would be really nice for people who wanted small factor rig
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    Wouldn't 2 7750s in crossfire perform better than this rig and also consume less power at the ~$200 price point?
    Reply
  • erraticfocus
    Slomo4shOWouldn't 2 7750s in crossfire perform better than this rig and also consume less power at the ~$200 price point?
    Maybe, depending on your local market, but the single slot and price point is the whole point to this...
    Reply
  • Say hello to the AMD HD Radeon 7790.
    Reply
  • pwnorbpwnd
    This card would be an AMAZING pick for an HTPC, Single slot, Low power, 2gb DDR3 for HDTV's, not to say 1gb wouldn't be okay. But really AMD, do it up! All of this positive feedback is great reason to make a crippled 7850!
    Reply
  • weatherdude
    This card performs great and a 1 GiB version selling at ~$200 would fill in a very large gap in the market. It would only make sense if AMD is cooking up something they'll likely call a 7830 to do just that. I guess though it would differ from this engineering sample if they're so insistent that they aren't bringing it to market. Maybe it'll have less texture units or ROPs.

    Still this card with 1 GiB at ~$200 would be pretty sweet AMD *nudge* *nudge*.
    Reply
  • Doesn't the 7770 have 40 Texture Units and not 14?
    Reply