AMD Radeon HD 7950 Review: Up Against GeForce GTX 580

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Test Setup And Benchmarks

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Test Hardware
Processors Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E) 3.3 GHz at 4.2 GHz (42 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 15 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Motherboard Gigabyte X79-UD5 (LGA 2011) X79 Express Chipset, BIOS F8
Memory G.Skill 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600, F3-12800CL9Q2-32GBZL @ 9-9-9-24 and 1.5 V
Hard Drive Intel SSDSC2MH250A2 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 7950 3 GB
Row 5 - Cell 0 AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB
Row 6 - Cell 0 AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB
Row 7 - Cell 0 AMD Radeon HD 6970 2 GB
Row 8 - Cell 0 AMD Radeon HD 6950 2 GB
Row 9 - Cell 0 Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3 GB
Row 10 - Cell 0 Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB
Row 11 - Cell 0 Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 1.25 GB
Power Supply Cooler Master UCP-1000 W
System Software And Drivers
Operating System Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
DirectX DirectX 11
Graphics Driver AMD 8.921.2 RC11 (For Radeon HD 7970 and 7950)
Row 17 - Cell 0 AMD 11.12 CAP3  (For CrossFire Configurations)
Row 18 - Cell 0 AMD Catalyst 11.12
Row 19 - Cell 0 Nvidia GeForce Release 285.62
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
150 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bak0n
    More good GPU news. Keep em coming!
    Reply
  • Im not Paying $450 for barely better then GTX 580 performance a year after its released. They will have to knock that down to like $300, $250 for a 2gb version when Nvidia releases their next gen cards. Wait those money grubers out imo.
    Reply
  • thesnappyfingers
    stm I was thinking the same thing. But then agian it is still cheaper, more efficient compared to the gtx 580. Still, I am waiting it out till kepler.
    Reply
  • rmpumper
    7950/7970 should be priced ~$50+ of 6950/6970 prices. So as it is now, if nvidia's gtx680 will be better than 7970 they will price it at >$600? That's a load of crock.
    Reply
  • Derbixrace
    great value compared to the 7970 because you can OC it to be faster than it on stock voltage and even further with voltage tweaking ;)
    Reply
  • esrever
    I'd love to have one once kepler comes and these drop in price. Im gonna start saving.
    Reply
  • It beats the GTX580 one on one in most benchies and that's not taking into account the overclocking headroom these things have, they're also power friendlier and with XFX, cooler, quieter and expected to be cheaper so what's the problem? Me thinks me smell's NV fanboys!!
    Reply
  • hardcore_gamer
    According to W1zzard's review, this card tops the Performance / Watt chart.
    Reply
  • primonatron
    Are the Skyrim benchmarks on the v1.4 beta patch?

    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    rmpumper7950/7970 should be priced ~$50+ of 6950/6970 prices. So as it is now, if nvidia's gtx680 will be better than 7970 they will price it at >$600? That's a load of crock.Every rumor and leak I've seen so far on gk104 pricing seems to indicate otherwise...

    http://www.guru3d.com/news/nvidia-gk104-kepler-gpu-priced-at-299-230-/
    According to Nvidia's AIB partners the initial price set for the first gk104 based graphics card is $300. Of course this can go up or down based on the competition. Unfortunately, I have the feeling it'll be going up.
    Reply