AMD Radeon HD 8990 Rumored for 2013 Launch
Subject: Graphics Cards | December 4, 2012 - 04:41 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: venus, Sea Islands, radeon hd 8990, hd 8990, dual gpu, 28nm
Earlier this year rumored specifications for AMD’s upcoming HD 8000-series graphics cards leaked to the Internet. Details on the 8800 and 8900 series cards have since been revealed along with rumored/estimated clock speeds and pricing. One card that has, until now, remained an unknown is the dual-GPU Radeon HD 8990, however.
The existence of a dual GPU Sea Islands card has been especially suspect as a result of the ever-elusive Radeon 7990 and its almost-certain cancellation in an official AMD-branded form. On the other hand, a road map leaked by BitDreams.se and discovered by Maximum PC seems to suggest that an HD 8990 is at least being considered.
The Radeon HD 8990 follows the dual GPU traditions of its predecessors by combining two 8970 GPUs onto a single PCB. That means, if the previously leaked 8970 specifications hold true, the 8990 graphics card will have 5,120 stream processors, 320 texture units, 96 ROPs, and a 384-bit memory bus for each GPU. The card will have between 6 and 12GB of GDDR5 memory (3GB-6GB per GPU). The dual GPU card will have a maximum TDP of 375W and will come with slightly lower GPU core and memory clockspeeds compared to two individual 8970 cards. The GPU will be clocked at 950MHz and the memory will be clocked at 1250MHz. The single GPU Radeon 8970 will come clocked at 1050MHz core and 1500MHz memory, however.
| Radeon HD 7870 | Radeon HD 8870 | Radeon 7950 | Radeon 8950 | Radeon HD 7970 | Radeon HD 8970 | Radeon HD 7990 | Radeon HD 8990 | |
| Die Size | 212mm^2 | 270mm^2 | 365mm^2 | ~400mm^2 | 365mm^2 | ~ 400mm^2 | 365mm^2 x2 | ~400mm^2 x2 |
| Shader Count | 1280 | 1792 | 1792 | 2304 | 2048 | 2560 | 4096 | 5120 |
| TMUs | 80 | 112 | 112 | 144 | 128 | 160 | 128 x 2 | 160 x 2 |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 48 | 32 x 2 | 48 x 2 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit x2 | 384-bit x 2 |
| Bandwidth | 153.6 GB/s | 192 GB/s | 240 GB/s | 322 GB/s | 288 GB/s | 322 GB/s | 288 GB/s x 2 | 600 GB/s (total) |
The dual gpu 8990 card, as well as the rest of the 8000 series will support DirectX 11, Shader Model 5.0, and OpenGL 4.2. Bit Dreams lists the maximum single and double precision performance at 10.2 and 3 TFLOPS respectively, making this a rather powerful card that is not quite the same performance as two 8970s but will take up less space. Interestingly, the card would be noticeably faster than AMD’s FirePro S10000 card (essentially two 7950 gpus) at 1.48 TF double precision and 5.91 TF single precision. That would suggest that Venus is much more efficient than Tahiti, if the numbers turn out to be true.
The card will allegedly be released sometime in the second quarter of 2013 (Q2’13). Pricing is likely to be around $1,000 but so far pricing information has not leaked. Even taking these numbers with a spoon of salt, a dual GPU 8000 series card is sure to be welcome by enthusiasts. Here’s hoping it ends up being released (unlike the 7990) and is as fast as it’s rumored to be!
A ton of technology in here
In the world of graphics cards there a lot of also-rans, cards that were released but didn't really leave a mark on the industry. Reference cards are a dime a dozen (not really, though $0.10 HD 7970s sounds like a great thing to me) and when the only thing vendors can compete on is price it is very hard to make a compelling argument for one card over another. The ASUS Matrix Platinum HD 7970 that we are looking at today in no way suffers from these problems - it is a custom design with unique features that really give it the ability to stand out from the clogged quarters of the GPU shelf.
As you should expect by now with the ASUS ROG brand, the Matrix HD 7970 not only has a slightly overclocked clock speed on the GPU and memory but also some unique features like VGA Hotwire, TweakIt buttons and more!
ASUS ROG Matrix Design
Before we dive into performance and our experiences in overclocknig the HD 7970 with the ASUS Matrix Platinum we wanted to go over some of the design highlights that make this graphics card unique. Available in both Matrix and Matrix Platinum (hand picked chips) revisions, this triple-slot design will include a custom built PCB with 20-phase power and quite a bit more.
This "exploded" view of the Matrix HD 7970 shows a high-level view of these features with details to follow below. Some of the features are really aimed at the extreme overclockers that like to get their hands into some LN2 but there is still a lot to offer users that just want to try their hand at getting additional performance through air overclocking.
ASUS' custom DirectCU II cooler is at work on the ASUS Matrix HD 7970 using all copper heatpipes to help lower temps by 20% compared to the reference HD 7970 while also running quieter thanks to the larger 100mm fans. These fans can be independently controlled and include the ASUS dust proof fan technology we have seen previously.
Continue reading our review of the ASUS Matrix HD 7970 3GB Graphics Card!!
How much horsepower do you need to BLOPS2 properly?
Subject: Graphics Cards | December 3, 2012 - 02:02 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: nvidia, call of duty, black ops 2, amd
[H]ard|OCP set out to determine how well AMD and NVIDIA's cards can deal with the new Call of Duty game. To do so they took a system built on a GIGABYTE Z77X-UP4-TH, a Core i7 2600k @ 4.8GHz, and 8GB of Corsair RAM and then tested a HD7970, 7950 and 7870 as well as a GTX680, 670 and 660Ti. There is good news for both graphics companies and gamers, the HD7870 was the slowest card and still managed great performance on maximum settings @ 2560x1600 with 8X MSAA and FXAA. For the absolute best performance it is NVIDIA's GTX680 that is your go to card though since this is a console port, albeit one that [H] describes as well implemented, don't expect to be blown away by the quality of the graphics.
"Call of Duty: Black Ops II is the first Call of Duty game on PC to support DX11 and new graphical features. Hopefully improvements to the IW Engine will be enough to boost the CoD franchise near the top graphics-wise. We also examine NVIDIA's TXAA technology which combines shader based antialiasing and traditional multisampling AA."
Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
- Far Cry 3 VGA Graphics Benchmark performance test @ Guru of 3D
- A brief history of video cards: 64 GPUs tested from the last five years @ Hardwaare.Info
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 Super Overclock Graphics Card with WindForce 5X Cooling System @ X-bit Labs
- ASUS GeForce GTX 680 2GB DirectCU II Review @ circuitREMIX
- GIGABYTE Geforce GTX 670 (2GB) WINDFORCE 3X Video Card Review @circuitREMIX
- Four passive graphics cards review: 100% quiet @ Hardware.Info
- The Best Graphics Cards: AMD and Nvidia GPU Comparison with Latest Drivers @ Techspot
- NVIDIA Publishes Open-Source 2D Driver Code @ Phoronix
- 8-Way NVIDIA Nouveau GPU Comparison @ Phoronix
- 12-Way Radeon Gallium3D GPU Comparison @ Phoronix
- AMD Catalyst vs. Open-Source Gallium3D Driver Performance @ Phoronix
- HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ X Boost 3 GB @ techPowerUp
- Club3D HD7970 RoyalAce Graphics Card @ Kitguru
AMD Never Settle Sweepstakes Part 2: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 OC Edition CrossFire
Subject: Graphics Cards | November 27, 2012 - 08:11 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: never settle, hd 7870, gigabyte, amd
UPDATE: We have selected our winner for this contest and we'll have another one ready for you tomorrow, so be sure to CHECK BACK!!!
AMD is really excited about its Never Settle campaign and the bundle packages it has built for the holiday season. PC gamers looking for an uprade will defintely want to read up on the special promotion but we have another surprise for you as well - FREE GRAPHICS CARDS!
AMD and Gigabyte are partnering up with PC Perspective to hand out a pair of Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 OC Edition 2GB cards to a single winner, perfect for a CrossFire setup in your PC!
Not only do you get the cards in this sweet contest but you'll get the same software bundle as if you had purchased them at retail.
That means a 20% off coupon for Medal of Honor Warfighter, a FREE copy of Far Cry 3 and a FREE copy of Hitman: Absolution! (Which we happen to be doing a live stream of with even MORE stuff to give away!)
What do you have to do to enter to win this hardware? It couldn't be easier:
- Visit your favorite PC Perspective pages like our YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitter account. You should subscribe, like and follow us, you know...if you want to. We'd appreciate it!
- Check out the AMD Never Settle page to read up on the bundle and special offers they are running right now!
- Leave a comment here on this post!
That's it - we love our fans so we want to make sure everyone gets a chance to win some free stuff! Sorry though, North American readers only on this one!
We will close the contest on Monday December 3rd at 1pm EST or so - so get your entries in! Thanks again for being a fan of PC Perspective, thanks to AMD for the great prizes and stay tuned for MORE contests and giveaways in the coming days!
Here's one of those non-existant HD 7990's for you
Subject: Graphics Cards | November 23, 2012 - 01:43 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, radeon, southern islands, hd 7990
PowerColor ignored the claims that there would be no dual GPU HD 7990 and created the DEVIL13, with two southern island GPUs on a single PCB. Both GPUs run at the standard HD 7970 speed of 925MHz, with a button to overclock them to 1000MHz and ups the amount of voltage provided to the cores as well, the 6GB of RAM run at the stock 5.5GHz effective. Seeing three 8pin PCIe power connectors is impressive, as is the 3 slot card its self. [H]ard|OCP overclocked the card to a stable 1125MHz GPUs and 6.3GHz memory which put its performance noticeably above that of the SLI'd GTX 680 that they compared this card to. The question remains, if you can get the exact same performance from two overclocked Powercolor HD 7970s for $860 then why spend $1000 on the hard to find DEVIL13?
"PowerColor has beaten AMD to the punch with its own creation of a dual-GPU Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX solution in a single video card package. We evaluate this awe inspiring video card and of course overclock it to its highest potential. We put it up against the best GTX 680 SLI solution also overclocked, all with the latest drivers."
Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
- HIS Radeon HD 7970 X Turbo 3 GB @ techPowerUp
- ASUS Matrix HD 7970 Platinum Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- AMD's New Catalyst Linux Driver Isn't Too Good @ Phoronix
- Prolimatech MK-26 @ XSReviews
- Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Workstation Graphics Card Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II Top OC Edition Review @ Hi Tech Legion
AMD Never Settle Sweepstakes Part 1: HIS Radeon HD 7770 IceQ X 1GB CrossFire
Subject: Graphics Cards | November 20, 2012 - 03:09 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: never settle, his, hd 7770, amd
UPDATE: We have picked our winner! Check back tomorrow for yet another Never Settle contest!!
AMD is really excited about its Never Settle campaign and the bundle packages it has built for the holiday season. PC gamers looking for an uprade will defintely want to read up on the special promotion but we have another surprise for you as well - FREE GRAPHICS CARDS!
AMD and HIS are partnering up with PC Perspective to hand out a pair of HIS Radeon HD 7770 IceQ X 1GB cards to a single winner, perfect for a CrossFire setup in your PC!
Not only do you get the cards in this sweet contest but you'll get the same software bundle as if you had purchased them at retail.
That means a 20% off coupon for Medal of Honor Warfighter, a FREE copy of Far Cry 3 and a FREE copy of Hitman: Absolution! (Which we happen to be doing a live stream of with even MORE stuff to give away!)
What do you have to do to enter to win this hardware? It couldn't be easier:
- Visit your favorite PC Perspective pages like our YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitter account. You should subscribe, like and follow us, you know...if you want to. We'd appreciate it!
- Check out the AMD Never Settle page to read up on the bundle and special offers they are running right now!
- Leave a comment here on this post!
That's it - we love our fans so we want to make sure EVERYONE gets a chance to win some free stuff!
We will close the contest on Monday the 26th at 1pm EST or so - so get your entries in! Thanks again for being a fan of PC Perspective, thanks to AMD for the great prizes and stay tuned for MORE contests and giveaways in the coming days!
PCPer Live! Hitman: Absolution Game Stream - Win Games and Graphics Cards!
Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards | November 20, 2012 - 01:06 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, tahiti, radeon, never settle, live, hitman: absolution, amd
UPDATE: If you missed the event last night we have the full replay here for you! Enjoy!
On November 20th on the PC Perspective Live! page we will be streaming some single player game action of the new Hitman: Absolution. If you have never played a Hitman game before I think PC gamers will love the combination of action and stealth as well as some of the humor you'll find in the assassination attempts.
Hitman: Absolution Game Stream
5pm PT / 8pm ET - November 20th
PC Perspective Live! Page
The stream will be sponsored by AMD and its Never Settle game bundles which we previously told you about. Depending on the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series GPU that you buy this holiday season you could get as much as $170 in gaming content including:
- FREE Sleeping Dogs
- FREE Hitman: Absolution
- FREE Far Cry 3
- 20% off Medal of Honor Warfighter
AMD's Robert Hallock (@Thracks on twitter) will be joining us via Skype to talk about the game's technology, performance considerations as well as making fun of attempts at effectively offing some fools.
Of course, just to sweeten the deal a bit we have some prizes lined up for those of you that participate in our Hitman: Absolution Game Stream:
- 2 x Sapphire FleX HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB (!!)
- 3 x Complete Never Settle Bundles (Sleeping Dogs, Hitman, Far Cry 3, 20% Off MoH)
- 5 x Sleeping Dogs keys
- 5 x Hitman: Absolution keys
- 5 x Far Cry 3 keys
Pretty nice, huh? That's a LOT of games (as well as some Radeon graphics cards) and all you have to do to win is be present on the PC Perspective Live! Page during the event as we will announce both the content/sweepstakes method AND the winners!
Stop in on the 20th for some PC gaming fun!!
We go inside the Wii U
Last night after the midnight release of the new Nintendo Wii U gaming console, we did what any self respecting hardware fan would do: we tore it apart. That's right, while live on our PC Perspective Live! page, we opened up a pair of Wii U consoles, played a couple of games on the Deluxe while we took a tri-wing screwdriver to the second. Inside we found some interesting hardware (and a lot more screws) and at the conclusion of the 5+ hour marathon, we had a reassembled system with only a handful of leftover screws!
If you missed the show last night we have archived the entire video on our YouTube channel (embedded below) as well as the photos we took during the event in their full resolution glory. There isn't much to discuss about the teardown other than what we said in the video but I am going to leave a few comments after each set of four images.
OH! And if you missed the live event and want to be apart of another one, we are going to be holding a Hitman: Absolution Game Stream on our Live Page sponsored by AMD with giveaways like Radeon graphics cards and LOTS of game keys! Stop by again and see us on http://pcper.com/live on Tuesday the 20th at 8pm ET.
During the stream we promised photos of everything we did while taking it apart, so here you go! Click to get the full size image!
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Getting inside the Wii U was surprisingly easy as the white squares over the screws were simply stickers and we didn't have to worry about any clips breaking, etc. The inside is dominated by the optical drive provided by Panasonic.
Continue reading to see ALL the images from our Nintendo Wii U Teardown!!
AMD Facing Even More Layoffs
Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards, Processors | November 17, 2012 - 04:09 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: layoffs, amd
Personally, I am starting to get numb to AMD restructuring news -- and that is never good.
Less than a month ago we reported on the semiconductor design company’s decision to cut 15% of their workforce. The company still has life in it and has a respectable presence in all upcoming videogame consoles along with its inclusion within many consumer laptops and desktops but it is clearly not as much life as they need.
Original rumors stated that cuts could be on the order of 10-30% which 15% would be on the lighter side of. With rumors of more cuts coming in January I wonder if this was a last minute decision to break up the layoffs into two less dramatic installments.
One of the beauties of the tech industry is the low cost of starting or turning a company around; it would be irresponsible to completely count out a player while it still has access to millions of capital. AMD is also sitting upon lots of assets which could be liquidated and their employees have ridiculous talent to be employable elsewhere. I have been noticing that most chatter about the topic is not based in concern with AMD and their employee’s future but with concern about an x86 competitor to Intel.
This is pretty much the same concern which I have been having about Windows 8: the house of cards may be standing but it is still a house of cards. We rely upon the proprietary standards which Intel and others impose upon the art, the word being used both in literal and “artisan / practical art” contexts which includes utensil applications.
Concern mounts but practically no-one grafts it to similar instabilities in other platforms.
No I am not saying abolish technology patents or anything like that: I am simply saying that this is yet another drop in the torrent of concerns with content upstream to proprietary platforms.
These issues rightfully cause alarm but are not isolated events.
GeForce GTX Call of Duty Rivalries competition ...and more
Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards | November 15, 2012 - 04:05 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: nvidia, call of duty, black ops 2
NVIDIA will be celebrating the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II by launching the first-ever “GeForce GTX Call of Duty Rivalries” competition which pits top colleges against each other in Call of Duty: Black Ops II four-person, last team standing multiplayer matches. Participants in the first round of competition include the storied rivalries of Cal vs. Stanford, USC vs. UCLA and UNC vs. NC State. Two additional wildcard colleges from any accredited college in the United States will also be chosen by the Facebook community to field teams. See details on GeForce.com or visit NVIDIA’s Facebook page on how you can walk away with a Maingear gaming rig.
In addition to the contest NVIDIA also released the GeForce 310.54 beta driver with specific benefits for players of Black Ops 2, specifically the inclusion of TXAA.
- Delivers up to 26 percent faster performance in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and up to 18% faster performance in Assassin’s Creed III.
- Provides smooth, shimmer-free graphics with NVIDIA TXAA antialiasing in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Assassin’s Creed III.
- Improves performance by up to 16% in other top games likes Battlefield 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and StarCraft II.
As always, our new driver includes new profiles for today’s top titles, increasing multi-GPU performance.
- Hawken – Added SLI profile
- Hitman: Absolution – Added SLI profile
- Natural Selection 2 – Added SLI profile
- Primal Carnage – Added SLI profile
You can grab the driver and read about all the improvements right here.
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