bit-tech.net

AMD Radeon HD 7950 specs leak

Published on 21st January 2012 by Gareth Halfacree

AMD's Radeon HD 7950 could offer a seriously tempting alternative to the high-end Radeon HD 7970 3GB.

The first firm hints as to what AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 7950 boards will bring to the table have appeared, courtesy of a leak to Turkish technology site Donanim Haber.

While currently unverified by AMD - which, true to form, 'does not comment on rumours or speculation regarding unannounced products' - the site's source claims that the cut-down Tahiti boards will ship with the same 384-bit memory bus as its recently launched high-end counterpart, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB.

To keep the costs down, the AMD Radeon HD 7950 will be launched in 1.5GB and 3GB configurations, while the core clock speed drops from 925MHz to 800MHz and the GDDR5 memory speed from 1.375MHz (5.5GHz effective) to 1.25MHz (5GHz effective.)

Thus far, there's no indication of whether the AMD Radeon HD 7950 1.5GB/3GB will include the same number of SIMD engines and stream processors as its higher-end equivalent; if it does, however, it could prove a popular choice among overclockers eager to get their hands on 28nm graphics technology without having to break the bank.

Donanim Haber's source goes on to claim that the launch price for the AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB will be around $100 to $150 cheaper than the top-end AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB.

AMD, for its part, is keeping silent on the accuracy or otherwise of the source's claims, but with a launch expected to come within a month we shouldn't have long to wait to see what AMD is really offering to the more budget-conscious gamer.

Does the price drop make the AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB a tempting upgrade, or would you rather shell out for the top-end part regardless of the cost? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

37 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

billysielu 21st January 2012, 18:47

You'd be mental not to wait and see, this should be in direct competition with the 580.

snakecatcher 21st January 2012, 18:57

Depending on price this will be the upgrade i'll get instead of the 570 i was planning on from a hd4870 i currently have.

Madness_3d 21st January 2012, 19:00

another day, another leak. At the end of the day you can make an educated guess and probably not be far off the truth. Anyone can predict that AMD will produce a full lineup of 7*** series cards from the 7970 down and probably up too. Nvidia will release their competition which will have 1.5x - 2.0x the shader count of a 580 at the top with high power consumption and careful clocks and then give it a year and they'll bring the consumption down and raise the clocks. And then it'll be something new and it'll all go round again. I hope AMD has good enough yields to make this 7950 a well balanced GPU.

Arghnews 21st January 2012, 19:51

Unless Nvidia unveils a giant killer soon, and it's respective 560ti, this could be another "5850" card that can be OC'ed to 7970 levels and be a winner for AMD. Personally I hope taht Nvidia can create something even better :D !

lp1988 21st January 2012, 21:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by snakecatcher
Depending on price this will be the upgrade i'll get instead of the 570 i was planning on from a hd4870 i currently have.

In that case we are in the exact same boat my friend

Snips 21st January 2012, 22:36

I'll hold out for the Nvidia series which will launch by the end of Q1.

debs3759 21st January 2012, 23:12

It depends which rumours you believe. They range from next month for the GTX 680 to April for the GK 104 (which Fudzilla says is the GTX 660). Any of them could be first to be released. NVidia couldn't be more tight-lipped about Kepler :)

Personally I want to see the high-end cards come out soon, then they'll be improved on before I can afford the 4 I want for my mega-build :)

Skiddywinks 21st January 2012, 23:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snips
I'll hold out for the Nvidia series which will launch by the end of Q1.

Yeh, hopefully. And I don't even mean that in a sarcastic way. I need these prices to drop so I can upgrade!

xaser04 21st January 2012, 23:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Article
Thus far, there's no indication of whether the AMD Radeon HD 7950 1.5GB/3GB will include the same number of SIMD engines and stream processors as its higher-end equivalent; if it does, however, it could prove a popular choice among overclockers eager to get their hands on 28nm graphics technology without having to break the bank.

I have read 1,792 stream processors (28*64) and 80 TMU being banded around as the most likely counts for the HD7950.

No doubt the cores will be binned HD7970's that didn't quite meet the grade. Hopefully overclocking should still be immense though.

OT: Finally got my HD7970 up to 1125 on the core now. It seems to hate heat as running the fan at 75% made it 100% stable with 1.175v. I need the Accelero Extreme sooner rather than later now.

debs3759 21st January 2012, 23:26

Quote:

Thus far, there's no indication of whether the AMD Radeon HD 7950 1.5GB/3GB will include the same number of SIMD engines and stream processors as its higher-end equivalent

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=4223686#post4223686 has details of a Sapphire HD7950 overclocked versions. The product specs in post #6 show that there are 1792 Stream Processors, 256 less than the HD 7970. Other sources indicate it is a Tahiti (HD 7970) core with some components disabled and a lowered clock speed, so it may be possible to unlock them.

Something else that may be of interest. There are no reference design boards, every board will be a custom design. That means some cards will reuse a board from an earlier card, while others will completely new designs. For those who want to overclock their cards under water, that could be a deal breaker as it may not be easy to get waterblocks for a lot of products.

debs3759 21st January 2012, 23:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by xaser04
I have read 1,792 stream processors (28*64) and 80 TMU being banded around as the most likely counts for the HD7950.

The 1792 matches the Sapphire HD 7950 specs. It would be 112 TMU (28 * 4) with that number of SP.

All the info I have from various sources is at http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2012/2012012101_AMD_Radeon_HD_7950_Specs_Revealed.html

xaser04 22nd January 2012, 00:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by debs3759
The 1792 matches the Sapphire HD 7950 specs. It would be 112 TMU (28 * 4) with that number of SP.

All the info I have from various sources is at http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2012/2012012101_AMD_Radeon_HD_7950_Specs_Revealed.html

Quite right, I was thinking in Cayman terms and therefore though the HD7970 only had 96.

Just checked and yes the HD7970 has 128.

lancer778544 22nd January 2012, 00:43

I can give everyone a screenshot of GPU-Z on my 7950 if you want? *runs* :)

debs3759 22nd January 2012, 01:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by lancer778544
I can give everyone a screenshot of GPU-Z on my 7950 if you want? *runs* :)

if you have one that's not under NDA then a screenshot would be great :)

Parge 22nd January 2012, 04:03

Sounds good, could be a legend!

lancer778544 22nd January 2012, 04:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by debs3759
if you have one that's not under NDA then a screenshot would be great :)

Sorry debs, it would seem my joke was a bit too subtle*... :) *points to sig*

*and/or rubbish...

Doctor Hades 22nd January 2012, 10:44

No, I'm not remotely tempted at all as the new NVIDIA Kepler cards are rumoured to be coming out in the next few months which theoretically will allow me to choose which is the best in terms of performance versus cost.

The spanner in the works though is AMD's drivers, which I feel from personal experience with them, are simply not good enough compared with NVIDIA's. Too many games have issues that take AMD months to support and they've taken far too long to implement features which their rivals have had for years, e.g. per-game profiles. While AMD make terrific hardware and sell them at good prices (I'm not so sure the HD 7970 at £450 is good value though myself), if the drivers aren't up to scratch then it's all for naught IMO.

r3loaded 22nd January 2012, 10:58

If they have the same number of stream processors as the 7970, it'll make it very trivial to flash a 7970 BIOS to a 3GB 7950, and we'll have a repeat of the 6950 BIOS flashing trend. That might make it very popular.

Still best to wait for Kepler before making any purchase decisions though.

Slizza 22nd January 2012, 11:26

Rumor mill is now saying Nvidias cards will easily win this round with mid range cards performing around the level of AMD's high end HD 79** cards.

We shall see, i really hope this is true as it would be fantastic for us.
But rumors are still just rumors.

AlienwareAndy 22nd January 2012, 12:47

Looking at the 7950 3DM11 leaks it seems it does compete directly with the 580.

Thing is, if it is indeed 3gb it then competes with the 3gb 580 which costs the same as the 7950.

Time to drop your prices, Nvidia...

l3v1ck 22nd January 2012, 16:33

I'd wait for Nvidia's 28nm efforts for two reasons:
1) They may be just as good or better (or maybe not, we just don't know yet).
2) Their release will probably bring the price of AMD's new cards down a bit. You're paying a premium for 28nm at the moment.

LVMike 22nd January 2012, 18:50

I've got a and 4800 series card. Im tired of waiting for new releases, I think im just going to pick up a 6950 now, and crab another later this year.

r3loaded 22nd January 2012, 21:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by LVMike
I've got a and 4800 series card. Im tired of waiting for new releases, I think im just going to pick up a 6950 now, and crab another later this year.

The release schedule has now slowed down to about 12-18 months between generations, so you can time your upgrades nowadays. It's nothing like the 90s where your hardware was obsolete within three months. You might as well wait since AMD is rolling out the rest of the 7000 series between now and March/April.

damien c 23rd January 2012, 08:18

I am waiting for the new Nvidia card's before I make my choice for the simple fact that until then I just don't know which will be better.

Price doesn't bother me as I always just buy 1 or 2 of the best performing card's at the time, got 2 GTX280's and watercooled them about 2 month's after release then got a single GTX 480, then I got 2 GTX 580's.

I have tried ATI card's and can never get the same performance without suffering from driver issues, so stick to Nvidia but if the new Nvidia card's are poor performers then I will be making the switch back to ATI for now.

adam_bagpuss 23rd January 2012, 08:37

Quote:

The spanner in the works though is AMD's drivers, which I feel from personal experience with them, are simply not good enough compared with NVIDIA's. Too many games have issues that take AMD months to support and they've taken far too long to implement features which their rivals have had for years, e.g. per-game profiles.

I wish people would stop with the ATI/AMD driver bashing. shall we take a look at nivida ?

BF3 since launch has bad even unplayable artifacting on some nvidia cards and oh look we are several months down the line and its still not fixed !!!! It not just AMD who are slow to do things.

Personally my experience with my 4870 has been brilliant. Ive had no issues at all except a minor one in BF3 when it first came out and a green screen for a split millisecond during play. funnily enough AMD released a driver update quite quickly and the problem went away.

Grimloon 23rd January 2012, 11:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam_bagpuss
*snip*

This in spades, much the same as what I was thinking but more politely put. The last time I had driver issues with an AMD/ATI card it was an X800 Pro when they were new so just a little while ago. They are pretty much equal nowadays with "new, optimised for x" driver pretty much guaranteed to either not work as described or break something else, irrespective of whether or not the software is produced by the red or green camp.

I'll probably grab one of these if the performance hike over the 5850 justifies an upgrade, the price is within reason and it doesn't go mad on the power usage.

Fizzban 23rd January 2012, 16:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam_bagpuss
*snip*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimloon
*snip*

Got to agree with you two on this. Almost every time I see people complaining of driver issues they are running Nvidia cards. And the only driver problems I've ever had have been with Nvidia. I have never had an AMD driver cripple my pc, and nor have I ever had to roll back to a previous version. I see people on Nvidia frequently complaining they need to roll back..or "what driver are you using that is stable?". lol

I agree that perhaps when you compare working/stable drivers from both sides, the Nvidia ones are a bit better, but I would rather have stress free updating/gaming and just drop my AA to x4 with AMD.

I know this will likely provoke a frothing-fanboy, but whatever.

trig 23rd January 2012, 17:16

my 2 cents...

if nvidia were dropping it's next gen within a few weeks, then sure, not waiting would be stupid. however, playing the waiting game is idiotic in general...there is always something around the corner and rumors will always over-hype the product specs, performance and release date...unless there are relatively confirmed release dates from reputable sites/nvidia themselves (which there are not and based on what i know of how these things progress, nvidia doesn't even have a working sample yet...which means no release for the general public for a good 2-4 months) you would have to be a fanboy to wait/recommend waiting. if there is a card out now that plays what you want to play at the best settings your monitor can handle, then get it...

drivers...i had problems with the x800's too, then had issues with 8800....then the 3870's...not all, just some...

they all have their moments...heck, my 570 has gone bat-sh!t crazy since updating to the latest whql drivers...

DbD 23rd January 2012, 17:36

Fudzilla has lauch price at $450, compare this to the 5850 which was $259 at launch. Ouch!

Clearly AMD don't have many of these, as almost doubling the price of your new graphics cards in the middle of a financial crisis isn't going to get you many sales.

debs3759 23rd January 2012, 18:37

TechPowerUP have reported that 28nm processes at both TSMC and Global Foundries are having serious yield problems, although TSMC appear to be in a worse position than GF. With lots of non-working wafers, I won't be surprised if we don't see many price drops in pre-existing product lines for a few months.

somidiot 23rd January 2012, 19:32

Just got my GTX 560ti last year, I think there will probably be some price fanangaling when Nvidia gets their hardware out the door, so I'm going to wait till I can get a better deal. Plus my card isn't really outdated that badly yet, 1920x1080 plays quite well.

Sloth 23rd January 2012, 20:04

If that $150 less bit happens to be true I just might be sold. $400 for a card that'll run all of my games with all the pretties at 1920x1080 and allow for Eyefinity across my non-matching resolution tri-monitor setup (albeit with less pretties)? Bueno. Unfortunately, I'm not holding my breath on that price, $450 seems more likely.

salesman 24th January 2012, 01:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by snakecatcher
Depending on price this will be the upgrade i'll get instead of the 570 i was planning on from a hd4870 i currently have.

I actually made that jump 4 months ago.

PingCrosby 24th January 2012, 09:45

Think I'll hold onto my Voodoo 3DFX a while longer yet.

Gareth Halfacree 24th January 2012, 09:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by PingCrosby
Think I'll hold onto my Voodoo 3DFX a while longer yet.

I still have a 4MB 3dFX Voodoo card. S'part of my collection of top-of-the-line DOS-compatible hardware, which includes a 233MHz Pentium, 64MB of EDO RAM, a SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold, Matrox MGA...

One of these days I'll get round to putting it all in a case and actually using it. Probably.

AlienwareAndy 30th January 2012, 17:11

7950 has already been benchmarked in Heaven with interesting results.

Go to OCUK forums.

PingCrosby 31st January 2012, 11:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gareth Halfacree
I still have a 4MB 3dFX Voodoo card. S'part of my collection of top-of-the-line DOS-compatible hardware, which includes a 233MHz Pentium, 64MB of EDO RAM, a SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold, Matrox MGA...

One of these days I'll get round to putting it all in a case and actually using it. Probably.

Bet ya don't lol, nobody's got any time anymore mate, we're all just too busy working and trying to keep our heads above water, and on that enlightening note....I'm off to work lol.;)