Isn't it incredible how a single picture can turn the rumour mill into overdrive? The above image, reportedly of a Radeon HD 7950 GHz Edition, has been doing the rounds over the past couple of days with various sites suggesting that AMD's on the verge of unleashing a new-and-improved HD 7950 card.
We'd suggest taking the rumours with a pinch of salt - the card in the image looks a lot like a Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition to us - but a Radeon HD 7950 GHz Edition would certainly have some promise. In an effort to beat away the GeForce onslaught with more megahertz and PowerTune Technology with Boost, AMD successfully heightened the appeal of the Radeon HD 7970 late last month with the launch of a top-of-the-range GHz Edition.
Said card didn't do anything radical, but with a basic overclock and NVIDIA-like Boost technology thrown into the mix, the 7970 GHz Edition proved to be a real threat to the GeForce GTX 680. Makes sense, then, for AMD to take similar action with the Radeon HD 7950 in an effort to elevate its second-rung card into GeForce GTX 670 territory.
| GPU | Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | Radeon HD 7970 | Radeon HD 7950 GHz Edition* | Radeon HD 7950 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DX API | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 |
| Process | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Transistors | 4.3bn | 4.3bn | 4.3bn | 4.3bn |
| Die Size | 352mm² | 352mm² | 352mm² | 352mm² |
| Processors | 2,048 | 2,048 | 1,792 | 1,792 |
| Texture Units | 128 | 128 | 112 | 112 |
| ROP Units | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| GDDR5 Memory (MB) | 3,072 | 3,072 | 3,072 | 3,072 |
| GPU Base Clock (MHz) | 1,000 | 925 | 1,000 | 800 |
| GPU Boost Clock (MHz) | 1,050 | N/A | 1,050 | N/A |
| Shader Base Clock (MHz) | 1,000 | 925 | 1,000 | 800 |
| GFLOPS | 4,096 | 3,789 | 3,584 | 2,867 |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 6,000 | 5,500 | 5,500 | 5,000 |
| Memory Bus (bits) | 384 | 384 | 384 | 384 |
| Max bandwidth (GB/s) | 288 | 264 | 264 | 240 |
| Power Connectors | 8+6 | 8+6 | 6+6 | 6+6 |
| TDP (watts) | 250 | 250 | 200 | 200 |
| GFLOPS per watt | 16.38 | 15.15 | 17.92 | 14.34 |
| Release MSRP | $499 | $549 | $399 | $449 |
| *Unconfirmed, but made up to the best of our ability | ||||
Extending PowerTune Technology with Boost to other cards would be a logical move, and going by past overclocking results, AMD should have no trouble in hitting the above-guesstimated speeds of 1,000MHz on the core (1,050MHz in a PTWB state) and an effective 5,500MHz on memory.
Such a card would most probably offer Radeon HD 7970-like performance, and that raises an interesting question; if AMD does expand the GHz Edition range, will regular cards be discontinued? Only time will well, but it doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility.
