Final thoughts and rating
AMD has today announced its fastest-ever GPU in the form of the Radeon HD 7970 3GB, codenamed Tahiti. This new card brings considerably more power to bear than the previous-generation Radeon HD 6970 2GB, and an increase in performance is achieved through a wholly revamped architecture based on a cutting-edge 28nm process.
Radeon HD 7970 is composed of a greater number of cores, texture-units, and memory bandwidth. These are allied to a leaner, cleaner architecture called Graphics Core Next (GCN). This approach moves away from the graphics-orientated VLIW architecture, as used on previous Radeons, and embraces an altogether different formula.
AMD wants, and needs, future GPUs to excel at both gaming and general-purpose computing, and thus GCN is a logical move that stems from the way the graphics market has evolved. Radeon HD 7970 is a general-compute device that also chews through graphics code; the GPGPU consideration is paramount and not just a throwaway notion tacked on at the last minute.
In fact, it's analogous to NVIDIA's Fermi in a number of key areas, and per-GCN compiling and scheduling provides an easier path by which general-purpose compute can be performed. The new GPU also signals the direction that AMD is taking for both discrete and APU graphics, so expect GCN to be very visible in years to come.
But all this talk of GCN and VLIW, while important when understanding the provenance of the card, does little to excite the gamer. They need to know it's fast at playing the hottest games, and it assuredly is. 4.3bn transistor and dollops of bandwidth push single-GPU benchmarks to new highs, and we expect performance to scale as newer drivers are released that tap into the grounds-up architecture.
Available in January 2012 for £450, we'd recommend most users wait until the price drops after the initial launch-day mayhem subsides. But AMD doesn't really care about mainstream users for this card; it just needs to sell to proper enthusiasts, and it's in good shape to do so.
Bottom line: Radeon HD 7970 represents a successful major graphics overhaul. Fast and furious, it's a harbinger of things to come.
The Good
Brand-new design suited for graphics and compute
Fastest single-GPU card around
A well-balanced GPU
Strong power-draw credentials
The Bad
Price: it brings other multi-GPU solutions very much into play
HEXUS Rating
AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB
HEXUS Awards
AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB
HEXUS Where2Buy
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