We have collected 12 reviews of the AMD Radeon HD 7970. Experts rate AMD Radeon HD 7970 8.8/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 and AMD Graphics cards.

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AMD Radeon HD 7970 Reviews

BeHardware

07/2012

Review: AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

At the end of 2011, the Tahiti GPU had to deal with teething problems of TSMC’s 28 nanometres process. As the first GPU to be made at this fabrication process, its specs of course had to be determined with limited perspective. Things were complicated by relatively high production variability, which meant that AMD had to be quite conservative when fixing the specs of the Radeon HD 7970, settling for 925 MHz for the GPU. Cape Verde and Pitcairn, the other two GPUs in the family, were put on sale at 1 GHz on launch and Cape Verde has recently moved up to 1.1 GHz, with production quality also improving as time has gone by. First to get up to this clock on a GPU, AMD took the opportunity to launch the GHz Edition brand and following the arrival of the GeForce GTX 680 in March, made no secret of its ambition to get a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition onto the market. This it has now done. Thanks to the better quality production that has come with several refinements made to the PowerTune technology, AMD has been able to come up with a Radeon HD 7970 with a GPU clocked at 1050 MHz and the memory at 1500 MHz, giving gains of 13.5% for processing power and 9% for memory bandwidth.

DigitalVersus

07/2012

10/10

Graphics Card Reviews

AMD was the first manufacturer to out a graphics card with a 28 nm GPU—the Radeon HD 7970 released in December 2011. Since then, Nvidia has fought back with the GeForce GTX 680 then the GTX 670, hitting AMD right where it hurts. Not to be defeated, AMD first dropped the price of its flagship card and has now cooked up a boosted version of the Radeon HD 7970. While the basic formula is the same, the boosted tech specs should make the GHz Edition a better graphics card. The GPU is practically identical to the one used in the Radeon HD 7970 from December 2011—it's actually a new revision of the GPU with higher clock speeds and a lower voltage. This is therefore still a GCN-architecture Tahiti chip with 2048 stream processors. But while in the Radeon HD 7970 the GPU was clocked at 925 MHz, here it's been upped to 1050 MHz, which is an increase of no less than 13.5%! The 3 GB of GDDR5 have also been boosted from 3175 MHz in the 7970 to 1500 MHz here, making a 9% increase. These specs aren't really all that surprising, though, as many manufacturers already make their own modified Radeon HD 7970 cards with speeds at around about these levels.

TechSpot

07/2012

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Review

Having successfully launched their first 28nm GPU last January, AMD went on to release an entire family of Radeon HD 7000 GPUs over the next few months. The last of the series were the Radeon HD 7870 and 7850 graphics cards, which were closely followed by the launch of Nvidia's next generation flagship part, the GeForce GTX 680. It didn't take long for the GTX 680 a.k.a. Kepler to knock the Radeon HD 7970 off its perch, becoming the world's fastest single GPU solution. AMD attempted to lessen the blow by cutting pricing of their 7900 and 7800 series lineups. Yet in the end, perhaps the best news for AMD came from the almost complete lack of GTX 680 stock. In fact even today getting your hands on a GeForce GTX 680 is no easy task and those that have, likely paid more than the retail list $499 price. This didn't stop Nvidia from going on to release the GeForce GTX 670 two months later, at a very attractive $399 price point. At that price the GTX 670 cost less than the Radeon HD 7970 and provided the same level of performance.

PCWorld

07/2012

9.0/10

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

AMD shipped its original Radeon HD 7970 in December 2011, and for a brief period, this 4.3-billion-transistor monster held the graphics performance crown. Several months later, Nvidia launched the GTX 680, a power-efficient graphics card that retook the slot as the best single GPU card for gaming. In some ways, though, the GTX 680 is an odd beast. Nvidia has been reluctant to supply what's called GPU compute performance, and it's been suggested that Nvidia deemphasized the compute performance in search of gaming performance glory. The latest GTX 680 drivers don't support OpenCL 1.2 (more on that later), though you can still run Nvidia's own CUDA framework for GPU compute. That's proved a good product strategy, but now we're starting to see a new generation of games that integrate GPU compute features into the game, either using DirectCompute or OpenCL. We'll take a look at a couple of these games later. For now, let's run down the key differences between the original and the new card. AMD claims the core clock boost from 925MHz to 1GHz is due to better understanding of the manufacturing process and a few tweaks to that process.

PCMAG

07/2012

8.0/10

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

Play-Doh, Silly Putty, or the title of \"the fastest video card in the world”—which is the most malleable? AMD, not willing to cede the last to Nvidia for a whole generation in the wake of its release of the GeForce GTX 680 earlier this spring, has now released its Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition ($499 list). As its name suggests, this video card is a direct revision of the regular Radeon HD 7970 the company released six months ago, albeit with a clock speed upgrade. And, yes, it's enough to nudge AMD's former flagship card back into the top spot—at least until (presumably) AMD supplants it with a new 8000-series card in several months' time. So, yes, if you're looking for the best-performing single-GPU video card you can get right now, this is it. But it's neither a perfect product nor a perfect value. Because there are so few differences between the original 7970 (which will remain available; many versions can be found for about $450) and this new GHz Edition , we're not going to cover all the same ground again that we did half a year ago—check out that review if you want the basic rundown of everything this particular GPU offers. Instead, we're just going to focus on the changes.

HotHardware

07/2012

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Review

It was exactly 6 months ago to the minute that AMD officially took the wraps off its Tahiti GPU and the original Radeon HD 7970. The Radeon HD 7970 was the first graphics card to feature AMD's \"Graphics Core Next”, or GCN, architecture and when it hit the scene, the Radeon HD 7970 proved to be the fastest single-GPU based graphics card available. Since that time though, NVIDIA went ahead and released their Kepler-based GK104 GPU and the GeForce GTX 600 series of graphics cards. Although GK104 was comprised of fewer transistors and used less power, it ended up outpacing the Radeon HD 7970 more often than not, and propelled NVIDIA back into a leadership position at the high-end of the graphics card market. As you can imagine, that didn't sit well with AMD. So, for Tahiti's half-birthday, they went ahead and refreshed the Radeon HD 7970, by tweaking a few key aspects of the card and adding some new features. The end result is the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, an update to the original with a faster GPU, higher-clocked memory, and a new PowerTune with Boost feature that dynamically adjusts the GPU frequency and voltage when headroom is available.

Thinkdigit

01/2012

AMD Radeon 7970 Review

The perpetual war for supremacy between AMD and Nvidia constantly leaves enthusiasts dodging shrapnel: When you want the best video card you can afford, why buy one now instead of waiting for the better one the competing chipset designer will undoubtedly release in a few months? This leaves reviewers in a tough spot, too, as we're constantly proclaiming that nearly every new card is the fastest ever. But because you can only live in the world you live in, we're obliged to go there. So, here goes once again: The just-released AMD Radeon HD 7970 ($549 list) is the latest fastest and most feature-rich single-GPU card ever, surpassing our previous Editors' Choice winner, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580. Though we have little doubt that Nvidia will yank back that title with its next generation of cards, the 7970 is an impressive achievement for the moment. (It's rumored to become widely available by early January of 2012.) The inaugural member of the Southern Islands family, it utilizes a fresh architecture AMD refers to as "Graphics Core Next." Based on a new 28nm process technology and utilizing more than 4.3 billion transistors, Graphics Core Next uses a revised instruction set architecture, gives each compute unit the ability to simultaneously execute instructions from multiple kernels, and delivers an increased number of instructions per clock cycle per square millimeter of GPU space.

DigitalVersus

12/2011

10/10

Graphics Card Reviews

The Radeon HD 7970 uses AMD’s Southern Islands GPU architecture for the first time. This prospect is mouthwatering, combined as it is with the 28nm engraving, implementation of PCIe 3.0 and DirectX 11.1 compatibility, all for the first time. The 7970 also has much improved 2D energy consumption, 3 GB of GDDR5 memory and no fewer than 2048 processing units. There’s a clear break with the Radeon HD 6000 generation. There’s little new to report when it comes to the size of the card. It’s of standard length for this range (27.5 cm) and there’s a double-decker AMD heatsink. The hot air is mainly expelled from the chassis and once again there’s a vapour chamber radiator (6th gen). The noise levels generated by the fan are more or less in line with the Radeon HD 6970: pretty low when it’s in idle and extremely loud during gaming. During 3D gaming, it’s particularly annoying for anyone sitting in the vicinity – and perhaps watching television – especially as the fan tends to speed up and down, constantly alternating rotation speed. On introducing the Radeon HD 7970, AMD had plenty to say in praise of its low energy consumption. ZeroCore Power technology is now included and allows you to reduce energy consumption at idle by up to 24% by deactivating several of the card’s processing units.

TechSpot

12/2011

AMD Radeon HD 7970 Review

For the last 12 months, AMD has had the Radeon HD 6970 be its premier single GPU graphics card, competing head to head with the GeForce GTX 570 and at times challenging the mighty GTX 580. For about $369 today, you can still get one hell of a graphics card, comprised of 2.6 billion transistors, a die measuring 389mm2 and a 250W TDP rating, but most importantly capable of running all modern PC games fluidly except for some extreme scenarios. When compared to its previous generation board (the Radeon HD 5870), the Radeon HD 6970 was on average 24% faster. Now a year later AMD is launching its Radeon HD 7000 series which has been given the codename 'Southern Islands'. The Radeon HD 7970 is the first of a series of upcoming graphics cards that are making the jump to the 28nm fabrication process. The new HD 7970 will effectively become AMD's new flagship single GPU graphics card come January, when the board is expected to ship. The die shrink means AMD can cram more transistors into the same space, a lot more. Although the die size is only slightly smaller, at 365mm2 there are some 1.7 billion more transistors, taking the total count to a whopping 4.3 billion.

TechRadar

12/2011

7.0/10

AMD Radeon HD 7970 review

So here it is, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 and, for the time being, it's the fastest graphics card around. AMD has blinked first and opted to release its brand new graphics card architecture before Nvidia, and just before the new year. It's a brave move by AMD though. Bringing out a radically different graphics design spec, compared with its previous vector processors, in the same year as it brought us a brand new CPU architecture. Especially given the depressing failure of the AMD FX chips.We've seen little bits from AMD about its new architecture, the plainly-named Graphics Core Next, before, but now it's humming away in our test bench and throwing pixels and polygons around our high-res screens without a care in the world.Well, maybe the AMD Radeon HD 7970 does have some cause for concern considering Nvidia is set to launch its newest graphics architecture, code-named Kepler, in the early Spring of 2012.Maybe that's why the timing of this release is so odd. AMD has decided to effectively launch the Radeon HD 7970 just three days before Christmas, a notorious deadspot in technology news.

HotHardware

12/2011

AMD Radeon HD 7970: 28nm Tahiti GPU Review

We have been hearing about AMD's \"Southern Island” family of graphics processors for quite some time. Even during briefings for the Northern Island series of products which ultimately became the Radeon HD 6000 series, news about Southern Islands was already trickling out. Rumors about these parts have been rampant for what seems like ages, but now, just in time to get all you hardcore gamers fired up this holiday season, AMD is officially taking the wraps of Southern Islands. More specifically, today AMD is announcing their latest flagship single-GPU, the Radeon HD 7970. As you may suspect, if you paid attention to Eric Demer's excellent keynote address at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit and the resulting onslaught of news that followed, the top-of-the-line GPU in the Southern Islands family—codenamed Tahiti—features AMD's totally new Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. In addition to being the first GPU to feature GCN, Tahiti is also AMD's first GPU to be manufactured at 28nm, their first with PCI Express 3.0 connectivity, the first with DirectX 11.1 support, and the first to sport a few other new technologies we'll cover a little later (ZeroCore, PRT, multi-point audio).

PCMAG

12/2011

9.0/10

AMD Radeon HD 7970

Prices

Information	Prices
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 Graphic Card - 950 MHz Core - 3 GB GDDR5 SDRAM - PCI Express 3.0 x16 - 5700 MHz Memory Clock - 4096 x 2160 - CrossFireX - Fan Cooler - DirectX 11.0, DirectCompute, OpenGL 4.2 - HDMI - DisplayPort - DVI	$399.99	See it
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC with Boost 3GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-03-40G	$408.78	See it
Visiontek Radeon HD 7970 Graphic Card - 3 GB GDDR5 SDRAM - PCI Express 3.0 x16 - 4096 x 3112 - CrossFire - Fan Cooler - OpenGL 4.2, DirectX 11.0, DirectCompute 11, OpenCL 1.2 - HDMI - DisplayPort - DVI	$425.69	See it
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC with Boost 3GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-03-40G	$451.95	See it
Visiontek VisionTek Radeon HD 7970 - Graphics card - Radeon HD 7970 - 3 GB GDDR5 - PCIe x16 - DVI, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort (900491)	$479.99	See it
MSI Computer Corp. R7970-2PMD3GD5 Graphics Card	$496.9	See it
Diamond AMD Radeon HD 7970 PCIE 3G GDDR5 Video Graphics Card 7970PE53G	$516.59	See it
PowerColor Radeon HD7970 925 MHz 3GB DDR5 PCI-Express 3.0 x16 Graphics Cards AX7970 3GBD5-M2DHG	$602.62	See it
PowerColor Radeon HD7970 925 MHz 3GB DDR5 PCI-Express 3.0 x16 Graphics Cards AX7970 3GBD5-M2DHG	$642.05	See it
MSI Computer Corp. R7970-2PMD3GD5 Graphics Card	$759.99	See it
ASUS AMD Radeon HD 7970 with GPU Tweak and PCIe 3.0 Bus Graphics Cards HD7970-3GD5	$759.99	See it
ASUS AMD Radeon HD 7970 with GPU Tweak and PCIe 3.0 Bus Graphics Cards HD7970-3GD5	$759.99	See it