AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Pro Reviews

Competition is great for consumers. AMD will be shipping the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition in the next couple of weeks, at roughly $499—$100 cheaper than the original and in the same price ballpark as the GTX 680. On a purely performance basis, the new Radeon wins out over the GTX 680, albeit with a hefty power hit. However, the GTX 680 is quieter, consumes less power, and is more compact. That may affect your choice. But if you’re looking for the fastest single GPU card available, AMD seems to have retaken the crown.

AMD took a step forward from the reference video card design by increasing the base operating frequency of the GPU and the memory. There is a small stock performance boost compared to a reference Radeon HD 7970 thanks to the factory overclock and boost clock increase, but the boost clock does not sky rocket in game like Kepler's boost clock. In fact, as soon as you overclock past 1050MHz it completely negates the boost clock. If you take a reference Radeon HD 7970 and overclock it to 1050MHz core and 6GHz memory you will see the same performance in game. Overclocking was somewhat disappointing for us though, we have seen Radeon HD 7970's OC higher with the same power. AMD's claim that this is the "World's Fastest and Most Versatile GPU" is somewhat of a stretch. In the games we tested we were only seeing a performance increase that we expect to see from any overclocked Radeon HD 7970. AMD also states that the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is "Retaking the Performance Crown," but with the highest stable overclock the performance was not better than an overclocked NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 as we showed here and here.

Bringing things to a close, before writing up this article I spent some time going through our archives to take a look at past GPU reviews. While AMD has routinely retaken the performance crown for a time by beating NVIDIA in releasing next-generation GPUs first – such was the case with the Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 7970 – the typical pattern is for AMD’s flagship single-GPU card to trail NVIDIA’s flagship once NVIDIA has caught up. In a generational matchup AMD has not been able to beat or tie NVIDIA for the highest performing single-GPU card a very long time. And as it turns out the last time that happened was six years ago, with the Radeon X1950 XTX in 2006. Six years is a long time to wait, but patience, perseverance, and more than a few snub moves against NVIDIA have paid off for AMD. For the first time in 6 years we can say that AMD is truly competitive for the single-GPU performance crown. The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition isn’t quite fast enough to outright win, but it is unquestionably fast enough to tie the GeForce GTX 680 as the fastest single-GPU video card in the world today. With that said there’s a lot of data to go through, so let’s dive in.

Since we reviewed the Radeon HD 7970 late last year a lot has changed. The arrival of the GeForce GTX 680 and GTX 670, and the resulting AMD price cuts were the most relevant moves on this segment until today’s release. When we tested the GeForce GTX 670 we closed down with this... “The GTX 670 is today's best value and most efficient high-end graphics card.” Our only concern was availability and that proved to be a problem for Nvidia initially. Today though, it's relatively easy to pick one up at ~$400. AMD's release of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition does little to change our feelings about the GeForce GTX 670. Perhaps that’s a job for a potential HD 7950 GHz Edition. Although we strongly believe the GeForce GTX 670 should be AMD’s main concern, they have instead gone after the GeForce GTX 680. Price-wise the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and GeForce GTX 680 are a match, so which one should you buy?

AMD has achieved its goal: the HD 7970 GHz Edition is the fastest single-GPU graphics card in the world. Thanks to the 125 MHz higher GPU clock, than that of the regular HD 7970, the card beats NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 by about 2% averaged over all our benchmarks and resolutions. At 2560x1600 the increase is even larger with 8%, but that's not because HD 7970 GHz is so strong at that resolution, but because NVIDIA is weak. Compared to the non-GHz Edition HD 7970, the card tested today is around 10% faster on average, a sizeable improvement. Unfortunately this performance increase comes at the cost of increased power draw. It seems that AMD has picked the highest clocking chips and gave them some extra voltage to ensure things are stable. As a result we see significantly higher power draw when gaming. Performance per Watt is also much worse, even with the 10% performance increase taken into account. The jump in power consumption also directly affects temperature and noise. While temperatures are just ok with 83°C under load, noise is completely unacceptable. The card runs at 51 dBA - one of the noisiest cards ever tested, noisier than NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 480. AMD has introduced a new "boost" clocking mechanism with this card, but it is nothing close to what NVIDIA offers. I think a more accurate description would be that the card "boosts" from its default of 1050 MHz down to a clock speed of 1000 MHz and reduced voltage, when it senses a power overload situation, that's it. AMD's HD 7970 GHz edition is priced at $499, the same as NVIDIA's GTX 680. While this might seem enticing at first glance, since the GHz Edition is faster, NVIDIA's card wins at power-draw, noise, and manual overclocking, with the better card overall. I find $499 is just too high to really draw away much attention from the GTX 680, if the HD 7970 GHz Edition was $450 I'd definitely consider it, until that happens I'll happily take a GTX 680, or even GTX 670, which offers better price/performance at not much lower performance.

AMD's Radeon HD 7970 in itself is a good video card and the GHz Edition is slightly better thanks to that boost in performance. I think what's more exciting about the GHz Edition from AMD, though, is going to be what partners do with it. With a 125MHz overclock on the core, AMD have clearly been holding some cherry picked GPUs to the side to make room for this model. We wonder just how cherry picked they are and what will companies like Sapphire, MSI and HIS to name just a few be able to do with these cherry picked GPUs. This brings with it another problem, though. Availability could be an issue for this model as it is reliant on chips that are capable of higher speeds. We can't deny that the GTX 680 continues to have stock issues as we see many brands are sold out. Unlike a few weeks ago, though, not all brands are sold out and you're actually able to buy one now. When it comes to overall performance as well we're a little all over the place. Deciding if this card is right to you when compared to the NVIDIA offerings is ultimately going to depend on the resolution you play at because no matter what game you play or what engine that game is using, it's clear that AMD does better at 2560 x 1600 when compared to NVIDIA.

More than the sum of its parts, and the best enthusiast graphics card there is

A great refresh of the HD 7970, but doesn't warrant the massive price premium over the original.

We’re in two minds regarding the HD 7970 3GB GHz Edition. Clearly the higher clock speeds and performance improvements of Catalyst 12.7b has made AMD’s high-end far more competitive; it’s certainly no longer a case of which Nvidia to buy any more and the GHz Edition underlines this. In ARMA 2 and Dirt 3 the GHz Edition is now the fastest single GPU card, while in BF3 it’s too close to call, although Skyrim remains a fly in AMD’s ointment. However, AMD’s decision to release this card is odd in itself. There are already HD 7970 3GBs with factory overclocks very close to that of the GHz Edition and with a 5-10 per cent tweak to the power state it’s not difficult to overclock a standard 7970 3GB to clock speeds in excess of those offered by the GHz Edition. The launch is also an extremely cold one; we’ve no word yet on when this card will hit retailers and only a USD price of $400 to go on. Considering pre-overclocked and custom cooled HD 7970 3GBs can be found for £350, a price of £400 should be expected, still cheaper than the £420 that GTX 680 2GBs current sell for.

Overclocking ability on the new AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is really strong and we can see some awesome gains when it comes to the memory. I think we'll end up seeing some really good pre-overclocked HD 7970 GHz Edition video cards come out soon. I think what will be interesting is if we see someone like MSI do a second version of the Lightning - maybe with 6GB of GDDR5 and these new GHz Edition cores being used. With the added voltage, we could really see some truly amazing performance. It will be interesting to also see what other companies do with these chips, companies like Sapphire and HIS. I think one of the biggest issues is going to be supply, though. I don't think this is going to be a product that is going to be available easily to companies and the amount of chips that companies will be able to get will be quite limited compared to what they see from other models.

Competition is great for consumers. AMD will be shipping the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition in the next couple of weeks, at roughly £400 -- cheaper than the original and in the same price ballpark as the GTX 680. On a purely performance basis, the new Radeon wins out over the GTX 680, albeit with a hefty power hit. However, the GTX 680 is quieter, consumes less power and is more compact. That may affect your choice. But if you're looking for the fastest single GPU card available, AMD seems to have retaken the crown.

Factoring in everything—the limited changes, the only modest performance improvements, the power usage, and the noise—we don’t see the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition as being a drop-everything purchase this time. Yes, it’s the way to go if you want the most powerful video card you can get. But Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 680 costs about the same, delivers equivalent performance in many areas (and better in some), and is quieter and more energy-efficient. A better deal still is the GTX 670, which trails the GTX 680 just slightly in performance but costs a full $100 less. And, heck, you could save $50 or so by buying a cheaper 7970 and overclocking it yourself—the hurdles between it and the GHz Edition are just not that imposing. In short, there are lots of ways to go if you want a top-speed single-GPU video card at a reasonable price. The 7970 GHz Edition may be the fastest on paper, but overall it’s not quite the most convincing.

After running all the benchmarks we are left to wonder why AMD didn't launch the Radeon HD 7970 video card like this in the first place! The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition performed really great and as you saw in the gaming benchmarks it was ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 video card in more benchmarks than not. It wasn't a clean victory by any means and it just goes to show that AMD and NVIDIA are still pretty darn close to one another. We love the new AMD PowerTune w/ Boost and how both AMD and NVIDIA are now using dynamic clocks to achieve the best gaming performance possible. Since the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz is basically just a vBIOS change we have a hard time grasping that the company wants consumers to pay an extra $70 or 16% for these features. As we mentioned in the introduction Legit Reviews is hosting the official AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz vBIOS and you should be able to flash a Radeon HD 7970 and get the same performance. Gamers and enthusiasts love overclocking and modding things, so a simple vBIOS flash and saving $70 appears they way to go for us. If you aren't comfortable with flashing a vBIOS or are worried about a warranty and bricking your card then you are better off paying the $70 and getting the real deal.

AMD set out to release the fastest single-GPU powered graphics card (again) with the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. Did they succeed? Well, that all depends on your perspective. According to our mix of tests, The Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and GeForce GTX 680 are fairly evenly matched. WIth certain workloads, an argument can certainly be made that the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is the fastest single-GPU based graphics card available. But that's not universally true, so we're going to declare this round a dead heat. We wish we could declare a clear winner, but we've got to call it like we see it. Pricing doesn't help settle the argument either. The MSRP of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is $499, which makes it about 10% more expensive than the average Radeon HD 7970, but somewhat more affordable than the average GeForce GTX 680. We would have liked to see AMD put some more aggressive price pressure on NVIDIA with this release, but looking back at the performance and current pricing at retail, $499 is a fair position for the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.

AMD's Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition graphics card has been designed to be the fastest single-GPU board on the market, so it needs to beat NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 if it is realise this aim. On the back of better yields AMD introduces higher clock speeds for both core and memory, providing this GHz Edition with, on average, 10 per cent more performance than a regular Radeon HD 7970. Throw in some basic auto-overclocking by way of PowerTune with Boost and accompany the launch with a set of drivers that deliver performance gains in key titles and this 'new' Radeon is a good match for the GTX 680, especially at sky-high resolutions. Think of it as a Radeon HD 7970 with a reasonable dollop of overclocking and you won't go far wrong.