Here are the AMD HD 7970 benches from their Reviewers Guide
-- all of these are "best case" for the HD 7970 - about 1.5x the GTX 580's performance

http://imageshack.us/f/861/1111un.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/412/222wa.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/9/33333ew.jpg/

i am still sticking by +25% across the board faster

B3D forum is finally producing some interesting images - many benches from the Reviewer's guide. But beware, some are fake also. Pretty easy to tell.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.ph ... 76&page=65

This leak is so bad that legit reviewers must be disgusted that they ONLY are held to the NDA and there won't be much to read on Thursday. i always honor NDA and it is interesting to be on the other side of the fence - for a change. A nice change! Although i prefer to be under NDA with the HW.

Anyway, i will bring you back lots of pics from CES of the New Partner cards including the HD 7950; it is released on the Monday before CES and i should be there (privately meeting also with Intel, EVGA, and Nvidia, along with many other vendors).


So far, it's all good with AMD CPU. They are scheduling me for a briefing at CES. i am hoping to hear more about the new overclockable CPUs .. and maybe a hint of Piledriver
--Of course, i haven't yet heard from AMD Graphics. i wonder if they will return any of my dozen unanswered emails and phone calls.

Maybe they're using Bulldozer technology in their GPU's now.. If the 7xxx series indeed performs worse in some situations than the last gen, it would be business as usual for AMD.

i hope my preview of the HD 7970 did not give that impression. i think it will be something like the GTX 480 versus the GTX 285 when Fermi first arrived. The GTX 480 was impressive in DX 10/11 games but not so much stronger in some older DX9 games. Nvidia even altered their marketing a bit, to "the fastest DX11 cards in the world", after BFG10K posted his reviews of the GTX 470.

The HD 7970 is a competent performer and a decent increase over the 6970. However, due to the complexity and size of it (and we know yields are not great), the *feeling* is that it held back by the 28nm process and AMD decided NOT to respin it - they moved it to market early for strategy of their own
(to take advantage of CES, make money and gain the performance crown and get back their margins)
--if Nvidia could have launched by now, they would. But i think they are aiming higher performance-wise.

Time will tell if AMD's strategy works - it's good to see that they have their planning back

I get into small debates with people all the time about die size. I like to remind them that yes, die size can definitely affect yields, but there are also many other factors that can affect yields. Transistor density, the type of transistors used, the node process itself (which you also mentioned besides die size), and also engineering design (or bad design, like Fermi's memory controller before it was released). AMD cards usually have higher transistor density than Nvidia GPU's, which in this case could be affecting Tahiti's yields and possible performance issues.

Well, dies are going to get bigger as the transistor count goes up. Eventually the die will be a cube with transistors stacked on top of each other.

i never implied that die size was the issue. Die size and high transistor count adds to the complexity of the chip and they will have more yield issues at the beginning of the process than at the end of it.

It appears to me that both Tahiti and Bulldozer shipped earlier than AMD would have liked but they don't have the luxury of waiting for a respin as Intel or Nvidia can. Time was of the essence (especially) with Tahiti and their timing to market for a competent chip is excellent (end of the year, CES, etc.).

Tahiti should be received well as even +25% over the GTX 580 is good enough; unlike Bulldozer - which is (probably) being reworked into Piledriver now.

I see the logic in your short lived card theory if the MSRP Is $450/550 for the 7950/7970, but performance would be pretty much where you would expect it to be if AMD is continuing their small die strategy with a dual gpu flagship and charging $300/400 for 7950/7970.

Given the performance leaks so far the main thing I see concerns about is a price/performance ratio that isn't in line at all with what AMD has been offering for the last 3-4 years. People who might actually buy this thing (like me) would be disappointed in a $550 card that just beats a GTX 580 by 20-30% considering what $200-300 gets you with the current AMD lineup.

Either their new strategy is a bad one, or they were undercharging too much in the past to make acceptable margins. Either way, it seems like a bad move to build up marketshare by competing on price/performance and then pull the rug out on your customers.

According to their new CEO, they were undercharging and this is a new more "aggressive" policy; he says they want to be the "predator"

And if you look at the logic of the pricing, it makes sense (although it is way out of line with their previous products because they weren't the fastest).
---The HD 7970 comes in at MSRP equal to what an overclocked 3GB GTX 580 lists for - and it beats it. And as always, the market sets the pricing ultimately.

It's the "New AMD", so get ready for some changes
... that IS what my article is basically saying

The HD 7970 launch goes live at 12 midnight tonight ET

i just got a PR announcement from China

Their HD 7970 is selling for ...,

read the PR