AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Review: Give Me Back That Crown!

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First of, I'm not being a troll in case anyone may think so.

But here, isn't it wrong to use another card's firmware to flash another just like how TH sort of promoted in the article? I mean, I'm not sure if using the HD6970's firmware on the HD6950 would make it have the same performance, but if AMD really made that possibly more optimized firmware for exclusive use with the HD6970, doesn't that mean you shouldn't back it up and possibly distribute it on the Net? Modifying the BIOS/firmware sounds alright to me since you might be using your own ingenuity with it, but using the exact same firmware that AMD worked and intended for use with the HD6970 for its price and performance on the HD6950 sounds like you're cheating them.
An analogy might be how Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate are. When you install Windows 7, it supposedly has all the files of Ultimate in it regardless of your edition. In the same way, AMD might've intentionally impaired the HD6950's firmware to fit that price segment.

I don't know if I sound silly, especially if the person who reads this might be a pirate who doesn't really care in the first place, but it's just a concern that popped in my head. Hehehe... 🙂
 
[citation][nom]army_ant7[/nom]First of, I'm not being a troll in case anyone may think so.But here, isn't it wrong to use another card's firmware to flash another just like how TH sort of promoted in the article? I mean, I'm not sure if using the HD6970's firmware on the HD6950 would make it have the same performance, but if AMD really made that possibly more optimized firmware for exclusive use with the HD6970, doesn't that mean you shouldn't back it up and possibly distribute it on the Net? Modifying the BIOS/firmware sounds alright to me since you might be using your own ingenuity with it, but using the exact same firmware that AMD worked and intended for use with the HD6970 for its price and performance on the HD6950 sounds like you're cheating them.An analogy might be how Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate are. When you install Windows 7, it supposedly has all the files of Ultimate in it regardless of your edition. In the same way, AMD might've intentionally impaired the HD6950's firmware to fit that price segment.I don't know if I sound silly, especially if the person who reads this might be a pirate who doesn't really care in the first place, but it's just a concern that popped in my head. Hehehe... 🙂[/citation]

Granted I don't condone piracy, if AMD makes it easy to just throw in better firmware to upgrade a card for free, I have nothing against using it unless there are other problems associated. For example, how this firmware upgrade can have unpredictable changes and recently manufactured 6950s can't even be used in this way at all anymore do to being laser-cut to damage disabled portions (trying to upgrade the firmware to 6970 tends to simply brick these 6950s if I remember correctly).
 
Guys I don't have time to make a benchmark comparison, but the latest nvidia beta driver boots up performance at least a 10% from the 301.42 , dunno how close this brings up to the 7970 but maybe it's worth checking
 
[citation][nom]gsxrme[/nom]Not worried my GTX680 @ 1352Mhz is untouchable by AMDs HD7970[/citation]

If the 7970 at 1GHz can beat the 680 at stock with current drivers for both, then a 300MHz overclock on the 680 won't let it beat the 7970 if you give it a 300MHz overclock and the 7970 undoubtedly scales better with GPU performance increases due to it's higher memory bandwidth, so it would likely win by a slightly higher margin. It would not be a noticeable win so the 7970 could be said to not beat the 680 in this scenario, but the 7970 still wins ever so slightly and at this point, many 7970s are cheaper than the 680 by quite a large margin too. Considering that when overclocking is concerned, a 7950 with the same PCB is roughly equal to the 7970 in performance, that value can be even higher.
 
[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Granted I don't condone piracy, if AMD makes it easy to just throw in better firmware to upgrade a card for free, I have nothing against using it unless there are other problems associated. For example, how this firmware upgrade can have unpredictable changes and recently manufactured 6950s can't even be used in this way at all anymore do to being laser-cut to damage disabled portions (trying to upgrade the firmware to 6970 tends to simply brick these 6950s if I remember correctly).[/citation]
Oh, so AMD did implement a way to prevent this and protect their HD6970. Though, it maybe is just me, I've been hearing more about the HD6950 than the HD6970. It is probably just me.

[citation][nom]davemaster84[/nom]Guys I don't have time to make a benchmark comparison, but the latest nvidia beta driver boots up performance at least a 10% from the 301.42 , dunno how close this brings up to the 7970 but maybe it's worth checking[/citation]
It says that they're using an even newer one:
Nvidia GeForce Release 304.48 (Beta) For GTX 680 and 670
Nvidia GeForce Release 301.33 For GTX 690
Click to expand...
 
[citation][nom]army_ant7[/nom]Oh, so AMD did implement a way to prevent this and protect their HD6970. Though, it maybe is just me, I've been hearing more about the HD6950 than the HD6970. It is probably just me.It says that they're using an even newer one:[/citation]

I still got a 100Mhz lead on a overclocked HD7970 and now the tables have turned, AMD now has an egg pan. Nvidia pulls 50watts less than AMD stock vs stock and to overclock not much extra voltage is required either.

Lets use the same shit AMD has been trying to sell and Performance Per Watt excuse and Nvidia wins in this shoot out. well have to wait for the HD7000 series to put a real smack down on the Nvidia 600 series cards.
 
Well I used to get 100 fps in unigine haven 3.0 using stock settings, now I get 116 with the 301.72 beta driver. For crysis 2 it passed from 65 fps at maxx settings, dx 11 to 72 😀 Maybe we're almost there, probably with the next drivers the 680 will have it's crown back 😀
 
GTX 670 FTW

I'm not going to need to upgrade for quite a long time! :)

I kinda wish these reviews were done on stadard clocked 3770 CPU though. I'm already past sandy bridge 😉 I think most of us are buying ivy these days although yeah I know the 6 core sandy bridge is faster than my 3770k. It doesn't matter a whole lot though. 60+ consistant FPS in Crysis 2 DX11 with all details fully maxed out. This system runs great :)
 


A standard clocked 3770 would be a bottle-neck for the 7970, 670, and 680 (and the 7950 and 7870 if overclocking is considered) in many situations. You could use the Turbo settings and the BLCK to give that 3770 a 20%-30% overclock safely and I'd say that it is likely worth it for a system with a GTX 670, although you could run benchmarks to check for yourself. Regardless, like you said, chances are that you won't need an upgrade any time soon since you have a 670.
 


Maybe. That would also depend on whether or not AMD makes another improvement in driver performance too.
 


True, and after that one an update could be expected from nvidia too and so on, I think both cards are equally good, the only problem the 680 would have is the sli surround issue in 990fx boards, the rest is even
 
[citation][nom]stant1rm[/nom]I think AMD just starting charging buyers $50-$100 price premiums for an OC they could do own their own...[/citation]

Actually, AMD is charging for the extra binning. Whether or not it is worth the extra money to you is your choice, but it's not just increasing the frequency.
 


No, they bin them after AMD sends them readied for the card that they're intended for. Manufacturers don't decide what chips go in a 7950, a 7970, and a 7970 GHz Edition, although they can chose what 7970 GHz Edition gets what 7970 GHz Edition chips. IE they can have one model that gets the top 7970 GHz Edition chips and a lower 7970 GHz Edition model that gets the rest. They could put a higher chip in a lower card, but that would be more expensive for them.
 


Those chips still aren't as good as the majority of the 7970 GHz Edition chips. The top 7970 chips probably come close and thus the top regular 7970s might come close in overclocking potential, but they would still at least marginally lose to the lowest 7970 GHz Edition chips. The same might not be true for the earliest 7970s from around launch time if AMD has only been stockpiling 7970 GHz Edition-quality chips for a few months, but at the least, it is true now.
 
So really all the price premium is for is for a higher binned chip? I'd rather just take my chances OCing it. I was able to push my 6970 to that magical 1GHz mark, I think I can take a regular 7970 there as well.
 


A regular 7970 can overclock far past the 1GHz mark. The 7970 GHz Edition is simply better at overclocking. Thar RAM on 7970 GHz Editions is also probably better binned, although that might be even more dependent on each individual model. So, yes, the price premium is for the better binning. It might also have slightly superior reference VRM and such. I don't tihnk that I'd say that it's worth the price premium, but it might at least be more worth the premium than the GTX 680 is over the GTX 670.
 
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