AMD Radeon HD 7990 details leaked as Nvidia GTX 680 launches

[Leeky]

AMD has been on a roll of late, with six new 7000-series graphics cards in the first quarter of this year alone. Now we’re hearing details about team red’s upcoming range-topping, dual GPU Radeon HD 7990 model, which could be here as early as next month, after Chinese website inpai.com.cn leaked the specifications.

It’s no surprise we’re hearing details about the new dual-GPU card just now, with team green’s Kepler GK-104 based GTX 680 announced earlier today. The new Nvidia offering takes the crown from AMD’s current top model, claiming the title as the fastest single-GPU graphics card available.

According to the leaked specifications, the HD 7990 will feature two Tahiti-XT 7970 graphics cores using the 28nm architecture, with 8.6-billion transistors and 4,096 processors combined, a total of 256 texture units, 64 ROPs, and a massive 6GB of GDDR5 memory shared across both of the GPUs using two 384-bit channels.

As with the previous dual-GPU release, each GPU-core will be clocked slightly lower than their respective HD 7970 models, at 850MHz (HD 7970 has 925MHz) with the frame buffer set at an effective 5,000MHz, which again is 500MHz lower per GPU-core than the HD 7970 is clocked at.

There is currently no word on the TDP wattage, or the number of power connections, though it is very likely it will employ two 8-pin sockets. There is also no news on crossfire support either, but it is safe to assume that you’ll be able to at least pair them up in crossfire, as with the previous generation HD 6990.

Whilst there is no word on pricing either, it won’t be cheap and it’s unlikely to find its way into all but the most die-hard of enthusiast’s computers. The steep cost aside, given the very positive recent reviews of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 this new dual-GPU model will pack a monstrous punch.

AMD did not respond to requests for further comment, but for now it remains to be seen whether this is a paper exercise to knock the wind out of the GTX 680’s release. Should the leaked information turn out to be correct, the new dual GPU card will hit store shelves in April.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/47903-amd-radeon-hd-7990-details-leaked-as-nvidia-gtx-680-launches.html

 

[lawfer]

It "leaked," huh?

 

[indiangamer]

lawfer said:
It "leaked," huh?

+1

 

[Guest]

Look at the fans as if they were photoshopped.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Ranger12]

Yeah, the announcement was def meant to soften the blow of the 680. The 7990 looks ridiculously long though.

 

[amstech]

The GTX 690 will be faster, more efficient, and obviously have Nvidia's much superior, smoother feature rich driver set. I do appluad AMD for battling though. If only thier CPU's could challenge Intel more.

 

[Mister_K]

amstech said:
The GTX 690 will be faster, more efficient, and obviously have Nvidia's much superior, smoother feature rich driver set. I do appluad AMD for battling though. If only thier CPU's could challenge Intel more.

Yep, tho I hope it won't be another 590... oh god the horrors :3 ITS ON FIRREEEEE

 

[Guest]

Would never consider another AMD card, but I'm glad they're around to keep things competetive. Drivers are just about equally important as the hardware they drive and AMD is full of fail in that department.

 

[Chazz]

For the last 3 years I've had an AMD GPU, compared to my Nvidia GPUs before that I don't see a problem with their drivers. I crashed to desktop in BF3 beta before I tried out the AMD beta drivers and haven't had any problems since.

I'm a "why not?" sorta guy, as opposed to the "If it aint broke don't fix it crowd", so I update my drivers every time AMD releases a new preview and haven't had a major problem. The only thing I can think of is AMD having too low idle clocks when in multi-monitor situations. That caused some graphical glitches but was fixed very fast and even faster if you just edited it yourself.

 

[howzz1854]

i've, and still do own both Nvidia/ATI.. both of their drivers suck lets behonest. there's no clear winner on the driver side. one will do better in one aspect than the other.. and vise versa, but overall, both are not perfect.

 

[Leeky]

I've been firmly in the AMD camp since my GTX280 let go last year, and I can't really say I've noticed much difference between the two for drivers.

That said, my current HD 6870 does seem awfully picky with drivers compared with my previous AMD GPUs, with the driver having a right old habit of crashing when on the desktop with my multi-display setup. However, "touch wood" it hasn't played up since updating to the latest driver release from AMD.

It's never crashed the computer solid though, and never during gaming, so it's not as bad as it sounds. Its definitely much fussier than other GPU's though. Also, its worth pointing out that I've experienced this issue with 4 previous releases of AMD drivers, but last week I did a fresh install of W7 Pro and its been fine since. So it is possible there was something not quite right with the Windows install, or an issue created from having the previous GPUs before the one I have now.

I also don't see myself going over to camp green any time soon either.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Leeky said:
I've been firmly in the AMD camp since my GTX280 let go last year, and I can't really say I've noticed much difference between the two for drivers.

That said, my current HD 6870 does seem awfully picky with drivers compared with my previous AMD GPUs, with the driver having a right old habit of crashing when on the desktop with my multi-display setup. However, "touch wood" it hasn't played up since updating to the latest driver release from AMD.

It's never crashed the computer solid though, and never during gaming, so it's not as bad as it sounds. Its definitely much fussier than other GPU's though. Also, its worth pointing out that I've experienced this issue with 4 previous releases of AMD drivers, but last week I did a fresh install of W7 Pro and its been fine since. So it is possible there was something not quite right with the Windows install, or an issue created from having the previous GPUs before the one I have now.

I also don't see myself going over to camp green any time soon either.

What does a 6870 and a green vs red debate with yourself have to do with the article?

 

[Leeky]

My comment was in reference to the post above my first reply, and the discussion about drivers.

 

[Burty117]

hahahanoobs said:
What does a 6870 and a green vs red debate with yourself have to do with the article?

what doesn't it have to do with the article?

 

[Zilpha]

I've been firmly in the AMD camp since my GTX280 let go last year, and I can't really say I've noticed much difference between the two for drivers.

Then you are lucky. My desktop running 12.2 can't seem to handle AA on Skyrim - the second I upgraded everything was pixelated. Imagine my shock when I searched the issue on Google and the answer was to turn AA off to fix it. This sort of thing has become pretty common in catalyst drivers.

All my notebooks have Nvidia (m11 and m14) and neither has ever caused me to have to search the interwebs for why does a game not look right.

 

[Leeky]

@Zilpha,

Possibly, though I haven't played Skyrim so I can't comment on what my experiences are. It certainly isn't an acceptable solution though, and I'd be pretty annoyed at that as well.

I can't say I've had an issue with any game to date, to be honest. Maybe that's a reflection of the games I play though.

 

[fpsgamerJR62]

I just bought my 6990 last November and they're releasing a new one already ? I was hoping they'd stop making those 12-inch monsters but it seems this one is just as long if not longer. Still hoping it won't have the heat and noise of my 6990 and that the Catalyst driver releases this year will have less issues with the games we play than the 2011 releases.

 

[DAOWAce]

6GB VRAM on a 384 bus.

ATI gets it.

NVIDIA, why you release cards with sub-par memory attributes?

 

[Guest]

I play skyrim on my 7970 and I have zero driver issues. Nor on Battlefield 3 or ME 3. Im not dedicated to one camp. I respect both. Though I recently bought a 7970 and Im overly impressed with its performance. Its insanely fast. I thought briefly about trying out the 680 and rma'ing my 7970 but theres not really anything so impressive about the 680 that Ill change brands. They are quite comparable to one another. On a side note, I DO plan on replacing my xfx black edition with an MSI lightning 7970. That card is undeniably beast.