AMD showcases dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 at GDC

[Shawn Knight]

AMD launched the Radeon HD 7790 late last week to cover the mid-range market which left many looking to see when the company was planning to tackle the high end. We now have some solid answers as AMD showcased the long-awaited Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU card at the annual Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco.

The Tech Report was on hand for the occasion although they said AMD didn’t have a ton of information to share. Aside from showcasing what the actual card would look like, representatives simply said it would be the world’s fastest graphics card and that it will be whisper quiet thanks to a three-fan cooling solution.

The unit on display included four mini DisplayPort outputs as well as a single DVI connector. The high-end graphics card appears to require two eight-pin PCIe power connectors in addition to the power it draws from the PCIe slot. This of course is typical for more powerful cards like this.

Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time this card has been shown by AMD. At the AMD Fusion Developer Summit in June 2012, AMD CTO Mark papermaster seemingly mistakenly showcased this card on stage as the FirePro W9000.

Graphics PR chief Dave Erskine later said the mystery card was a dual-GPU solution that the company was working on for later in the year. It seems that AMD missed the target date by several months but at any rate, it’s official now. No word yet on when it will be available or at what cost but we’ll probably know more at Computex in June.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/52077-amd-showcases-dual-gpu-radeon-hd-7990-at-gdc.html

 

[amstech]

As cool and powerful as they are, I have never been impressed by dual GPU cards. I get why they make them with all the possible accomodations/certain space needs etc etc. I consider the fastest single GPU to be the real king. Just my take.

 

[Jad Chaar]

About time. I really wanna see this vs a Titan or a 690.

 

[Footlong]

The best part is that this card will only cost you a kidney. After all you can live (presumably well) with just one, right?! One question though, didn't AMD partners released this already with the name of 7970 X2?

 

[cliffordcooley]

One question though, didn't AMD partners released this already with the name of 7970 X2?

I don't believe so.

GTX 690 vs Radeon HD 7970 X2

Today we are going to show a comparative between three different models of DualGPU graphics cards, for the Nvidia-side we have the EVGA GTX 690 and for the AMD-side the HIS HD 7970 X2 and the PowerColor Radeon HD 7990 Devil13.

Edit:
On second thought it does look to be the same card.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I wanna see updated benchmarks before I judge. The drivers will be more optimized for the newly released 7990.

 

[dividebyzero]

Edit:
On second thought it does look to be the same card.

The Devil 13 (and the other TUL branded cards like the VTX3D, Club3D, and PowerColor standard card) are all full fat (2048 shader core) Tahiti XT, triple slot, 3 x 8-pin PCI-E power. The reference HD 7990 is dual slot, 2 x 8pin (as per the card shown a year ago)...and apparently, 1792 shader/core/stream processors per GPU- which if still a Tahiti GPU (likely) would make it equivalent to a dual HD 7950 card (Tahiti Pro)

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

As cool and powerful as they are, I have never been impressed by dual GPU cards. I get why they make them with all the possible accomodations/certain space needs etc etc. I consider the fastest single GPU to be the real king. Just my take.

+1 although I never realized they were cool, All the reviews I've read about them they seem to run rather hot.

 

[lucasepiphany]

Screw all this dual GPU crapp, my SLI 580s stil rule and I spent too much and enuf wit upgrading everytime they tell us Kepler this titan that

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Yeah most enthusiast's tend to overspend on their parts although they vehemently defend their purchases as an investment and a necessity.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Screw all this dual GPU crapp, my SLI 580s stil rule and I spent too much and enuf wit upgrading everytime they tell us Kepler this titan that

My friend has 2 heavily OCed and watercooled 580s, they perform well @ max settings on all games except Crysis 3, where he had to tone down the settings. As for the 7990 and dual slots in general, yes they are weaker than 2 of the same GPUs in SLI, but it creates less heat and takes up less slots.

 

[dividebyzero]

What looks to be a legitimate HD 7990 up for sale on eBay.

950 MHz core frequency (presumably with some sort of boost option), 6000 MHz effective memory

Price looks steep considering the retail card is rumoured to launch next week ( 22nd April).

 

[Jad Chaar]

Well, couldnt that also be the FirePro S10000? It is literally the same exact thing. Do the stickers on the fans say Radeon?

Edit: The 3 Stickers on the Radeon card and then lack of FirePro branding near the fan make me think that is legit as you said Zero.

 

[dividebyzero]

The shrouds are somewhat different which would be a significant differentiator - note the double row of cooling slots on the S10000. They are present on both sides of the shroud:

Another indicator would be pricing. An S10000 is a $3200-3500 card. It's worth a great deal more as a FirePro than a BIOS modded (the S10000 is 825M core/5000M effective memory) Radeon

 

[Jad Chaar]

Hmm. Interesting. Does the FirePro have ECC memory? Isnt that what drives up the price.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Hmm. Interesting. Does the FirePro have ECC memory? Isnt that what drives up the price.

What drives up the price is the reason behind owning one. It's a professional graphics card. The phrase "It takes money to make money!" definitely applies here.

 

[Jad Chaar]

What drives up the price is the reason behind owning one. It's a professional graphics card. The phrase "It takes money to make money!" definitely applies here.

I know it is professional. But the thing that separates the Quadro K5000 and the GTX 680 is the 4 GB of ECC memory. $500 vs $1800.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Do you honestly think it cost 1300 more to produce ECC memory?

 

[Jad Chaar]

Do you honestly think it cost 1300 more to produce ECC memory?

No, but that is the main factor. It is also for the drivers I guess. I really dont know lol

 

[dividebyzero]

Hmm. Interesting. Does the FirePro have ECC memory? Isnt that what drives up the price.

The FirePro does have 72-bit ECC memory, but the main reason the card should be more expensive is the 24/7 support. Technically, drivers make up a large part of a pro cards extra cost. This is a moot point with AMD pro cards since AMD pro drivers are basically non-existent.
Both Nvidia and AMD pro GPUs generally undergo a more stringent binning process for voltage, since many applications rely upon passive solutions (at least as far as the card goes) and a tighter power usage envelope.