More concrete details are starting to emerge regarding the upcoming AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards, which is based on the Pro derivative of the 28nm 'Tahiti' core that debuted with the HD 7970 earlier this month. According to information obtained by Donanim Haber, reference specs include a GPU core clocked at 800MHz, down from 925MHz on its higher-end sibling, while its 3GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 1,250MHz (5GHz QDDR) but maintains the same same 384-bit memory interface.
As previously reported, the Radeon HD 7950 will come with 4 compute units disabled compared to the HD 7970, bringing the number of stream processors down from 2048 to 1792. According to 3DMark 11 Extreme results obtained by the Turkish site, the card scores 2385 marks and is faster than the GTX 580. Of course we'll rather test real-world gaming performance ourselves but the data helps form an idea of what to expect.
AMD has given the green light for board partners to come up with their own designs right out the gate, so we'll be seeing a few models with custom coolers and factory overclocked settings when the Radeon HD 7950 arrives in a week or so – though such models may come in a bit higher than the expected MSRP of $450.
Currently, Radeon HD 7970 cards are listed for $550, with an overclocked XFX Black Edition going for $600.
