Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 custom card gets pictured

TechPowerUp came across some photos of a single-fan non-reference Radeon HD 7950 from Sapphire. Clockspeeds are likely the same as the reference board.

The single-fan HD 7950 appears to have a blue-colored PCB that is likely to be AMD's cost-effective reference design. The cooler appears to have a compact heatsink that is cooled by a single central fan. Display outputs include two mini-DisplayPort, and one each of HDMI and DVI. We're also hearing from the source that 900 MHz core with unchanged (1250/5000 MHz) memory will be the maximum factory-OC permitted by AMD to AIB partners. That is not to say that the HD 7950's OC potential beyond that will be limited in any way.

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 custom card gets pictured - More news at DV Hardware

Swiftech Komodo Radeon HD 7970 waterblock revealed

TechPowerUp found pictures of Swiftech's upcoming Komodo full-coverage waterblock for AMD's Radeon HD 7970 graphics card. Pricing and availability is unknown.

Called the Komodo HD 7970, the block confines itself to the size of one expansion slot with an included single-slot bracket. The monolithic black design adds a lot to the aesthetics of the card, including its fittings area. The primary material of the block is nickel-plated copper. The portion of the block over the GPU has a 0.25x0.25 Micro Pin matrix, which maximizes heat dissipation to the coolant. Unlike other full-coverage blocks where a portion of the block that doesn't have flowing coolant makes contact with the VRM, the Komodo HD 7970 has "active" VRM cooling, where the area over the VRM has its own coolant chamber, and is part of the coolant's primary flow.

Swiftech Komodo Radeon HD 7970 waterblock revealed - More news at DV Hardware

AMD rolls out Radeon HD 7900 driver

AMD has published the 8.921.2 RC11 driver for the Radeon HD 7900 series.

Feature highlights of the 8.921.2 RC11 AMD Radeon� HD 7900 driver

Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Preview support for DirectX� 10 and DirectX� 11 applications
AMD Radeon� HD 7900 users can now enable Super Sample Anti-Aliasing and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing through the AMD Catalyst� Control Center for DirectX� 10 and DirectX� 11 applications.
Applications must support in game Anti-Aliasing for the feature to work (Forced on Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst� Control Center is not supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications)

Performance highlights of the 8.921.2 RC11 AMD Radeon� HD 7900 driver
8% (up to) performance improvement in Aliens vs. Predator
15% (up to) performance improvement in Battleforge with Anti-Aliasing enabled
3% (up to) performance improvement in Battlefield 3
3% (up to) performance improvement in Crysis 2
6% (up to) performance improvement in Crysis Warhead
10% (up to) performance improvement in F1 2010
5% (up to) performance improvement in Unigine with Anti-Aliasing enabled
250% (up to) performance improvement in TessMark (OpenGL) when set to �insane� levels

Resolved issues: highlights of the 8.921.2 RC11 AMD Radeon� HD 7900 driver
Folding@Home: intermittent stability issues have been resolved for the OpenCL version of Folding@Home
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 no longer experiences minor flickering with Tri CrossFireX� configurations
Dragon Age 2 no longer experiences minor flickering with Tri CrossFireX� configurations
StarCraft 2 no longer encounters issues when quitting campaign with Tri and Quad CrossFireX� configurations
BattleForge stability has been improved with Tri CrossFireX� configurations
Improved stability when enabling / disabling CrossFireX� and installing the AMD graphics driver on AMD CrossfireX� configurations

Known Issues:
Just Cause 2 - Launching the application will cause a hang for single GPU and CrossfireX� configurations

AMD rolls out Radeon HD 7900 driver - More news at DV Hardware

AMD Radeon HD 7950 clock speeds revealed?

TPU spotted a rumor over at DonanimHaber regarding the supposed clockspeeds of AMD's Radeon HD 7950 video card:

eliable sources revealed to DonanimHaber the reference clock speeds of the HD 7950. The core of the HD 7950 will be clocked at 800 MHz, and the memory at 1250 MHz (actual), 5.00 GHz (GDDR5 effective). This, compared to the 925 MHz (core), 1375 MHz (memory actual)/ 5.50 GHz (memory effective) clock speeds of the HD 7970. The HD 7950 will hence be a good overclocker considering the speeds it comes with, there is scope for quite a few factory-OC models from AIBs.

The Radeon HD 7950 is expected to be around $100 to $150 cheaper than the Radeon HD 7970, which would put it around $400 to $450.

AMD Radeon HD 7950 clock speeds revealed? - More news at DV Hardware

Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Cards in 3-Way CrossFireX

Introduction

Since the launch of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 we've looked at the reference model to see how it performs when the card sits on its own. With that done we then took the time to install a second reference design card into the mix and see how performance with the HD 7970 running in CrossFire.

Today we grab a third card and see what happens when we move to a three way CrossFireX setup. Since we've already looked at the Sapphire card in full detail in our CrossFire review mentioned above, we'll be getting into the performance side of things fairly quickly today.

The first thing we need to do is just take a quick look at our testbed, if you've been following our HD 7970 series of content, though, you shouldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Once we've done that we'll move onto the performance of the setup and see how it compares to other HD 7970s we've looked at.

When we've moved away from two cards and onto three and four card setups we've seen that performance can tend to get hit a fair bit. Quite often we don't see the gains we'd like to see and that ultimately makes three and four card setups quite overpriced and sometimes impractical. Still, the HD 7970 has shown us some wonderful performance so far... fingers crossed it translates over to today's 3-Way CrossFireX setup.

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Radeon Gallium3D: A Half-Decade Behind Catalyst? @ Phoronix

What happens when you pull out some vintage computer hardware and run the latest Linux software as well as go back and run some of the oldest software available? Well, in the case of systems with antiquated R300-era ATI Radeon graphics, you are left with a downward slope in performance. Not only is the latest open-source Radeon graphics driver not always performing as well as an ancient Catalyst driver, but also the power consumption of the latest Linux code remains on an incline.

Read more about Gallium3D's performance at Phoronix.

Radeon Gallium3D: A Half-Decade Behind Catalyst? @ Phoronix - More news at DV Hardware

Aeolus Gamer Storm Dracula heatsink for Radeon HD 7970 pictured

TPU found shots of the Dracula Radeon HD 7970 GPU heatsink from Aeolus Gamer Storm. This model has a nickel-plated copper base, six 6mm heatpipes, and two aluminium fin arrays. Tests by the company reveal a Radeon HD 7970 runs up to 35�C less hot with the Dracula + two 80mm fans than one with the reference cooler.

The heatsink is designed to handle thermal loads of up to 250W, when outfitted with fans. The heatsink design consists of a nickel-plated copper base (this particular variant has a circular bump where the GPU die makes contact), with the appropriate mount-hole spacing for HD 7970. Through this base, six 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat-pipes pass, the opposite ends of these heat pipes pass through two aluminum fin stacks.

Aeolus Gamer Storm Dracula heatsink for Radeon HD 7970 pictured - More news at DV Hardware

NVIDIA GK104 to compete with Radeon HD 7900 series?

Asian rumors cited by TPU claim NVIDIA's GK104 "Kepler" GPU will continue to have a 256-bit GDDR5 memory bus. The card has a pretty high power consumption of 225W, but according to the rumor this GeForce GTX 560 Ti successor aims to compete with AMD's Radeon HD 7970 series.

New reports suggest that this GPU, which will succeed GF114 (on which the likes of GeForce GTX 560 Ti are based), will continue to have a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. An equally recent report suggests that NVIDIA could give the front-line product based on GK104 as much as 2 GB of memory. We are also getting to hear from the INPAI report that on this product based on the GK104, the GPU will have a TDP of 225W. What's more, NVIDIA is gunning for the performance crown from AMD Radeon HD 7900 series with this chip, so it suggests that NVIDIA is designing the GK104 to have a massive performance improvement over the GF114 that it's succeeding.

NVIDIA GK104 to compete with Radeon HD 7900 series? - More news at DV Hardware

ASUS Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II gets pictured

TechPowerUp got its hands on exclusive pictures of the ASUS Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II edition, you can check it out over here.

Here are the first pictures of ASUS' premium DirectCu II graphics card designed around AMD's Radeon HD 7970 GPU. The design is based on giving the GPU a powerful cooling solution, backed by a custom-design PCB. Since its cooling solution spans across three expansion slots, one of the three expansion slot brackets is productively used to provide additional display connectivity. To begin with, the PCB uses a 10+1+1 ASUS Digi+ VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It supports heavy overclocking, and provides several voltage tuning features.

A common metal heatsink spans along the length of the card, making contact with VRM and memory components. On top of this sits the DirectCu II heatsink. This heatsink uses a large aluminum fin-stack heatsink to which heat from the GPU is conveyed by six heat-pipes, which make direct contact with it. The heatsink itself isn't very thick, but what makes the card span across three slots are its two 100 mm fans. The GPU is clocked out of the box at 1000 MHz (vs. 925 MHz reference), and 5.60 GHz/1400 MHz actual memory (vs. 5.50 GHz/1375 MHz actual reference).

ASUS Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II gets pictured - More news at DV Hardware

PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 PCS pixellized

TPU received a photo of PowerColor's upcoming Radeon HD 7950 PCS.

From this fairly large, and fairly clear picture PowerColor released, one can make out its new PCS (professional cooling system) cooler design, which uses a slightly larger aluminum fin-stack heatsink than the one found on previous generation PCS coolers. Heat is drawn from the GPU and conveyed to this fin-stack a number of nickel-plated copper heat-pipes (we count four). The heatsink is ventilated by two 80 mm fans. The card appears to stick within the confines of two expansion slots.

PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 PCS pixellized - More news at DV Hardware

Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Cards in CrossFire

Introduction

We're slowly working our way through our HD 7970s which we have on hand. We started off by checking out the reference card from AMD to find out the kind of performance was on offer from the new AMD model. We then checked out the first card that stepped away from the reference cooler; the XFX HD 7970 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation.

After that we moved onto the HIS HD 7970 3GB and took the time to overclock it to see just what kind of potential was on offer from the brand new model. Today the Sapphire HD 7970 3GB showed up and it was time to see what happens when we finally put together a pair of these new cards and see what kind of performance we're able to get out of the new models when in CrossFire.

As always, before we get into the performance side of things, we've got to take a closer look at the box and the package before we take a closer look at the card itself. Once we've done that we'll quickly cover the specifications and make sure CrossFire is working before we get into the testbed side of things and of course check out the performance.

The Package

Checking out the box there's nothing too out of the ordinary going on. We've got the brand and model on the front along with some of the main features highlighted including the 3GB of GDDR5 running on a 384-bit bus. Turning over expands on some of the features a bit more and gives us a bit of an idea what's going on with the package.

Checking out the package we've got the typical paperwork including a key to become a Sapphire Select Club Gold Member. Also above you can see a CrossFire Bridge, DVI to VGA connector and full length HDMI cable. Thinking the package was a little light I double checked with Sapphire to see what came in the package. Unfortunately the card had done the rounds and the last place that had it didn't put everything back in. Along with what you can see above we've also got a MiniDP to Single Link DVI Active Adapter, HDMI to DVI Adapter and a MiniDP to DP connector.

It's worth noting that Sapphire is the first company to include a MiniDP to DP connector, as we've been saying all along, if you're going to make use of a DisplayPort cable, it will come in extremely handy and prevent the need of having to purchase one separately.

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AMD Radeon HD 7950 in two weeks, NVIDIA Kepler in April?

Word has reached DigiTimes that AMD is planning to unveil its Radeon HD 7950 graphics card by the end of January, while NVIDIA is anticipated to introduce its 28nm Kepler GPU in April, at the latest.

The sources noted that Nvidia wishes to make sure that the power consumption and the manufacturing process of the graphics chip all reach perfection before entering the 28nm generation. Since Nvidia is set to release its 28nm graphics card around the same time as Intel's upcoming 22nm Ivy Bridge processor, the sources believe Kepler series GPUs may have a chance to catch up with the demand for Intel's new CPUs.

Nvidia is set to release several 28nm Kepler-based GPUs including GK104, which will replace the existing GeForce GTX 560Ti; GK107, targeting the entry-level PC market; GK106, targeting the mid-range to entry-level market; GK110, which is equipped with two GK104 GPUs; and the highest-end GK112, which may be released in the fourth quarter or 2013.

Over at VR Zone Theo Valich reveals he heard at CES 2012 that Kepler may arrive by late March or early April, and that the launch will be a hard one with sufficient units for the first wave of customers.

Interestingly, VR Zone also picked up a rumor at ChipHell that tells a whole different story. According to the Chinese source, NVIDIA decided to pull the release of the GeForce GTX 680 (aka Kepler) from the original March/April launch to as early as late February.

The rumour claims GTX 680 will offer similar performance to AMD's Radeon HD 7970. Clock speed is 780 MHz - no higher than GTX 580 - while it sports 2GB memory. While this suggests a 512-bit or 256-bit memory bus, NVIDIA has in the past mated 1GB to 192-bit with GTX 550 Ti, so it is possible GTX 680 has a 384-bit memory interface. Little else is revealed about the mysterious GTX 680.

AMD Radeon HD 7950 in two weeks, NVIDIA Kepler in April? - More news at DV Hardware

AMD Radeon HD 7000 Mobility GPUs to be launched on December 5?

TPU picked up a rumor that AMD's first Radeon HD 7000 series cards may be introduced next week. The mobile parts are expected to be launched first, or perhaps the company will show off its GCN architecture.

It is indicated that products launched on that day will be based on GPUs built on the 28 nanometer fabrication process. The new products will be unveiled in London. It's likely that these are mobile parts based on the "Thames" and "Seymour" silicons. An alternate theory is that AMD could unveil some of its next-generation GPUs based on the GCN architecture, AMD's biggest leap in GPU architecture since Radeon HD 2000 series.

AMD Radeon HD 7000 Mobility GPUs to be launched on December 5? - More news at DV Hardware

Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB Vapor-X Video Card Review

Introduction

It's been a bit of an AMD love fest lately when it's come to VGA with a lot of HD 6000 series making their way through the doors. It's not all that uncommon, though, as we tend to see a few months after launch companies start to release their different variations of the models that we begin to know and love.

Some choose to overclock, others choose to throw a new cooler on it, while some just go all out and do both. Today we're checking out the Vapor-X version of the HD 6870 which is a series we've grown fond of over the years thanks to the superior cooling it's offered over reference cooled cards.

With the HD 6000 series running a little warmer than people previously had hoped, it seems like the perfect candidate for a new cooler. So what kind of performance do we get from the card and does the cooler bring with it lower temperature, lower noise, or even both?

Well, before we find that out, let's check out the package, the card and then the specifications of the card in hand.

The Package

Cable wise we've got a pretty impressive array included. Apart from all the normal stuff we've also got a HDMI cable and mini-DP to DP connector. One of the better AMD card bundles we've seen when it comes to cables.

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