Radeon HD 7970 Q&A

ThraxThrax 🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
edited January 2012 in Hardware
I am the product marketing manager at AMD responsible for the 7970, and cards like it.

If you have questions about the new architecture, new features, or anything of the sort, please ask away. :) I would love to hear your questions.

Comments

  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    Where's the 7950? :D

    How much cooler does this GPU run than the 6970? Is the fan quieter?

    Everything in today's tech is going smaller smaller smaller (28nm for example) When will we STOP having 11" graphic cards that we can fit into nice small cases?

    So the 7970 uses less power than the 6970 right?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2012
    1. I don't know the actual temperatures, but they will certainly be down because of the efficiencies in the 28nm process node, and the crazy phase-changing TIM we ported from the 6990. The TIM is machine-silkscreened onto the heatsink as a powder, which then melts and re-hardens as solid when the board is run. No TIM you can buy off the shelf is more efficient than what we put on the 7970.

    You will absolutely find that the fan is quieter, too. We used deeper blades, and more of them, to reduce the tonality and overall RPM (2400 vs. 2800-3000) of the 7970 fan versus the 6970.

    2. The GPU industry has settled in at roughly the same basic size for each class of graphics cards. Your 7970s and GTX 580s will always measure up at 10-11", and that's just the way it is. What miniaturization will do is let the performance improvements of the smaller GPUs outpace the advancements in graphics requirements, which makes the small/single-connector GPUs perfectly viable for 19x10 or 19x20 gaming without breaking a sweat.

    3. 7970 and 6970 both have the same absolute maximum power consumption: 300W (75W from PEG slot, 75W from 6-pin and 150W from 8-pin). But we have a lot of technologies that do make the 7970 more efficient.
    - AMD PowerTune to intelligently manage maximum board power exactly where we say it is. It'll never go over 300W unless you move the PowerTune slider into the positive territory, and find an app that can push the card that hard (no game can do it).
    - AMD ZeroCore Power to turn off the GPU and its fan when the monitor is in suspend or off. This brings board power down to less than 3W, which is good for those people who leave their PCs on all night (like me).

    And then there's just the simple fact that the average consumption of the board is much closer to 225W. 28nm is very efficient.

    //EDIT: 7950? When we're done tearing it up with 7970 sales. ;)
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    edited January 2012
    //EDIT: 7950? When we're done tearing it up with 7970 sales. ;)
    and...locking it down so you can't BIOS flash it mirite?...

    It's good to know that people with 69xx CrossfireX now won't need to get a higher watt PSU for 79xx CrossfireX
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