AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review: 7990 Gets Official
by Ryan Smith on April 24, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Radeon HD 7000
- Tahiti
Hitman: Absolution
The third game in our lineup is Hitman: Absolution. The latest game in Square Enix’s stealth-action series, Hitman: Absolution is a DirectX 11 based title that though a bit heavy on the CPU, can give most GPUs a run for their money. Furthermore it has a built-in benchmark, which gives it a level of standardization that fewer and fewer benchmarks possess.
Looking at our average framerates, we see an interesting pattern with Hitman we don’t see elsewhere. Rather than pulling ahead, the 7990’s lead over the GTX 690 starts eroding as we go up the resolution ladder. Ultimately by the time we hit 5760, the two are virtually tied, and unfortunately neither has passed the 60fps mark.
It’s interesting to note though that at 5760 we’re seeing a very clear case of where the 7990 is trailing the 7970GE CF by more than clockspeeds alone would suggest. If the 7990 was boosting as frequently as the 7970GE CF here, then the two should be separated by no more than 5%; instead we’re looking at a gap of 8%. GPU binning covers a good bit of ground, but under heavy load the 7990 is going to have to pull back on its clockspeeds to stay under 375W.
With our minimum framerates the gap between the two AMD solutions widens considerably, leaving the 7990 behind by 17% at 5760. Hitman’s minimum framerates have proven to be reliable in the past, but still, if this is a case of throttling it looks to be a rather extreme one.
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Plattypus - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
There's a typo on the Specification Comparison chart, you put 7970 instead of 7990 for the first one.Great review!
deestinct - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
There is no typo. It IS 7970 CF. CF stands for CrossFire, which means two 7970s. Therefore the comparison makes sensedeestinct - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Ah sorry ignore my previous comment....i misunderstood what you saidjust4U - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
One thing that bother's me about this and Nvidia's offering. You sort of "hope" (expect.. would be better..) that these types of cards would bring something more to the table besides just a dual stack of their top end card. Higher clocks, better memory.. something.jeffkibuule - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Power savings compared to 2 cards in SLI/CrossFire. Ability to fit in a smaller chassis. Use of the best binned chips possible. But yeah, it really is for the 1%.mr_tawan - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Single card also means no need for SLI/Cross Fire mainboard (which save money a bit).Rookierookie - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
I don't know if you are spending $999 on your graphics card that saving money is really an issue. You are not likely to be using a low-end motherboard, and many of the high end motherboards support SLI/Crossfire anyway.just4U - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
The power draw appears to be (in my opinion) partially due to the lower speeds. The cards are for a select crowd but I don't see the draw. There should bring something new to the table which would help to entice buyers.Ktracho - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
There is a fair amount of variability in power consumption from one chip to another. Always choosing two chips that are on the low power side makes a significant difference compared to two chips chosen at random, because in the latter case, the design has to account for the worst case - two chips that are on the high power side.stren - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
5 real monitor outputs and SFF is what it's about for those with unlimited cash, otherwise you'd be better off with mulitple lightnings or matrix cards. Until they support 2D lightboost then I'll be sticking with Nvidia.