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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Nfarce - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Uhm, that Bundle is only "worth $350" to those who would USE it, as in those who haven't already purchased the games, let alone those who wouldn't play them (I never was a Tomb Raider or Bioshock fan, and I already have Crysis 3 and FC3). Think a little bigger next time.Nfarce - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Oh, and those are downloads only, which are NOT resalable...unless you like passing along your personal information to the buyer.R0H1T - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
The point still stands regardless of the game bundle, its like saying the free accessories you get with your phone/tablet are useless because you have a better pair of headphones at home ! The same goes for bitcoin mining, like discount coupons you don't necessarily have to use them but they certainly aren't worthless for people who actually do care about every penny they spend !nathanddrews - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
GPU Bench 2013 - broken linksEvery selection I make under DX11 brings me to the following page:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2
Speaking as one of those wackos that still plays games on a CRT, I have to admit that the entire state of GPUs is pretty bad. You've got to spend a mortgage payment just to get over 120fps @ 1080p maxed out on recent titles. Software seems to have evolved tremendously, offering cinematic levels of detail, but GPUs have not kept pace. The move to 60Hz LCD has sadly let GPU manufacturers off the hook. If we're looking at mainstream 60-120fps 4K displays this year and 120fps 8K displays following close behind, then AMD and Nvidia have their work cut out for them. They need to push a LOT more pixels MUCH faster than they are now. I can tell you right now, I'm not going to be impressed by 4K @ 30Hz.
iMacmatician - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
I noticed that too. Hopefully they fix it.Ryan Smith - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
The web devs fixed it this morning.nathanddrews - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Fantastic, thanks!Wreckage - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Late, not faster than the 690 and it uses a lot more power. Throw in the stuttering issues and this may be the biggest hardware disappointment of the year.eanazag - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
NVidia needs to up the power and VRAM on the 690 part. I am sure that the additional VRAM accounts for some of the additional 75W AMD is working with. Maybe 10W; 20W at most. NVidia needs to flex that 690 since they have the TDP room and spank AMD. I saw a lot of game favoring in the review. Luckily for Nvidia that compute isn't a big deal for today. AMD smokes it in compute.iMacmatician - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
In a few months (given the 770 and 760 Ti rumors), they might be able to do a refresh with revised GK104s and give 8 GB of RAM and clock bumps over the 690 in the same TDP.