AMD Radeon HD 7970 Launched, Fastest GPU Tested 281
MojoKid writes "Rumors of AMD's Southern Island family of graphics processors have circulated for some time, though today AMD is officially announcing their latest flagship single-GPU graphics card, the Radeon HD 7970. AMD's new Tahiti GPU is outfitted with 2,048 stream processors with a 925MHz engine clock, featuring AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture, paired to 3GB of GDDR5 memory connected over a 384-bit wide memory bus. And yes, it's crazy fast as you'd expect and supports DX11.1 rendering. In the benchmarks, the new Radeon HD 7970 bests NVIDIA's fastest single GPU GeForce GTX 580 card by a comfortable margin of 15 — 20 percent and can even approach some dual GPU configurations in certain tests." PC Perspective has a similarly positive writeup. There are people who will pay $549 for a video card, and others who are just glad that the technology drags along the low-end offerings, too.
This would be really cool... (Score:2, Insightful)
Linux Driver State? (Score:5, Insightful)
What is the state of Linux drivers for AMD graphics cards? I haven't checked in a few years, since the closed-source nVidia ones provide for excellent 3D performance and I'm happy with that.
But, I'm in the market for a new graphics card and wonder if I can look at AMD/ATI again.
No, I'm not willing to install Windows for the one or two games I play. For something like Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, (modified Quake 3 engine), how does AMD stack up on Linux?
Re:This would be really cool... (Score:5, Insightful)
Says the idiot that only uses a PC for gaming.
Adobe After Effects will use the GPU for rendering and image processing.
Re:Overpowerful. (Score:5, Insightful)
... 30-40 fps on average, and 25 fps+ on coruscant (coruscant is waaaaaaay too big). same for skyrim...
Looks like PCs isn't the only thing gaming consoles have been retarding. Most PC gamers would have considered 25 fps nearly unplayable, and 30-40 FPS highly undesirable before the proliferation of poor frame rates in modern console games. There are still many of us that are unsatisfied with that level of performance, but are unwilling to compromise graphics quality.
Re:Linux Driver State? (Score:3, Insightful)
They suck just like they always have. But don't feel left out, they suck on Windows as well.
ATI/AMD may at times make the fastest hardware but their Acillies Heel has and apparently always will be their sucky drivers. The hardware is no good if you can't use it.
They need to stop letting hardware engineers write their drivers and get some people that know what they are doing in there. They need solid drivers for Windows, Linux, and a good OpenGL implementation. Until then they can never be taken seriously with their broke-ass software.
Re:It's too bad... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Overpowerful. (Score:3, Insightful)
No need to use strong language and unbacked opinions. You are simply incorrect.
Put two FPS players of similar skill in front of a computer. Configure the computers so that the other shows 30fps and the other shows 60fps (easy to do in Quake and most other shooters). No matter what you may hope for the truth to be, the player with the 60fps display will have an enormous advantage.
It is extremely easy to test this yourself, just go play a game and record your performance by some metric while alternating the frame rates. I am willing to test it with you, if you wish.
Re:What bugs me most (Score:5, Insightful)
You're much better off with a modern card that just has fewer execution units if you want to save money. They won't be out right away (the first release is always near the top end), but they will eventually show up. Since you're worried about saving money/power, you don't want to be an early adopter anyway. Oftentimes the very first releases will have worse power/performance ratios than the respins of the same board a few months down the road.
Re:I don't get it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it was a question that people other than just me were curious about?
Did you read the entire post? Or did your head just explode when seeing "Linux" in a gaming thread?
nVidia already spends time on quality Linux graphics drivers. They run fine on both 32-bit and native 64-bit Linux systems. I was wondering if the AMD/ATI stuff had matured as well is all.
Take a valium and go back to getting your ass n00bed by 10-year-olds on BF or MW.
Re:Overpowerful. (Score:4, Insightful)
The argument for 60fps isn't about genetically engineered people. It's about spikes. If you are running your game at 30FPS, you'll turn a corner or some monsters spawn in the next room that drop your FPS below that. The reason people want high frame rates is because of these spikes.