[Mize]

Originally Posted by AlphaWolf

I'm just expecting the 7950, but I expect it will put more downward pressure on existing products. And if it comes flashable, it'll be the high end bargain for a while.

Oh man I hope it's not flashable because then I'll freakin' buy two of them and I should definitely NOT buy two more video cards!

[Kaotik]

I seriously hope W1zzard runs his benches again, at least HD6870 results are completely borked, possibly other cards too, which leaves bitter taste - can the review be trusted at all?
And TPU has had a good reputation so far to my knowledge, and always has largest set of games to test etc

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by Rangers

It hasn't, just making a general/personal observation. This goes for any video card really $500 and above.

Now I'm in a quandary guys, coming from a 1GB 4890, and honestly I dont PC game much but I do like to have the ability to should the mood strike me, and possibly being interested in Star Wars Old Republic, Firefall, etc going forward, and would like to max Crysis 2/Crysis 1 at 1080P. I just picked up a 2GB 6870 from newegg for $200, $170 AR. However, I have mostly left it in the package (though I did open it so I'm def on the hook for newegg's 15% restocking fee).

Now I have this nagging thought that due to the vastly superior tessellation abilities in the 7000 series, I should wait and pick up some lower end 7k in a couple months, and return the 6870. What do you guys think?

What bugs me is how poor the 6000's do in Crysis 2 with DX 11, because of the tesselation. That's a game I'd like to be able to max.

Alternatively I'd look into going Nvidia as they're not tess bottlenecked, but they dont have any 2GB cards for a reasonable price, and 2GB is another must have for me as I want the card to last. The cheapest 2GB 560 Ti is $235 AR, and that cards performance isn't spectacular.

The poor tessellation performance in Crysis 2 is due to the shitty way it was implemented. Nvidia was lucky enough to be able to play the game with max tessellation on and still maintain a passable frame rate, but it's far from ideal even for them...

[Alexko]

Originally Posted by I.S.T.

The poor tessellation performance in Crysis 2 is due to the shitty way it was implemented. Nvidia was lucky enough to be able to play the game with max tessellation on and still maintain a passable frame rate, but it's far from ideal even for them...

Lucky enough, perhaps. Or the very reason for this sorry state of affairs. I mean, of all parties involved (Crytek, NVIDIA, AMD, and gamers) only NVIDIA benefits from this.

[Rangers]

Originally Posted by I.S.T.

The poor tessellation performance in Crysis 2 is due to the shitty way it was implemented. Nvidia was lucky enough to be able to play the game with max tessellation on and still maintain a passable frame rate, but it's far from ideal even for them...

It seems the same huge gains occur in any tessellation game, another example Arkham City..

[Malo]

Originally Posted by Rangers

What bugs me is how poor the 6000's do in Crysis 2 with DX 11, because of the tesselation. That's a game I'd like to be able to max.

Crysis 2 tessellation is a poor example of your required performance as the implementation in that is atrocious and woefully unrealistic.

[Rangers]

See above.

I think I'm going to return the 6870 even though it'll cost me 30 bucks, and wait until the ~200 7000 series card comes out. At least that wont be crippled in tessellation.

[swaaye]

Originally Posted by Rangers

I think I'm going to return the 6870 even though it'll cost me 30 bucks, and wait until the ~200 7000 series card comes out. At least that wont be crippled in tessellation.

It's been pretty well known that the pre-Cayman chips have tessellation performance problems. Relative to NVIDIA anyway. NV just took the geometry rates much more seriously for their DX11 architecture than AMD did. Although I can't say that it's been a major disadvantage considering how few worthwhile tessellation implementations there are.

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by Alexko

Lucky enough, perhaps. Or the very reason for this sorry state of affairs. I mean, of all parties involved (Crytek, NVIDIA, AMD, and gamers) only NVIDIA benefits from this.

I'd say that while perhaps that might or might not have been the intention all along, it didn't really work out that way. Even the 580 doesn't do the tessellation in Crysis 2 all that well. Crytek's implementation was too extreme.

[AnarchX]

Originally Posted by CarstenS

I am really please with what AMD delivered this time.
The two small wishes that remain can be remedied via driver: supersampling option for DX10/11 and downsampling support.

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

A couple things from the quote from AMD in the Anandtech review (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5261/a...7970-review/12)

From the last part, it's pretty evident SSAA isn't coming to DX10+ in AMD drivers anytime soon.

But more interestingly, in the first part (the bolded part), it looks like we may have some new driver level AA options soon.

Image quality enhancement technology

Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
Adaptive anti-aliasing
Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA)
DirectX® 10/11 Super-Sample Anti-Aliasing (SSAA)
16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
128-bit floating point HDR rendering

http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...on-7970.aspx#3

Typo or included in next drivers?

[CarstenS]

Nice find! Hopefully in one of the next drivers, but possibly only the ability to run shaders at pixel level as was introduced with DX10.1 IIRC. But then, it isn't mentioned with 6970 which fuels my hope.

[Silent_Buddha]

Heh, seems that AMD PR doesn't know what AMD PR is going on about. Or maybe Anandtech got their quote from an AMD engineer while AMD PR just put whatever they wanted on that page. Or maybe the AMD PR person who spoke to Anandtech didn't speak to an engineer while the AMD PR person who did that webpage did.

Who knows? Obviously AMD doesn't. Well someone there does. But someone there doesn't.

Regards,
SB

[Alexko]

Originally Posted by I.S.T.

I'd say that while perhaps that might or might not have been the intention all along, it didn't really work out that way. Even the 580 doesn't do the tessellation in Crysis 2 all that well. Crytek's implementation was too extreme.

True, but it does much better than Cayman. In the end, that's what really matters to NVIDIA.

[Alexko]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

Heh, seems that AMD PR doesn't know what AMD PR is going on about. Or maybe Anandtech got their quote from an AMD engineer while AMD PR just put whatever they wanted on that page. Or maybe the AMD PR person who spoke to Anandtech didn't speak to an engineer while the AMD PR person who did that webpage did.

Who knows? Obviously AMD doesn't. Well someone there does. But someone there doesn't.

Regards,
SB

If they can wish 800 million transistors into existence, surely they can do the same for DX10 SSAA.

[Ryan Smith]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

Heh, seems that AMD PR doesn't know what AMD PR is going on about. Or maybe Anandtech got their quote from an AMD engineer while AMD PR just put whatever they wanted on that page. Or maybe the AMD PR person who spoke to Anandtech didn't speak to an engineer while the AMD PR person who did that webpage did.

Who knows? Obviously AMD doesn't. Well someone there does. But someone there doesn't.

Regards,
SB

Our response was from Dave Nalasco, one of AMD's Sr. Technical Marketing Managers.

[Squilliam]

Originally Posted by Mize

How can anyone think it's unreasonable to release the 7970 at $550 when it handily beats a 3GB GTX 580 that currently sells - and sells well - at $525-$600? Price wise the 7970 is right where it belongs.

How can you covet a pair of GTX 580 3GBs when it is handily beaten by a pair of 7970s?

[Mize]

Originally Posted by Squilliam

How can you covet a pair of GTX 580 3GBs when it is handily beaten by a pair of 7970s?

??

On cannot covet what one already has. I have a pair of 580s and a pair of 6970s. Therefore I covet neither. A pair of 7970s on the other hand...

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by Ryan Smith

Our response was from Dave Nalasco, one of AMD's Sr. Technical Marketing Managers.

And evidently he's gotten on the guy that posted that info on the webpage as it now does not mention anything about DX 10/11 SSAA.

◦Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
◦Adaptive anti-aliasing
◦Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA)
◦16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
◦128-bit floating point HDR rendering

So your contact at AMD was more correct than the guy that did the webpage.

Regards,
SB

[Squilliam]

Originally Posted by Mize

??

On cannot covet what one already has. I have a pair of 580s and a pair of 6970s. Therefore I covet neither. A pair of 7970s on the other hand...

Geforce GTX 580 #2 (died) > 2x6970 in CFX > 2xGTX 580 3GB in SLI (fingers crossed)

Your signature deceives?

[I.S.T.]

You're assuming he threw out/etc the 6970s.

[Alexko]

Originally Posted by Squilliam

Your signature deceives?

I think the "fingers crossed" doesn't mean "I hope I get them" but "I already have them and hope they don't blow up this time".

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by Squilliam

Your signature deceives?

The fingers crossed is him hoping that 3rd times the charm and he won't have faulty 580's again as he has had twice in the past.

Regards,
SB

[Mize]

Exactly! I've had the 580s running about 12 days. The 6970s with their Scythe coolers and PWM fans are on the shelf in my hardware closet (along with a 5870, 8800, X1800-XT, V5-5500 and three old PCI graphics cards...my 9700 Pro is on loan...need to get that one back for the collection).

[Alexko]

Aw that's a shame, a closet is no place for a pair of 6970s!

[Mize]

Originally Posted by Alexko

Aw that's a shame, a closet is no place for a pair of 6970s!

Yeah, I know. I have almost enough components to build another rig (that would make three not counting laptops and Macs in the house), but I gave my Q6600 to one of my daughter's friends. If I decide not to use them the trouble with selling them is shipping them with those Scythe coolers mounted:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.p...&postcount=175

Great, quiet cooling, but pretty huge and awkward to fit in a box.