If one wades through the details in some of the longer articles, its apparent that the HD7970 really is a jump from the prior art -- in every respect (e.g. FPS, 3DStereo, Video encode/decode, Compute, DX11.1, Windows 8, etc). There is more to it than mere FPS -- its a total package.

Given the limitations of games (Skyrim, for example), it really can't show off its best stuff at normal resolutions (like 1920x1200) or lower. At normal and low resolutions, the CPU tends to limit things these days (but FPS is still plenty high with a mid-cost quad-core CPU). For normal resolution, single-monitor gaming, the HD7950 will be the card for most folks to get (about $400 they say).

As resolutions rise (in the test reports), the HD7970 advantage grows.

So, for folks at the bleeding edge (Eyfinity, 3DStereo, etc), HD7970 s the card.

I assume the Nvidia GTX680 will be faster than HD7970 in FPS because Nvidia won't release it until it is -- given rumored issues, that may be months away. After that, the HD8970 will be just around the corner -- so on to the end of time (or at least a few years) smile

Competition is good smile


Sapphire Pulse RX7900XTX, 3 monitors = 23P (1080p) + SAMSUNG 32" Odyssey Neo G7 1000R curve (4K/2160p) + 23P (1080p), AMD R9-7950X (ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420), 64GB RAM@6.0GHz, Gigabyte X670E AORUS MASTER MB, (4x M.2 SSD + 2xSSD + 2xHD) = ~52TB storage, EVGA 1600W PSU, Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full Tower, ASUS RT-AX89X 6000Mbps WiFi router, VKB Gladiator WW2 Stick, Pedals, G.Skill RGB KB, AORUS Thunder M7 Mouse, W11 Pro