PowerColor to Launch Dual GPU HD 7990 Very Soon?

Since there are a million rumors about this card.....figured I may as well post the info here.

Official HD 7990 from AMD = very likely cancelled.

The new route seems to be AiB-centric with PowerColor being the first partner to carry the "HD 7990".

Note that the sources I hear from state the PowerColor HD 7990 will be announced tomorrow or Friday.

BTW, this has been confirmed by no fewer than four sources on several sides of the GPU market (retail, partner, etc.)

Read more HERE.

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Hardware Canucks’ web of industry contacts has been abuzz today with information that PowerColor could be launching a supposed dual HD 7970 card named the HD 7990 as early as tomorrow, at a price of about $999.

While there may still be some confusion among industry sources, after a certain amount of poking and prodding, certain bits of information began to coalesce. First and foremost, PowerColor's HD 7990 will be a ground up custom design which means there won’t be a reference version available to purchase nor will availability be widespread. We’re actually hearing about the possibility of less than 500 cards worldwide, some sources put the number at a mere 200. This lack of concerted availability is right in line with other custom dual GPU cards like the ASUS Ares and Sapphire HD 4850 X2, as is the astronomical price. At this point, Hardware Canucks can’t be certain about the PowerColor HD 7990’s specifications but logic dictates that it will have 6GB of GDDR5 memory (3GB per GPU) and two full Tahiti XT cores with 2084 Stream Processors each. Naturally, a large-scale custom heatsink will ensure this card runs relatively cool.

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Pic:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/wp-co.../HD7990-12.jpg

:)

3 slots? "Unofficial" drivers? Sigh... :(

That's not a graphics card it's a small building. It looks really cool and might be a collectors item some day, but I doubt they will sell more than a few hundred.

Wouldn't that just make this a 7970 X2?

this card will sell on name alone!
even the stamp seal. legit !

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Originally Posted by Carbon_Unit

That's not a graphics card it's a small building. It looks really cool and might be a collectors item some day, but I doubt they will sell more than a few hundred.

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You think 5970-6990-590-690 have sold more ? lol if 3-4 AIB come with thoses cards, the result will be the same of how are sold this type of cards. at 800-900-1000$, thoses cards dont sell well anyway

Dear FSM, why has nobody asked what the little red button on the back of the card does?

SOMEONE PUSH THE BUTTON!

$999? thats like $200 more than buying two 7970 cards, while I understand that powercolor has to recover the r&d cost across a couple 100 cards plus will have to keep providing drivers in the future which costs them money as well ultimately the price tag of such cards just kills any potential appeal as running several cards is just much more attractive.

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Originally Posted by Russian

Wouldn't that just make this a 7970 X2?

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Yes, but wasn't the HD 7990 always supposed to be that? ;)

Supposedly AMD has released the HD 7990 name to their board partners, meaning they can use it instead of something else. That MAY also mean that the official New Zealand project has been cancelled.

According to what I hear, AMD was supposed to show something at Gamescon but "technical difficulties" prevented them from doing anything.

As for unofficial drivers, I actually think this thing will use the standard Catalyst software suite.

I guess this answers the question about whether AMD will build a 7990 or not.

As their partners are doing it anyway, I'd say the only downside is the cards won't have AMD doing the drivers for it. If the cards can just use the same CF profiles as any other CF, that shouldn't be a problem. Seems to me 5970s were more problematic than 5870 CF, but I don't really know the differences (if any) on the multi GPU card drivers.

Dual GPU or not shouldn't affect AMD much, the dual GPU high end card are extremely niche products.

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Originally Posted by naokaji

$999? thats like $200 more than buying two 7970 cards, while I understand that powercolor has to recover the r&d cost across a couple 100 cards plus will have to keep providing drivers in the future which costs them money as well ultimately the price tag of such cards just kills any potential appeal as running several cards is just much more attractive.

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Will still sell because:

A. Not all motherboards have CF
B. Not all motherboards have four PCIE, and some want four GPUs
C. Some will want it just because it's the highest end AMD card, and will be the fastest card at some games

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Originally Posted by Rollo

Will still sell because:

A. Not all motherboards have CF
B. Not all motherboards have four PCIE, and some want four GPUs
C. Some will want it just because it's the highest end AMD card, and will be the fastest card at some games

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Point A is a doubt. no one would pay $999 for that thing and only have 1 slot!

You're other two points are valid though. Although it's going to be a tight fit!

Yeah, the days of higher end boards that don't support dual cards are pretty much over. As such, I don't think that argument carries much weight. I can't imagine putting a $1000 GPU on a $99 mobo..... :S

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Originally Posted by Rollo

Will still sell because:

A. Not all motherboards have CF
B. Not all motherboards have four PCIE, and some want four GPUs

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Not valid, if you have money buy 2x 999$ GPU's, you have afford to buy motherboard where has 4 PCIE slots and CF support

i have a matx board ane even that has two pci-e x 16 slots, just saying and many atx boards support at least 3 way crossfire.
whicb in my opinion makes a 7990 more of a shiny collectable than anything else.
Don't get me wrong i like fast hardware, but not if i can have more performance at a lower price.

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Originally Posted by SKYMTL

Yeah, the days of higher end boards that don't support dual cards are pretty much over. As such, I don't think that argument carries much weight. I can't imagine putting a $1000 GPU on a $99 mobo..... :S

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No but boards that support tri-fire aren't cheap. Most power supplies that have six pci-e cables aren't cheap either. This is a good option for people interested in tri-fire. That seems to be what a good portion of people who own these AMD dual gpu cards use them for.

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Originally Posted by t800

Not valid, if you have money buy 2x 999$ GPU's, you have afford to buy motherboard where has 4 PCIE slots and CF support

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Most people can pop this into their current system and be good to go for some tri-fire action. If you want three cards the alternative for a lot of people is to go out and upgrade their motherboard, power supply, and maybe even case just to run three cards cramped together.

I wouldn't even want to begin to think of the possible driver issues that will arise with this card being used in tri-fire with a standard HD 7970.....

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Originally Posted by SKYMTL

I wouldn't even want to begin to think of the possible driver issues that will arise with this card being used in tri-fire with a standard HD 7970.....

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Try it yourself instead of making assumptions. There are quite a few people on the forums who have run these sort of configurations in the past. Making comments without any experience with the subject does sound pretty preposterous to me.

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Originally Posted by t800

Not valid, if you have money buy 2x 999$ GPU's, you have afford to buy motherboard where has 4 PCIE slots and CF support

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Micro-ATX gaming rig with four GPUs in CrossFireX? No amount of money will get a four-way CrossFire mATX board.

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Originally Posted by t800

Not valid, if you have money buy 2x 999$ GPU's, you have afford to buy motherboard where has 4 PCIE slots and CF support

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But what about when I want a super powerful GPU in my Mini-ITX system??? Oh, wait...

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Originally Posted by Russian

Wouldn't that just make this a 7970 X2?

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Correct. :)

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Originally Posted by [XC] Oj101

Micro-ATX gaming rig with four GPUs in CrossFireX? No amount of money will get a four-way CrossFire mATX board.

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Well, one could buy EVGA's motherboard division and design their own board. :p:
I fail to see the point, though...

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

Try it yourself instead of making assumptions. There are quite a few people on the forums who have run these sort of configurations in the past. Making comments without any experience with the subject does sound pretty preposterous to me.

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It's not the same as pairing a reference dual-GPU card with a reference single-GPU card.

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

This is a good option for people interested in tri-fire.

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Not really. Most likely higher total price than 3x 7970, and triple slot spacing is not exactly multi-GPU friendly.

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Originally Posted by zalbard

It's not the same as pairing a reference dual-GPU card with a reference single-GPU card.

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I never heard of any problems doing that with the old sapphire 6870x2 or 4850x2. Until hear people complain of such issues you really shouldn't jump to conclusions.

In fact didn't Tom's use the 6870x2 in their microstutter comparison? The timeframes came out looking very good iirc. Edit: Yeah, here it is.

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Originally Posted by [XC] Oj101

Micro-ATX gaming rig with four GPUs in CrossFireX? No amount of money will get a four-way CrossFire mATX board.

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Exactly. The physical limits are reached with two cards. I literally could only fit one in my case, then the benefit is gone. Not everyone wants a case the size of a mini-fridge occupying their bedroom/computer space.

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

I never heard of any problems doing that with the old sapphire 6870x2 or 4850x2. Until hear people complain of such issues you really shouldn't jump to conclusions.

In fact didn't Tom's use the 6870x2 in their microstutter comparison? The timeframes came out looking very good iirc. Edit: Yeah, here it is.

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There's never got any problems, i see a lot of peoples on different forums who was run 5970 + 5870 in Tri fire .. ( just oc the 5970 to the right clock speed if needed ) . same for 4870x2 + 4870/4890/4850.

As for drivers problem.. well thoses are 2 7970 no? you will never get any problem with drivers. the string is added anyway, and on specific case you have just to add the string ..

if the drivers treat the 7990 as two 7970s then adding a separate 7970 shouldn't cause issues, but if powercolor should decide to make a speciric driver for the 7990 then it might cause issues when attempting to add a 7970, i hope it will just be treated as two 7970 in cf by drivers, cause anything else would most likely lead to a mess, remember the driver problems when nvidia made its first steps into dual gpu cards?

The HD 7990 Devli 13 was announced last night.

I have a sample on its way. :)

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Originally Posted by naokaji

if the drivers treat the 7990 as two 7970s then adding a separate 7970 shouldn't cause issues, but if powercolor should decide to make a speciric driver for the 7990 then it might cause issues when attempting to add a 7970, i hope it will just be treated as two 7970 in cf by drivers, cause anything else would most likely lead to a mess, remember the driver problems when nvidia made its first steps into dual gpu cards?

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Actually, no, and I had one before they launched. The problem was with DX9 and it's limit on render ahead limits with quad sets forcing them to do hybrid SFR/AFR rendering for quad. One of my friends still has my 7950GX2 running in his only computer. Another has my 9800GX2 running in one of his PCs. The early dual GPU cards worked pretty well.

I have owned dual GPU cards since the release of the 4870 x2.

I'm running a 6990 at the moment.

Full cover GPU blocks are expensive and add restriction. The least of them in the loop the cheaper and the better :)

If the price is right and someone makes a FC WB for it I might consider it.

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Originally Posted by zalbard

Not really. Most likely higher total price than 3x 7970, and triple slot spacing is not exactly multi-GPU friendly.

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When you factor in the tri-fire motherboard, psu with six pci-e cables that most of us don't have, possibly extra waterblock, and/or larger case it may actually be the cheaper option for some people.

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

When you factor in the tri-fire motherboard, psu with six pci-e cables that most of us don't have, possibly extra waterblock, and/or larger case it may actually be the cheaper option for some people.

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The motherboard part I will agree with. If you bought a motherboard with a crappy layout, you may have to get a new one. Quite a few of those recently, shame on the engineers.
Assuming the wattage is sufficient, a PSU is very likely to have enough cables. 6x PCI-E is far from being uncommon. Also, please note that this card requires 3 PCI-E cables by itself.
And I don't expect these cards to have waterblocks since there will only be 500 of them. Customs jobs would be expensive.

All in all, dual-GPU cards stopped being a good value a while ago. Which is a shame, cause I really liked 4870x2/5970 and GTX295 and their respective price points.