PowerColor to Launch Dual GPU HD 7990 Very Soon?

[SKYMTL]

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.

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.

[SKYMTL]

Pic:

[WangChung]

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

[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.

[Russian]

Wouldn't that just make this a 7970 X2?

[Greg83]

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

[Lanek]

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.

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

[Bojamijams]

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

SOMEONE PUSH THE BUTTON!

[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.

[SKYMTL]

Wouldn't that just make this a 7970 X2?

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.

[Rollo]

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.

[Rollo]

$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.

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

[Motiv]

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

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!

[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

[t800]

Will still sell because:

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

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

[naokaji]

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.

[BababooeyHTJ]

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

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.

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

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.

[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.....

[BababooeyHTJ]

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.....

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.

[[XC] Oj101]

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

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

[EniGmA1987]

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

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

[zalbard]

Wouldn't that just make this a 7970 X2?

Correct.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

[BababooeyHTJ]

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

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.

[WangChung]

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

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.

[Lanek]

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.

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 ..