AMD Radeon HD 7950 Launch Review - PAGE 1

Just a month ago AMD released the fastest single GPU solution available, the Radeon HD 7970 utilizing AMD's Generation Core next (GCN) architecture which sported the first 28nm GPU on the market, and also the first to support DirectX 11.1. Today we are continuing our look at the Northern Islands graphics cards with the next iteration in the series, the HD 7950.

Like the HD 7970, the HD 7950 is based on AMD’s GCN architecture and is also built on a 28nm node. However, the HD 7950 comes with less streaming processors, slightly reduced clock speeds and requires less power. In total, the HD 7950 comes packed with 1792 stream processors, 32 raster units, 112 texture units and a GPU engine clock speed of 800MHz. Additionally, the HD 7950 has a 3GB memory buffer with a default clock speed of 1250MHz which runs on a 384-bit bus, giving the card a total memory bandwidth of 240GB/s.

While these specifications are slightly reduced in comparison to the HD 7970, they are still extremely robust. Just from the specifications alone, we can see the HD 7950 is potentially on track to becoming the second fastest single GPU graphics card on the market. Since the HD 7950 is the little brother of the HD 7970, the price tag is also reduced; this model is coming into the channel with a $449 USD price tag, making it $100 cheaper than the HD 7970.

Over the last week the Neoseeker lab has been inundated with reference and aftermarket HD 7950 graphics cards. Being the hardware fanatics we are, we decided to not only put up a reference review, but also a three part review featuring the reference model and AIB models. We'll even have CrossFire and TriFire reviews up very soon! Be sure to check them all out to get the clearest picture of the how AMD's latest 28nm part stacks up from all angles.