Radeon HD 7950 Launches, Linux Support Questionable

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Radeon HD 7950 Launches, Linux Support Questionable

AMD released the Radeon HD 7950 today as the second "Southern Islands" graphics card following the release of the Radeon HD 7970 one month ago, but how is the Linux support for the new AMD Radeon GPUs?..

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTA1MTI

[russofris]

Looking over the reviews, it was comforting to note that the performance of the 7950 scaled down fairly linearly when compared to the 7970. The gap between the two GPUs did not appear to be that large, so it makes sense for fixed-budget consumers to give it consideration.

That said: Outside of limited applications (GPGPU, CAD, Game development, etc), I find that it is difficult to justify the 79XX's expense for PC gaming. You can purchase both an Xbox-360 and a PS3 for the same price. Those of us with a 4-year procurement cycle may be better off purchasing ATI's $140 (6790/6858) offering each year, unless purchasing an integrated machine (iMac).

I'd love to see a recreational gamer's justification for purchasing a $500 video card. I could see flush die-hard MMORPG fans (EvE/WoW) wanting whatever gives them the greatest level of immersion, but that's about it.

F

[chithanh]

The 7970 set new records in Bitcoin mining efficiency https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=57410.0 Depending on how much electricity costs where you live, it might pay off to upgrade.

Also the 7970&7950 are the only single-GPU solutions which are adequate for moderately demanding games at triple-monitor resolutions. Before that you would have to put up with SLI/CrossFire with all its downsides.

[Kano]

@bridgeman

why dont send me a card for free, would like to test it on my own. you can be sure you will know the bugs first then

[Pyre Vulpimorph]

Outside of limited applications (GPGPU, CAD, Game development, etc), I find that it is difficult to justify the 79XX's expense for PC gaming. You can purchase both an Xbox-360 and a PS3 for the same price. Those of us with a 4-year procurement cycle may be better off purchasing ATI's $140 (6790/6858) offering each year, unless purchasing an integrated machine (iMac).

I'd love to see a recreational gamer's justification for purchasing a $500 video card. I could see flush die-hard MMORPG fans (EvE/WoW) wanting whatever gives them the greatest level of immersion, but that's about it.

I'm not much of a PC gamer (I stick to Wii/360, mostly) but you do realize how old current-gen consoles are? The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 can only output a native 1280x720p resolution, and most games are locked at 30FPS. Yes, they *can* upscale to 1080p, and some games *can* run at 60FPS, but these settings are rarely used.

If you run demanding games on a 2560x1600p monitor, these state-of-the-art GPUs are fully justified. 1600p is twice the resolution of 1080p, and more than quadruple that of 720p. Games like Crysis, Metro, Battlefield 3, Shogun 2, Dirt 3, Batman: Arkham City, etc., will easily crush mid-range graphics cards when played at top settings. Heck, even the HD 7970 still gets hammered by a few games like Metro unless it's Crossfired. (in which, you're now paying for *two* cards, or more)

I'm not a participant in the idiotic PC-vs-Console wars, but these cards have their purpose if you're trying to max out your gaming experience. But if you game at only 1920x1080p and aren't playing the most demanding games (or, are comfortable with their lower settings) an HD 6870 is still great.

If you're really on a 4-year upgrade cycle, then I'd suggest going for a mid-range CPU and top-end GPU each time. I think you'll get more of your money's worth that way. In any case, I expect the price on the HD 7970 to drop substantially once Nvidia's 6XX series comes out (whenever that happens).

Me? I play mostly Sonic and Zelda, so I don't need a monster PC.

[darkbasic]

1600p is twice the resolution of 1080p, and more than quadruple that of 720p. Games like Crysis, Metro, Battlefield 3, Shogun 2, Dirt 3, Batman: Arkham City, etc., will easily crush mid-range graphics cards when played at top settings. Heck, even the HD 7970 still gets hammered by a few games like Metro unless it's Crossfired. (in which, you're now paying for *two* cards, or more)

Both Metro and Crysis need two HD7970 to play at highest quality @2560x1600

[russofris]

I'm not much of a PC gamer (I stick to Wii/360, mostly) but you do realize how old current-gen consoles are? The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 can only output a native 1280x720p resolution, and most games are locked at 30FPS. Yes, they *can* upscale to 1080p, and some games *can* run at 60FPS, but these settings are rarely used.

I had always assumed that what consoles lacked in resolution was made up for in scene complexity. I do understand that the gap is growing now that we're 4-5 years into each consoles lifecycle, but I've seen side-by-side comparisons (most recently with Skyrim), and the XBOX didn't look 'that' bad. It definitely did not look bad enough to make me want to spend $500 to upgrade my 5770. I'll DL the Battlefield 3 demo on PS3 today to make sure I'm not lying.

If you run demanding games on a 2560x1600p monitor, these state-of-the-art GPUs are fully justified.

Indeed. A gen2k graphics card is necessary to run gen2k games. I do wonder if most users could simply get away with a second Gen1k card in crossfire/SLI (a second 5770 for example). That would leave them with $350 for hookers and blow. I'll see if the BM sites have a direct comparison, or if I can coax the data I need out of openbenchmark.

F

[russofris]

Just confirmed that 2x 5770s run "most games" approximately 10% slower than a single 7970, or roughly the equivalent of a single 7950.

The up side of this is that current 5770 owners have a $120 upgrade path
The down side is that these owners will have to deal with Crossfire's prerequisites (power, free slot, etc) and "quirks".

Lastly, 2x5770s give you roughly half the performance of 2x 79xx cards, though it appears that it will still run most games at 20x16 with 4xAA and 4xAF @~30fps.

I guess I'll end up with a 79XX if they're available in the 2012 iMac.

F

[darkbasic]

Just confirmed that 2x 5770s run "most games" approximately 10% slower than a single 7970, or roughly the equivalent of a single 7950.

When did you try HD79XX last time? An HD7950 with the latest driver release is already faster than an HD7970 with the previous drivers. It is a new architecture and it still has a good margin of increase with new drivers.

[efikkan]

AMD
Please get your driver to provide proper support!
I can't believe it's possible to ship drivers with broken OpenCL support, or GLSL previously. They can't be taken seriously. (banging my head against the wall...)