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- Date:
- Monday , January 30, 2012
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
AMD Radeon HD 7950 Video Card Review
The new Radeon HD 7950 marks the launch of AMD's more affordable Radeon HD 7900 series GPU. The Radeon HD 7950 is priced to compete with the GeForce GTX 580. We'll look at performance in comparison to several video cards in single-GPU, dual-GPU CrossFireX, Eyefinity, and Overclocking to see where it truly lands.
Performance Summary
The AMD Radeon HD 7950 is the video card we know a lot of you have been waiting for. The previously released AMD Radeon HD 7970 is a fast video card indeed, but at a $549 price point, it puts it out of reach for many gamers. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 is just a step down from the Radeon HD 7970, with fewer stream processors and lighter clock speeds, and also a more appealing MSRP of $449, although you will not likely see that as a street price today.
The question that needs to be answered is if the Radeon HD 7950 is an upgrade for you. Will that $449 spent actually give you a better gameplay experience? In trying to figure this out, we have compared the Radeon HD 7950 to a Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 6970. Those two video cards represented the fastest single-GPU video cards from AMD, until now. We also included a GeForce GTX 580, which is the fastest single-GPU video card from NVIDIA currently, which also hovers right around the price of a Radeon HD 7950.
We also looked at CrossFireX performance with two Radeon HD 7950 video cards at Eyefinity resolutions. We compared Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX to Radeon HD 6970 CrossFireX, to see if it’s an upgrade from the last generation’s fastest configuration. We also tested against GeForce GTX 580 SLI, which is NVIDIA's current fastest dual-GPU configuration.
Our results were interesting in the fact that single-GPU performance was clear cut, but dual-GPU performance was mixed.
Single-GPU Performance
The best way to discuss the performance of the AMD Radeon HD 7950 is to break it down into comparisons from the angle of asking the question of "Is it an upgrade?"
Radeon HD 7950 vs. Radeon HD 6950
First we will look at the AMD Radeon HD 7950 as it compares to the AMD Radeon HD 6950. These video cards are the equivalent of each other in the sense of product placement in the stack.
In all the games we tested the AMD Radeon HD 7950 was tremendously faster than the Radeon HD 6950 and offered a better gameplay experience. In Batman the new HD 7950 was 69% faster than the HD 6950. This allowed us to run the game at higher settings. In BF3 the Radeon HD 7950 was 31% faster than the Radeon HD 6950 and this allowed us to play at a higher resolution. In Skyrim the HD 7950 was again 31% faster than the Radeon HD 6950. In Deus Ex the HD 7950 was 54% faster than the HD 6950.
In every game we tested, the AMD Radeon HD 7950 was faster than the Radeon HD 6950 and allowed higher in-game settings creating a better gameplay experience. The HD 7950 is definitely an upgrade from a Radeon HD 6950.
Radeon HD 7950 vs. Radeon HD 6970
Was it faster than a Radeon HD 6970 though? In Batman the Radeon HD 7950 was almost 50% faster than a Radeon HD 6970. In BF3 the Radeon HD 7950 was 14% faster than a Radeon HD 6970. In Skyrim the Radeon HD 7950 was 16% faster than the Radeon 6970. In Deus Ex the Radeon HD 7950 was 41% faster than the Radeon HD 6970. In DA2 the Radeon HD 7950 was 4% faster than the Radeon HD 6970, this game being the exception to the rule and most likely pointing out a driver issue or bug.
There is no question that the AMD Radeon HD 7950 is even an upgrade from the Radeon HD 6970 video card. On top of that, it is also an upgrade in power efficiency and temperatures, as it performed at this faster performance using less power than the Radeon HD 6970 with cooler temperatures.
Radeon HD 7950 vs. GeForce GTX 580
Is the Radeon HD 7950 an upgrade for GeForce GTX 580 users? In Batman it’s a bit of a mixed story. The GeForce GTX 580 allows us to use PhysX, which the Radeon HD 7950 cannot. In that light, the GTX 580 offers a gameplay experience different to the Radeon HD 7950. All things being equal, we experienced the Radeon HD 7950 performing close to the GTX 580 performance in that game, just edging out by a few percent. In BF3 performance was more clear cut, and the Radeon HD 7950 was faster by about 11%. However, the gameplay experience was exactly the same between those.
In Skyrim performance was also close between the Radeon HD 7950 and GTX 580. In fact, performance traded blows between them depending on where you were in the game. The GTX 580 was able to do 2X TR SSAA in the game, which did make the vegetation look better compared to the Radeon HD 7950. The only two games that showed any significant performance differences were Deus Ex and DA2. In the case of Deus Ex the Radeon HD 7950 was faster by 25%. However, in the case of DA2 the GTX 580 was faster.
Given our experiences, we don't think the Radeon HD 7950 is a worthy upgrade from a GeForce GTX 580 in performance or gameplay experience. If you have a GeForce GTX 580 buying a Radeon HD 7950 won't significantly impact your gaming experience in a meaningful way. There will be some games where the Radeon HD 7950 is a percentage faster than the GTX 580, but that percentage could be made up by overclocking or having an overclocked GeForce GTX 580. If you have an overclocked GeForce GTX 580, or a 3GB GTX 580, there is no reason right now, for gameplay performance purposes, to buy a Radeon HD 7950 as an upgrade. The only reason why you might want to is for the power savings. The Radeon HD 7950 consumes less power and produces less heat than a GTX 580, that's the only real benefit with it compared to the GTX 580 for right now. Of course if you are out to purchase that level of performance today, it is hard to look away from the 3GB of VRAM on the 7950.
Multi-GPU Performance
CrossFireX performance was a mixed bag with the Radeon HD 7950. Some games performed well, some games did not. This is simply another finger we can point at CrossFireX drivers as not being all those should be.
Radeon HD 7950 CFX vs. Radeon HD 6970 CFX
Clear across the board Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX is an upgrade from Radeon HD 6970 CrossFireX. In Batman Radeon HD 950 CrossFireX is about 31% faster than Radeon HD 6970 CrossFireX. In BF3 we were able to play at a higher resolution with Radeon HD 7950 CFX versus Radeon HD 6970 CFX. We experienced a 30% improvement in performance with Radeon HD 7950 CFX. In Skyrim we experienced better performance with Radeon HD 7950 CFX, but not a better gameplay experience. Finally, in Deus Ex we had an improved gameplay experience and 42% faster performance with Radeon HD 7950.
Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX is an upgrade from Radeon HD 6970 CrossFireX.
Radeon HD 7950 CFX vs. GeForce GTX 580 SLI
This is the comparison where performance gets all mixed up. In Batman we experienced significantly better performance with GeForce GTX 580 SLI. We were able to play at 5760x1200 with the highest in-game settings and FXAA with GeForce GTX 580 SLI. However, with Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX we had to lower the resolution to 5040x1050 and also disable Tessellation and Ambient Occlusion. This had a severely negative impact on the gameplay experience with Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX. Things were also not good for the Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX in Skyrim. We were able to play at 4XAA+FXAA at 5760x1200 with GeForce GTX 580 SLI. With Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX we had to disable MSAA and play with just FXAA. On top of that, SLI felt much smoother and more consistent as we played. AMD needs to fix this and we do not think it is a hardware problem.
Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX redeemed itself with BF3 and Deus Ex. In BF3 we were able to run at a higher resolution with Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX compared to GeForce GTX 580 SLI. We also experienced less choppiness when we enabled MSAA settings. We also experienced faster performance in Deus Ex with Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX, but the gameplay experience was the same.
Therefore, answering the question at hand, AMD Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX is not necessarily a good upgrade from GeForce GTX 580 SLI. Some games like BF3 will perform better, but some games like Batman will perform worse. If you've already invested the money in GTX 580 SLI, it doesn't seem worth it to upgrade to HD 7950 CrossFireX from that. Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX may be a better upgrade.
Troubled Games and CrossFireX
AMD still has its work cut out with CrossFireX drivers. We've encountered two games here that do not seem to do well with Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX. Batman was the worse, the performance was unusually slow with Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX, possibly indicating immature drivers for a game that was released in November of 2011. Skyrim also performed rather poorly in comparison, also a title released in November of last year. NVIDIA has a leg up on AMD with Skyrim multi-GPU performance. Of course, NVIDIA also had SLI support for Skyrim months before AMD had any CrossFireX support in the game.
There is always an aspect of gameplay performance that is hard to relate to gamers through a graph, or even words. We are talking about physically "feeling" a game as you play it. What people perceive as playable performance is not always attached to framerate. This seems to be a fact of CrossFireX that we've encountered in our gameplay testing. At times, the framerate being displayed on the screen doesn't match what we are "feeling" as we play the game.
For example, if 40 or 50 FPS is indicated, even though that should be playable since its above 30 FPS it won't necessarily feel playable. We have to shoot for higher FPS. We experience some kind of lag or choppiness in gameplay with CrossFireX even though the framerate indicates it should be playable. This means you cannot always rely on framerate alone to determine playable performance.
This is a difference that separates CrossFireX from SLI. With SLI we do not experience this phenomenon as much. With SLI, framerates seem smoother at lower framerates, than these do with CrossFireX. For example, we often find we need to aim for higher framerates in order for CrossFireX to feel like it’s playable. Whereas, with SLI we often find we can settle with lower framerates, because it feels playable at those framerates. Trust us, we do not go by framerates when evaluating how these cards actually game. The framerates a lie.
Some of this can be seen in the graphs, when we talk about consistency. We've shown it in this evaluation, look back at the Deus Ex or Skyrim graphs and you will see SLI producing a more consistent framerate. These are just facts between CrossFireX and SLI, but it makes it so that SLI feels smoother and better to us, than CrossFireX does often. This was the case a lot of the time testing Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX versus GeForce GTX 580 SLI. We just felt GeForce GTX 580 SLI offered a smoother experience, in pretty much every game, even the ones where Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX allowed higher in-game settings.
The Bottom Line
The AMD Radeon HD 7950 is a huge performance upgrade from AMD's previous generation. If you have a Radeon HD 6950 or even a Radeon HD 6970, the Radeon HD 7950 will give you the GPU power you are looking for. The price of $449 is steep, but you are getting better performance that will allow a better gameplay experience, and lower power utilization. The Radeon HD 7950 does bring much better power utilization and efficiency to the table. The Radeon HD 7900 series is the most efficient and feature rich GPU architecture AMD has ever produced.
If you are gaming with a GeForce GTX 580, especially if it is overclocked or the 3GB variety, we think you should just stick with it for now. The Radeon HD 7950 may give you 10% better performance, but it isn't worth the price if you are already sporting a GTX 580. If you have a lesser GTX variant, such as the GeForce GTX 570 then the Radeon HD 7950 will be more meaningful and provide a tangible upgrade. Who would have thought we would have been here comparing AMD’s second tier card and the GTX 580 with NVIDIA’s next generation GPU still not in sight?
Now if you are making a bigger leap in your upgrade path, you would be hard pressed to buy a single GeForce GTX 580 today. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 is kicking the GTX 580’s ass and taking names. And to further make this clear to consumers I would not be surprised if we see AMD drop its pricing on the 7950 to $399 in the very near future, with supply and demand fulfilled. This is just a guess on our part, but we think the volume would make up for the lost profit if AMD and TSMC can produce the GPUs needed. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 at a sub-$400 price point would nestle nicely between NVIDIA’s 580 and 570 and make a 7950 buying decision a lot easier for a larger block of gamers and hardware enthusiasts.
AMD still has work to do with CrossFireX. We aren't impressed with our 7900 series experiences to date with CrossFireX in any form. Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX is a mixed bag. It will give you better gameplay experience over Radeon HD 6970 CrossFireX, but it has trouble keeping up with GeForce GTX 580 SLI in some games. This is important because the Radeon HD 7950 is at the "same" price point as GeForce GTX 580. There are some games where Radeon HD 7950 CrossFireX excels, such as BF3. The gameplay experience with Radeon HD 7950 CFX seems to rely heavily on the game in question.
We still don't have a finalized driver for the Radeon HD 7900 series, but AMD tells us we should see one when Catalyst 12.3 rolls around, in March, of 2012…just to be clear. That's a bit too long in our opinion to be dealing with beta drivers for your flagship video cards. The Radeon HD 7970 was announced on December 22nd, and made available on January 9th. Now the Radeon HD 7950 is available on the 31st. Drivers are fragmented right now. That is over a month in and we are still running beta drivers, with the outlook being two more months before we have a solid driver. We have to ask ourselves, "What the hell is Ben Bar-Haim, VP of Software at AMD, doing? Please Ben, don’t screw up some of the best silicon AMD has ever produced." AMD has a new CEO over there that needs to be aware too. Hey Rory! Did you know you were running a GPU business that is losing its highest end customers based on nothing but AMD’s lacking software and execution thereof? CrossFireX needs attention please! This confusion called driver "support" needs attention please! Thank you.
The AMD Radeon HD 7950 is what many gamers have been waiting for, the more affordable high-end GPU from AMD. At $449 MSRP it is still hard to call the "Pro" GPU "affordable." It is $100 cheaper than a Radeon HD 7970 while giving you very good performance even compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580. While we have a bad taste in our mouth on price, it is hard to argue these 7900 cards should be less expensive considering the performance these are delivering in single GPU configurations while the GTX 580 is staying fairly solid at $450 and above. I do think that AMD should consider hitting that sub-$400 price point and get its GPUs in more machines while NVIDIA is standing on the sideline looking impotent. The current pricing truly jams the two 7900 cards too close together especially when you have AIBs making specialty overclocked and cooled cards. I would suggest you just buy the generic 7970 for $550 rather than spend $500 on a specialty 7950.
And the overclocking numbers? Wow! These 7900 GPUs are just begging to be clocked up. It is hard to even call it "overclocking" when the silicon just seems to want to make it happen so easily. Then the payoff in terms of real world performance is stellar. If you are not overclocking your 7970 or 7950, you are missing out.
Like the Radeon HD 7970, we will likely see the Radeon HD 7950 sell out once it gets on the shelves, but we expect supply to be replenished quickly and evenly after that without a long lag time for restocking after the initials sales.
