Radeon HD 7990 review - Introduction

Radeon HD 7990 As Rakim said, it's been a long time...

We take a look at the new AMD Radeon HD 7990. The dual GPU product that you guys learned to know under codename Malta is finally released. AMD it doing it doggy style... two fully equipped Tahiti XT2 GPUs versus good yet silent cooling. In this review we'll look at the product, the architecture, the benchmarks, including time-frame based FCAT measurements.

So I started with the line "It's been a long time" and did so deliberately, AMD has waited long, perhaps even way too long before releasing this product. See back in December 2011 the Radeon HD 7970 graphics card was launched. June last year released the GHz model of the 7970 card. AMD ever since has been binning the Tahiti XT GPUs and the "better" batches have been  labeled as Tahiti XT2. That tweak brought advantages as the design combined with the right amount of voltage allowed for faster clock frequencies towards 1050 MHz (925 MHz is reference for the standard 7970). That specific SKU was is called GHz edition and comes with a Boost feature, pretty similar to what NVIDIA has been doing on the 650/660/670/680/Titan cards. The R7970 GHz edition can "boost" from 1000 MHz towards 1050 MHz if it meets the right conditions. So the board power (maximum power draw) needs to allow it to do so, if not it drops to 1 GHz or whatever board power range is allowed. Why such a long intro on R7970 GHz  you ask? Well, AMD today launched the R7990 with two Tahiti XT2 better known as R7970 GHz GPUs, and that is important to know, alright. 

But yes you read that right, AMD is using chip designs from December 2011 in this new Radeon HD 7990, anno 2013. So two Tahiti XT GPUs that can boost, are being used on the R7990 (codename: Malta). AMD is running a baseclock of 950 MHz per GPU with a boost allowance towards 1 GHz. So that is 50 MHz below the 7970 GHz edition spec. Other variables like memory are kept in-tact, that means 6 Gbps memory over two 384-bit memory interfaces. Each GPU will receive a full 3 GB of graphics memory (GDDR5). The Radeon HD 7990 GHz edition will be introduced in the 800~900 EUR price range. The product thus will have to compete directly with the GeForce GTX 690 and Titan. The results that you'll witness today will not disappoint. Where it matters (the latest and newer games) the Radeon HD 7990 GHz edition will be fast, seriously fast. There is of course that other issue we'll look into as well, micro-stuttering as we have introduced FCAT (Frame Capture Analysis Tool) measurements as part of our benchmark sest suite and configuration. 

But lets welcome the Radeon HD 7990 with a nice review, a product with very cool game performance, a great feature set and a frame buffer of 2x3GB, GDDR5. With the GPUs developed under codename "Tahiti XT2" and the product itself known as "Malta" let's have a look at this Island family member. Next page where we'll start-up the technology overview first, onwards to see The Clash of The Titans.