The beast has arrived! AMD 28nm Tahiti GPU sporting 4.3 billion transistors and 2048 stream processors grouped into AMD’s new Graphics Core Next architecture…delicious DX11.1 power at the ready. Plus, don’t forget this is the first ever PCI Express 3.0 graphics card, and the massive 384-bit memory interface, which drives a huge 3GB of GDDR5 video memory. There’s enough behemoth-like power here to really push PC gaming forward with an entirely new generation of graphics.
Exciting times indeed for PC gamers and graphics buffs. So what’s so special about the ASUS offering? Well, for one it comes with the exclusive GPU Tweak tuning utility, which includes handy stuff like GPU clock and voltage syncing, in addition to more traditional overclocking/overvolting options. There’s also mode locking, so the card can be forced to stay in 2D or 3D mode depending on application or benchmark, and fan speed controls. The new version of the utility also offers live BIOS and driver updating.
For folks who’ve been dreaming of proper multi-screen setups, the 7970 offers six screen convenience with no adapter needed, as it comes with three DVI, twin DisplayPort, and one HDMI out. AMD is already talking about 4K resolutions for this card and its generational peers, which is certainly an encouraging sign of progress (twice 1080p is OK in my book!).
Currently, ASUS has the reference card on offer, but we’re quite sure something else is coming soon…take a look at some pics in the meantime and we’ll keep you posted!
CORRECTION: must admit, I jumped the gun on this one and got my cards confused…the reference 7970 supports four screen displays natively without an adapter, but I hear tell ASUS has something else coming up that will indeed support six screens adapter-free…stay tuned!
Basically a reference design, about 10.9" long
View from the top, with the single fan and PCI Express 3.0 slot
I/O shield, quite similar in design to previous AMD cards, but with more connectors