# AMD Radeon HD 7990 Malta



## vkl (Apr 24, 2013)

AMD HD7990 reviews are up

AMD Radeon HD 7990: Eight Games And A Beastly Card For $1,000 : AMD's Malta Becomes The Radeon HD 7990
AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Review - Malta Gets Frame Rated | PC Perspective

The above reviews have touched upon frame latency issue with the radeon and they had AMD's prototype driver to test with which has addressed frame latency issues to much extent. 
That prototype drivers are in experimental stage and have implemented frame-pacing mechanism,more matured versions would be available in later versions of catalyst driver.
The below article throws light on the upcoming drivers planned by AMD for fixing the frame latency issues:
Frame Rating: AMD Improves CrossFire with Prototype Driver | PC Perspective
*www.pcper.com/files/imagecache/article_max_width/review/2013-04-22/BF3_2560x1440_PLOT_0.png   

 *www.pcper.com/files/imagecache/article_max_width/review/2013-04-22/FarCry3_2560x1440_PLOT.png
Orange line indicates frame-time with 13.5Beta drivers and have much more frame runts than the prototype driver.
In many of the tested games the prototype driver seems to address the issue well,making things smoother.

Overall the card(HD7990),crossfire set ups would look markedly better with the frame latency issue addressed with the newer upcoming drivers.
The 8-game bundle is a nice addition to hd7990.


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## Cilus (Apr 24, 2013)

Thanks for sharing this great piece of info. Looks like this babys really worths each doller we're paying for it. Also it looks like AMD is taking the CF related issues seriously and taking all the necessary actions to fix it out. Will be going through the reviews now.


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## sukesh1090 (Apr 24, 2013)

^^
AMD told it before that this year they are going to concentrate on driver and performance improvements for their 7XXX cards thats why they are delaying 8XXX so that they can squeeze even last drop out of GCN 1,i guess i read that article in fudzilla. BTW " Holy mother of HELL "  8 games,looks like AMD want to hit very hard this time.

I am reading Toms review and in the first page itself he has mentioned that it is 40nm but isn't that card manufactured in 28nm,if iam not wrong???


> Nestled between the two 4.3 billion-transistor chip is that PEX 8747 switch—the same one Nvidia uses to enable inter-GPU communication on the GeForce GTX 690. The 48-lane, five-port device is manufactured at 40 nm and is PCI Express 3.0-capable


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## vkl (Apr 24, 2013)

^^It is correct.The writer is referring to the PLX chip(PEX 8747) used in hd7990.


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## sukesh1090 (Apr 24, 2013)

^^
oh yeah first i thought it would be about that chip but that 5 display ports confused me.thanks.


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## vickybat (Apr 24, 2013)

Gtx 690 is still the $1000 card to buy. GCN drivers have still a long way to go to mature. Right now, crossfire should be avoided until the whql version of the prototype driver arrives.
Although it discards runt frames, its still not smooth as nvidia options.

Tomshardware did an extensive test and came up with some impressive results.

AMD Radeon HD 7990: Eight Games And A Beastly Card For $1,000 : AMD's Malta Becomes The Radeon HD 7990



Spoiler






> *AMD wants $1,000 for this new flagship—the same price as GeForce GTX 690, which yields a higher practical average frame rate in six of our eight benchmarks as it delivers frames more smoothly across the board.* The GTX 690 is shorter, set up to exhaust at least some of its waste heat out of your chassis, and significantly more power-friendly. *It eschews plastic in favor of metal. And it doesn’t whine under variable loads. Nvidia simply sells a better-built dual-GPU graphics card.*
> 
> Not only does AMD enable Radeon HD 7990 in a dual-slot form factor with two eight-pin power connectors, but it also addresses my biggest beef with the company’s most recent high-end reference designs: too much noise. Even under load, the 7990’s three fans slice through air quieter than a GeForce GTX 690. It’s only unfortunate that power-related vibrations generate more volume than the coolers themselves. *Massive compute performance, low idle power consumption enabled by ZeroCore technology, and some of the fastest 3D performance available make this a very desirable product for certain environments.*
> *But when we combine the quantitative data enabled by video capture-based performance analysis and the subjective judgments of a panel of gaming enthusiasts who simply want to play their favorite titles on the best hardware possible, Nvidia’s thousand-dollar GeForce GTX 690 outshines the similarly-priced Radeon HD 7990. Our early look at AMD’s prototype driver suggests that more evenly pacing the rate at which frames are shown on-screen helps minimize frame time variance, which our gamers definitely noticed. But that release isn’t expected for months—the second half of 2013 is as specific as AMD gets.*
> ...






Okay, the bold parts are all that takes to draw a conclusion.Kudos to nvidia for developing a tool like FCAT. Fraps is history now, and was really an unfair way in measuring frames coz it added up runt frames. FCAT has now become sort of a universal tool for benchmarking gpu's. 690 is still the better card from a gaming perspective. But the game bundle is very tempting and maybe a sort
of means for amd to draw customers. But right now, crossfire of gpu's like 7970, 7950 and the likes should be avoided. Read the tomshardware review to know why. At least until that prototype driver makes a general appearance and its gonna take a while for that to happen. Amd still haven't fixed the issues to announce an official release date. Expect towards the end of the year.

About compute, well open-cl is well optimized for GCN as nvidia is for CUDA. For open-cl specific tasks, its still not a deal maker coz open-cl still has a long way to go to match
professional rendering tools like i-ray which uses CUDA. But its moving at a fast pace and now folding@home also has open-cl support. GPGPU still is at its infancy now for general public. GCN has a lot of untapped power as its fairly a new architecture. AMD has a lot of work cut out in the driver level to make the most out of it.


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## sankar (Apr 24, 2013)

is this true ??

AMD Radeon HD 7990 'Malta' Engineering Sample | eBay

$$ 96100


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## avinandan012 (Apr 25, 2013)

^ that guy is either filthy rich by his father's money or pure retard buying a $1000 card @ $96000


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## topgear (Apr 25, 2013)

here's the order in chaos 
AMD Radeon HD 7990 Malta roundup


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## vickybat (Apr 25, 2013)

Tomshardware review standards have definitely increased with new improved tools. Although hardocp used old standards, they could still feel all the flaws by experience alone.
Read on to know more. 

HARDOCP - AMD Radeon HD 7990 - AMD Radeon HD 7990 Video Card Review


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## d3p (Apr 25, 2013)

Looks like a beast, but would wait for some Crossfire reviews & its comparison with HD 7970 CF.

*Hope someday Red Camp address those micro-tearing & screen shuttering & frame flickering issues with HD7970 CF.*


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## vickybat (Apr 25, 2013)

d3p said:


> Looks like a beast, but would wait for some Crossfire reviews & its comparison with HD 7970 CF.
> 
> *Hope someday Red Camp address those micro-tearing & screen shuttering & frame flickering issues with HD7970 CF.*



Read hardocp and tomshardware reviews mate. Its compare with 7970 cf, 680 sli and 690. FCAT has really turned the tables.

*www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-review-benchmark,3486.html

Some interesting comments:



Spoiler






> *Who's the Stutterer?*
> 
> Quite simply, AMD CrossFire is the stutterer in the room. We have talked about this issue in every CrossFire versus SLI evaluation we have published for years now. We are pleased to say it felt like stuttering has been lessened a bit with AMD CrossFire. However, it is still very much a reality with Catalyst 13.5 Beta2 on Radeon HD 7990 and 7970 GHz Edition CrossFire. First of all, we experienced no difference in stuttering between the single-card Radeon HD 7990 and two-card Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition CrossFire. The amount of stutter or inconsistency felt the same between both configurations while gaming. The fact that two-GPUs are hardwired on a single PCB didn't reduce the stuttering as some might have thought. We feel that driver improvements are slowly getting there. This new driver so far as the "best" experience we've had yet in regards to stuttering.
> 
> ...






If hardocp would have used FCAT, then the 7970 cf wouldn't have delivered such high FPS count as they are filled with runt frames. But they could feel the experience.
Crossfire should be avoided now until full proof drivers arrive.


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## d3p (Apr 25, 2013)

vickybat said:


> Read hardocp and tomshardware reviews mate. Its compare with 7970 cf, 680 sli and 690. FCAT has really turned the tables.
> 
> AMD Radeon HD 7990: Eight Games And A Beastly Card For $1,000 : AMD's Malta Becomes The Radeon HD 7990
> 
> ...



Thanks for the review links.

*Edit: I will share the FPS & Frame Time variance issues currently facing with F1 2012 at 3780 x 1920.*


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## vickybat (Apr 25, 2013)

^^ That will be great buddy.  I wonder how you are facing issues in a single card setup. Maybe its because of the resolution you are currently on.


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## d3p (Apr 25, 2013)

vickybat said:


> ^^ That will be great buddy.  I wonder how you are facing issues in a single card setup. Maybe its because of the resolution you are currently on.



dude, its no more Single card setup any more. Its X-Fired since two months now.


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## vickybat (Apr 25, 2013)

d3p said:


> dude, its no more Single card setup any more. Its X-Fired since two months now.



Oh my bad. I failed to notice the *"CF"* in your siggy. 

Post info on some other games too like crysis 3 , far cry 3 etc.


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## d3p (Apr 25, 2013)

vickybat said:


> Oh my bad. I failed to notice the *"CF"* in your siggy.
> 
> Post info on some other games too like crysis 3 , far cry 3 etc.



Sure, make sure to check the Graphics Card Thread on Sunday.

I have Metro 2033, Far Cry 3, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 3, F1 2012, Dirt 3, Sleeping Dogs & Mostwanted Reboot in the Hit List. In case i miss some intense game, let me know.

*On Topic : 13.4 & 13.5 beta catalyst as released on 24th april, has few good thing to please my eyes on the papers. Lets see, how it performs in the real world.*


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## vickybat (Apr 25, 2013)

^^ Sure mate.  Do include some VRAM sensitive games like Hitman Absolution and Of Course Tomb Raider.


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## sukesh1090 (Apr 25, 2013)

> d3p
> Hope someday Red Camp address those micro-tearing & screen shuttering & frame flickering issues with HD7970 CF.


the work is already in progress bro and AMD will release the completely stable driver Q2 of this year may be in june i guess.haven't you checked that review which includes prototype driver which improves gameplay experience of 7990 by miles.for now it is only for 7990 but when it will be released for users ,then it will fix things for all the CF solutions.
7990 review with new prototype driver
 and one more thing is that AMD is thinking to  keep an option in control center to enable/disable that "frame metering" option.as it improves gaming performance in most of the games but in few games things works better without that.
but still i think AMD should have released that card along with that completely stable driver rather than asking users to play with half baked performance.


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## d3p (Apr 25, 2013)

sukesh1090 said:


> the work is already in progress bro and AMD will release the completely stable driver Q2 of this year may be in june i guess.haven't you checked that review which includes prototype driver which improves gameplay experience of 7990 by miles.for now it is only for 7990 but when it will be released for users ,then it will fix things for all the CF solutions.
> 7990 review with new prototype driver
> and one more thing is that AMD is thinking to  keep an option in control center to enable/disable that "frame metering" option.as it improves gaming performance in most of the games but in few games things works better without that.
> but still i think AMD should have released that card along with that completely stable driver rather than asking users to play with half baked performance.



I don't have any option other than just hoping. Thing is i never gave up.


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## vickybat (Apr 25, 2013)

d3p said:


> I don't have any option other than just hoping. Thing is i never gave up.



Not to worry mate. I exactly know what you mean. The prototype driver's presence proves that amd is definitely working things out.
They will certainly fix this. GCN is a new architecture and has untapped power.


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## sukesh1090 (Apr 26, 2013)

d3p said:


> I don't have any option other than just hoping. Thing is i never gave up.



don't worry bro,check that link which i have given in the last post you can see that actually that prototype driver looks like a new stable driver which has fixed everything and if it has fixed things for 7990 then it has also fixed it for 7970 CF because 7990 is just a CF of 7970 but in a single PCB.so just wait for 2 more months your all misery will get a full stop.


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## topgear (Apr 27, 2013)

d3p said:


> Sure, make sure to check the Graphics Card Thread on Sunday.
> 
> I have Metro 2033, Far Cry 3, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 3, F1 2012, Dirt 3, Sleeping Dogs & Mostwanted Reboot in the Hit List. In case i miss some intense game, let me know.
> 
> *On Topic : 13.4 & 13.5 beta catalyst as released on 24th april, has few good thing to please my eyes on the papers. Lets see, how it performs in the real world.*



add Bioshock Infinite, Lost Planet 2, BF3,  Batman: Arkham City, DiRT SD, 3DMark 13 and Resident Evil 6.


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## d3p (Apr 27, 2013)

Guys i don't have few of games suggested by you all.. check my inventory from the siggy.


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## topgear (Apr 28, 2013)

LP2, RE6 and 3Dmark has standalone benchmark suite which can be use without games and is free ... you may find some more on guru3d.


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## Cilus (Apr 28, 2013)

D3P, just create an account in Tomshardware forum and check if somebody has already shared the link of the AMD Beta Driver which they sent for review. Also check in Guru3d download section. Plenty of times I have seen them to publish AMD experimental drivers before the official release.

Regarding CF, I think you can give RadeonPro a try. Although using the VSync techniques in RADEONPRO will reduce the maximum Frame rate to 50 to 60 FPS, the game play experience will be lot smoother.


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## topgear (Apr 29, 2013)

here's the link for leaked prototype drivers : though they are marked as 13.4 they are newer than 13.4 
AMD Catalyst 13.4 (12.104.0.0 March 28) - techPowerUp! Forums

but acc to guru3d AMD Catalyst Frame Pacing Prototype v3 - 13.5 Beta 2 and many are saying they are getting smooth fps with this driver version in CF setup and the driver version is available to download on AMD's website.
Radeon HD 7990 review - Test Environment & equipment


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## vkl (May 12, 2013)

HARDOCP - Introduction - Radeon HD 7990 versus GeForce GTX TITAN Review
Hd7990,gtx titan,gtx680 SLI,hd7970 crossfire were compared at 5760*1200 i.e.triple monitor,each at 1920*1200.
HD7970 crossfire provided the best game-play experience as per it.


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## topgear (May 13, 2013)

> The Bottom Line
> 
> We were impressed that one single video card, the GeForce GTX TITAN could provide us an above average gameplay experience in NV Surround across three displays at 5760x1200. The $999 GeForce GTX TITAN was even able to match the $999 AMD Radeon HD 7990 in gameplay experience in a few games. However, the more demanding games leaned toward the dual-GPU video cards for the best performance and experience at this resolution. As we look forward to other more demanding games in the future, like Metro: Last Light, dual-GPU may still be the faster solution.
> 
> In terms of price and nothing else, the $999 AMD Radeon HD 7990 video card is a better purchase than one single GeForce GTX TITAN. We know two TITAN's in 2-way SLI will blow HD 7990 out of the water, but it is also $1000 more expensive. However, the real show stopper is still two separate Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video cards with CrossFire enabled. Those can be purchased at $100-200 less expensive than GeForce GTX TITAN or AMD Radeon HD 7990, and provide a lot more performance. *7970 GHz Edition CrossFire will win every time*, and by a larger margin than Radeon HD 7990.



now did they ( HardOCP ) perform the test based on fraps fps or Frame Time Variance which is more practical like this :
 Results: Battlefield 3 : AMD Radeon HD 7990: Eight Games And A Beastly Card For $1,000


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## vkl (May 13, 2013)

^^They did the normal testing..no frame latency testing involved.In they end they found that hd7970 for that setting provided the best game-play experience in the games they tested. 
At that resolution the lower memory specs of gtx680 SLI was hampering its performance.

Check this thread:Radeon HD 7990 versus GeForce GTX TITAN Review @ [H]
Check posts #31 and #33.Both are editors related to their GPU testing.
#33 explains their perspective and testing according to them.
[H]ard|Forum - View Single Post - Radeon HD 7990 versus GeForce GTX TITAN Review @ [H]



Spoiler






> from *#33*
> *When we (and I mean all video card editors at [H] collectively) talk about the "best gameplay experience", it means the highest playable settings that we can set for each game while still maintaining a smooth and enjoyable playing experience*. We do capture fps data, but that is more to have something to graph to show our readers than it is something that we base our judgment on - we don't even keep the frame counter on screen when we are deciding playability. If the experience isn't smooth, regardless of frame rate, we will lower settings until it is smooth. We aren't running benchmarks, we are actually playing the game. This has been how [H] has done reviews for many years and has addressed the issue of smoothness long before the whole frame time debacle ever started.
> 
> * Therefore, when Brent makes the statement that you quoted, he is speaking from the perspective of smoothness. Yes, on the publically available (and even non-publically available drivers), Crossfire with Eyefinity is NOT as smooth at a given frame rate as is SLI, however, since the Radeon cards usually deliver a faster frame rate, those extra frames help to smooth out the experience to the end user/gamer*.
> ...






According to it,hd7970 crossfire was _smooth enough_.In quite a number of cases allowed for game play at higher settings which also counts.


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## vickybat (May 13, 2013)

Guess the drivers are starting to improve. A perfect working driver is actually inevitable. At some point of time, ( a lot sooner actually), its going to show up.
So i think all crossfire owners here should have a sigh of relief. Things are going to get better for them.


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## topgear (May 14, 2013)

vkl said:


> ^^They did the normal testing..no frame latency testing involved.In they end they found that hd7970 for that setting provided the best game-play experience in the games they tested.
> At that resolution the lower memory specs of gtx680 SLI was hampering its performance.
> 
> Check this thread:Radeon HD 7990 versus GeForce GTX TITAN Review @ [H]
> ...



I can smell contradiction 



> Crossfire with Eyefinity is NOT as smooth at a given frame rate as is SLI, however, since the Radeon cards usually deliver a faster frame rate, those extra frames help to smooth out the experience to the end user/gamer.



just for example : say at 50 FPS SLI giving smoother experience and CF is not .. so now the same CF when setup is giving 60 FPS .. so does that mean the extra 10 FPS helps to smooth out experience of the gamer ?? Looking at the FTL test is telling another story though : From Tom's



> The Radeon HD 7990 appears to serve up more than 100 FPS in Battlefield 3 using Ultra settings at a 2560x1440 resolution. It looks like it’s bumping into a platform limitation on our Core i7-3770K overclocked to 4 GHz, in fact. But when you play back the 90-second video of our benchmark, you clearly see that each visible frame is succeeded by a small runt that only shows up for a millisecond or two. When all of those are factored out, the average frame rate you actually experience is closer to 56.2—lower even than a GeForce GTX Titan. Two Radeon HD 7970s in CrossFire are subject to the exact same issue, yielding confirmation that this isn’t a product-specific phenomenon, but rather a problem that affects AMD’s technology.



anyway, starting from 13.5b2 and the prototype driver things are starting to change and I really hope AMD will give us some mature drivers to iron out this issue completely.


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## vkl (May 14, 2013)

Tomshardware results are on 2560*1440,PCPer had tested hd7970 crossfire at 5760*1080 but with catalyst 13.3 and results were not good.
May be with 13.5Beta 2 at 5760*1200 they(hardocp) find it _smooth enough_ to have a decent experience.It seems they factored in things like ability to play at higher settings with hd7970 crossfire as they say that SLI was still much more smoother.

Clearly SLI is superior in terms of smoothness in general at this point.With newer drivers AMD should fix the issues with time.


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