New 8970m/8990m Coming SOON!!

Just get the fastest cards in your budget and don't worry too much is generally the best way forward.

 

I keep hearing this story from the last 2 years. I also tell myself I will not go back to the AMD cards, but I never learn my lesson. I feel bad saying this, I have nothing against AMD, but they should stop making cheap quality, especially software and even if they make their prices higher to cover the expense, I wouldn't mind paying for it. It's like buying 3 cheap shirts and in the end you realize that it was better if you would have spent a little more and got the good quality one that would have keep you going on for a longer period with no hassle whatsoever...

The main problem is that NVidia is not that affordable and that is why everyone is going for the bread crumbs...

 

Like juliant, I'm not bashing AMD or anyone who owns AMD here but I do agree with the above post.

Whilst AMD cards (and their pricing vs. Nvidia) can appeal to those who see them as great value for money, and to those buyers perhaps with lower budgets, the last few generations of AMD gpu's have not translated into "value for money" - unless you like to roll the roulette wheel and gamble on wether or not they will perform consistently and without headaches.

I always ask myself why is there such a price difference between the two manufacturers, and with my logic, I always end up with the same answer - If something is priced at around half the cost, but promises the same performance or better, where's the catch? - what's been skimped on and where have they cut corners? - I'd feel the same about any similar scenario - if someone said "here ya go Stevie, two fillet steaks, one £20 and one £10 - choose" I'd be thinking that the lower priced steak was from a donkey or something LOL! ( Reference to Tesco "horsemeat" scandal in the UK). The old saying that "if something appears to be too good to be true, it often is too good to be true" could be applied, and therefore, I don't trust it.

Of course, Nvidia cards are over-priced but I don't think that all of that extra cost is simply pocketed as profit by Nvidia - I imagine that as a gpu-only manufacturer, they spend a lot more on R & D etc to get their products as good and as reliable as they can be - (let's face it, if your in business and your only products are major flops, you ain't gonna make much money, are ya? ) where as AMD have lots of fingers in lots of pies and therefore they maybe cannot/do not concentrate on one particular area 100% - something's gotta give somewhere, and it appears that their product development/support suffers because of this.

I really hope that AMD turn things around and return to form, making good solid gpu's that are solid in performance as well as reliability. I've said it before, competition is healthy and we all benefit from "gpu wars" - without them, we would not see as much advancement in technology as one manufacturer would have the market cornered.

I have my fingers crossed that AMD's latest offerings are gonna be great gpu's, great pricing and great support.....

 

I don't know about roulette wheel. It was known since the first days that Enduro users were in deep manure. Non-enduro users have generally been perfectly satisfied. I'd say, when purchasing any card (not just AMD) do your own due diligence regarding known issues and performance.

 

Buna Ziua, Sange. This has been my experience as well. Ever since the debacle that was the 4870 X2 in the Asus w90, I swore I'd never go back to an ATI/AMD mobility product. Since then, I've given into the supposed price/performance arguement and purchased laptops with dual and single configurations of 5870ms, 6990ms, and 7970ms. In EVERY single instance, I've sold the AMD cards or laptop and gone back to an nV product which almost invariably runs cooler, more stable and with better game compatibility. I want to buy an AMD product and keep it for the long run, but in my experience, their driver support is crap. I'm really hoping they get their act together with the new 8xxx cards, but after 5 years of bad experiences, I'm not holding my breath.

I guess I can't really blame AMD though since you know the saying: "Fool me once... shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again!" Wait, that's not how that goes

 

Well, it isn't a 'supposed' price to performance argument, it is absolutely true. 680M from Dell is ~twice as expensive as 7970M. People are still acting as if both cards are the same price and the 7970M still has all of these faults.

For $550 fewer dollars, there's gonna be some 'give'. I'm willing to pay less and deal with the occasional BS associated with the cheaper product. Some people are absolutely not willing to deal with said BS, and that's just fine.

If I wasn't on a budget, you bet I'd have a pair of 680Ms.

 

Unfortunately, it's the same story over and over with AMD. They put out good benchmark numbers but the reality is, their crossfire solutions are broken. Ever notice how onscreen FPS says 40-50 fps, but what you see looks more like 15-20 fps? This has been a known problem with AMD's crossfire for as long as I can remember. The last chance I gave AMD was with the desktop 5970, a $700 card, that even after 3 years is still broken due to drivers.

Nvidia is overpriced, but that's my only option if I want a quality video gaming experience.

 

But it is a superior product with fewer hardware and software flaws. That is why the price is higher.

I know there are frame time comparisons around that support your fps theory, too.

 

Some recent developments have lead to the "AMD Prototype Driver" which was previewed a couple of weeks ago and might be made available in July. Hopefully that'll put an end to the sham that crossfire currently is..

 

That new driver should solve most crossfire issues, especially the frame time one. AMD hasn't had a frame time meter in their cards hardware or software wise, while nVidia has had it since the fermi cards.

Single cards from AMD run fine though with the latest drivers, at least for me.

 

Single card the 7970M is a very good card, i'm still wanting a super solid release from AMD covering all the issues they have had though.

 

I sure do hope you guys are right. If it turns out to be more than another round of empty promises, it will be truly awesome. This has been unresolved with AMD for so long, especially with 7970M, I'm going to do my impression of a Missourian and say "show me" and I'll believe it only after I see proof of it.

 

Im not a fan boy, in fact the simple truth for me has been that I couldn't afford a top end intel CPU or Nvidia GPU, so i run a desktop 6 core phenom and a 5850 series GPU. The experience has always been fairly good with games, I never felt the card was able to pass frames smoothly even 80% of the time apart from on games where there was so little taxation that with vsync it didn't matter. Its still a beast card even now for certain things and can run certain types of games very smoothly but again you just dont have the confidence it will when you load up a new game.

But my point is ^ just clearing up that im not a fan boy, is that ATi and now AMD should be fairly ashamed of themselves. Its taken many thousands if not tens of thousands of people to put pressure on the firm to do something about their runt frames and frame latency, not to mention the crossfire stutter, enduro and poor linux 3D drivers.. If it wasnt for the community then there would be no progress and AMD would be content to sell you a card which benchmarks well but performs inconsistently.

Now they cant hide with all the fcat . metering benchmarks they will bring some global fix. They have improved their drivers on the desktop well already quite well since the 6 series. Crucially with BOTH the next gen consoles running AMD hardware PC gamers for the first time will might just see AMD optimized APU / GPU hardware overtaking big gun AMD/Nvidia cards due to the way in which the code is written for PS4 / Durango which could upset the apple cart, even if the top Nvidia/AMD cards still mince through next gen games it will beg the question why own a top end GPU?

so yea, they should be ashamed of their poor drivers.. seriously actually really ashamed but hopefully it should get better very soon.

 

Always AMD lover, but I love Nvidia's PhysX :thumbsup:

 

I hope you didn't buy that GTX 580 just for PhysX

 

yes,extra for this duo

 

haha craayzaaaay! but then again, didnt really expect anything else from the likes of you vsss

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

carousel go around all the time, as I have just a moment of time that they play some hardware, but for a long time I do not have time for anything, I'm waiting for the 20nm 8990M

 

Well frame lag is a desktop/mobile issue, they HAVE to work on that now.

 

Nice! I'm glad I don't need any PhysX dedicated cards for my Titan, although it would have been better if I kept one of my 480s for it just because I like the looks of the 480. :thumbsup:

AMD is focusing on that issue mainly with the current drivers they are working on, the 7990 review from PCPer shows the difference in frame time from the 7990 release driver and a prototype driver they received which helps address the issue and there was a nice difference.

The newer cards show hopefully come with the drivers that have most of the frame time issues fixed.

 

just thought i let everyone know that the 8970m has launched
AnandTech | AMD Launches Radeon HD 8970M
so its just a rebranded 7970m with boost
other then that everything seems to be the same

 

Nice find. Rep +1.. So nothing to be excited about then.

 

yeh as most of us had assume already it was just a rebranded 7970m. 6% increase due to clock speed is nothing to smile about
its strange that they havent release the 8000 series for desktop yet. normally the desktop would be first before the mobile coutner parts. there was a story that AMD was not planning on releasing 8000 series desktop as they only recently release the top end 7990 card and that they would release something new at the end of this year.
if this is to be believed, then the 8000m series is just a gap filler until the 9000 series is launched sometime at the end of this year.

 

It's nice to finally have some concrete information about these gpu's - unfortunately, it seems that it's not the best news ever and not what a lot of AMD fans would have liked. I guess we will now have to wait and see what pricing is, and of course, real world performance and driver support.

Nice find, Arcticsoldier!! +rep!

 

That's a great news! One by one getting out!

 

If the 780m really destroys the 8970m in performance and even the 770M threatens it, then you can expect AMD to react and release a 8990m to compete.

 

Maybe in 6mths time.....I think if they had the capability, they would have brought it to the table now. They obviously don't - because of the effective "rebadge" job on the 7970m.

 

I would not worry about who responds to what, just get what you can afford at the time.

 

Yeah, I agree - otherwise you will find yourself in the position of constant procrastination.

 

my 6990M just crapped out, have people been experiencing any issues with the 7970M? or should I go with an Nvidia 675MX for reliability? By reliability I mean actual hardware failure

Thanks

 

AMD will need to work very hard on their drivers to earn my money again. Sad really they used to be an amazing company; they still have some pretty cool tech, but I just can't leave team green and their incredible drivers.

 

Well, the 7970m has not been the best card ever from AMD, far from it. While some have not had any issues, there are a LOT of people on NBR who would have gladly gotten rid of their 'Crossfried' cards...my advice would be to go Nvidia.

 

7970 is a solid card now with good drivers.

 

Assuming you received a 7970M (or two) that is free from defects it would be a phenomenal upgrade. The 7970M is a strong performer at stock clock speeds compared to the green options at stock clock speeds. It seems the AMD driver issues are sorted, but the reliability track record is a bit scary compared to NVIDIA. I would recommend going with 580M, 675M, 680M or 780M. The failure rate seems to be very small in comparison.

 

I'm not to concerned about driver issues, I don't mind messing around and dealing with the inconveniences I'm more worried of actual hardware failure, because of almost the same price of a 675MX I can get the 7970M, am just worried that after 1-2yrs it will die again like my 6990m.

 

I think it is a legitimate concern. Anything can happen regardless of brand, but the failure rate seems to favor the green cards. Some have had no problems and others have had a lot of problems with 7970M. YMMV... there is always a risk with high performance parts. Ultimately, only you can decide whether the risk is worth the potential reward. Stock 7970M performance is better than 675M if you get a good one.

 

Yes i know the performance, that's whats tempting, but what is not tempting is for the card to only last a year or two. I'm bidding on an actual downgrade for now on a 6970m if I can get it for $100 it will be worth it. Can still play my games, and I can hopefully hold out for another 1-2 years before I upgrade to another card.

Or I can re-bake my 6990M again and probably have it work for a few more months haha, it's still working now but it runs only in safe mode. If I delete atikmsys whatever that driver is I can boot back into regular PC mode but with a generic driver. Does anybody on this forum do gpu repair? Also, can a cards vbios get messed up from driver installations? Maybe I can try to flash the bios on it again?

But the fact that it started working again after baking, makes me believe it's a hardware issue.

 

No hardware is guaranteed to work 2 year plus. No matter who make it. Consider the fact that GPUs work in a dusty enviroment, with temperature cyclus going from room temperature to 80C mayby every single day. Maybe even hotter for those who overclock. The die itself and everything on the MXM card is extremely delicate.

 

My cousins 9800M GTS is still working what is that 5yrs+? You have very low standards if you think 2yrs+ is far fetched.

 

My M17x R2 with 4870M CF is still working like a champ. But, it seems that like many other things, GPUs are not made a sturdy as they used to be. I think a lot of factors can affect the life span, including overclocking, the environment they are used it, etc. Electronic sometimes last a very long time, and sometimes they do not. Except in cases where it seems the product itself is inherently flawed, with a lot of examples of premature failure, I don't think one brand is necessarily better than the other.

 

I also have a 7 year old notebook that works just fine.
You didn't read what I said: nothing is guaranteed to work 2+ years in this industry

 

Hi there ...

a bump, only because of a banner on this reseller site - 8990m/Q4 2013 (down right on the site).

The site got a refresh about a month ago, and the banner wasn't there before ... . However I did not find any news on the 8990m since then. Still my mind keeps reminding me of it from time to time.

So any news/rumors you heard of recently?

 

About bloody time :thumbsup:

I had to google translate "schneller als". It means "faster than" GTX 780M. Sounds promising. Thanks for sharing

 

I guess we will see... eventually. Maybe before GTX 880M.

It will be interesting to find out if it's actually true, and if it only means stock versus stock it could end up being not very relevant. Hopefully, it will be a truly wicked overclocker like 680M and 780M and not another dud.

 

This is good news. I hope the they get it right this time.

 

Interesting speculation: Radeon 8990M - Forum Notebookcheck.pl

 

So if the GTX 780m score a little over 12% than the 8970m on the 3Dmark11 , would you say the 8990m is on par with the GTX 780m?

 

It's about right for the overall score, but the 780m GPU scores tell an entirely different story.

 

I don't know that what is posted in that link is accurate information or just speculation. It's too early to predict, really. I doubt 8970M will be any better than 7970M, but 8990M (if it ever materializes) might be very close to GTX 780M stock versus stock. If it doesn't overclock well, then that will kind of suck just like it did with 7970M. Only time will tell. Hopefully, there won't be any AMD or NVIDIA engineering abortions like Haswell, where performance takes a back seat to sucky "efficiency" stuff.

 

Looking at the R9 290X which was said to have this "new architecture", Im not expecting much from the 8990M.
290X runs at 94C (yes it actually does). So AMD sacrificed temperature for performance. Better than 7970GHz but also much hotter.

I think it will turn out just like GTX 780M in terms of heat. Adding more cores and heat along with it. Because of that it will also probably be around GTX 780M performance.
Unless they have been working and tweaking on a new die that is more effective than 290X.

Hey man, did you read the recent news about Broadwell?
http://wccftech.com/intel-broadwell-push-gpu-performance-40-haswell/
Intel is continuing the whole IGP BS. Wouldn`t surprise me if they actually managed to reverse the CPU performance in sake of IGP performance. Like +40% in IGP and -5% in CPU performance.

Someone need to slap Intel. Like really really hard.