AMD has just unveiled its next generation high-end single GPU graphics monster: the Radeon HD 7970.
Based on a 28nm manufacturing process, the AMD Southern Islands family of graphics cards brings with it the Graphics Core Next architecture, newly designed from the ground up, and features the latest in AMD graphics card technology.
The AMD HD7900 is the first series of graphics cards to make use of the PCI-E 3.0 interface, which offers 32Gb/s of bandwidth, double that of PCI-E 2.0. In addition to this, the HD7900 cards are the first to support the latest DirectX 11.1 standard.
There is no doubt that the HD7970 will be AMD’s most powerful single-GPU graphics card to date, however, its price points will determine the value proposition.
7970 back angle
After spotting the Sapphire version of the card listed on Prophecy.co.za for a nauseating R7,933.08, we got in touch with AMD South Africa Sales Manager Jaco Laubscher. Laubscher confirmed that pricing has not settled yet, and that we can expect to see a drop as the cards become readily available.
“Each distributor is doing their own thing based on demand and pricing is still way higher than I would like. Recommended retail price should be around R7,399,” said Laubscher.
We also caught up with Paul Johnston at Prophecy. Johnston shared Laubscher’s view that the card would come down in price over time, but he expects the cheapest manufacturers to come down to between R6,000 and R6,400, which he believes is fair considering the US price of $550 (±R4,675).
“AMD has put in a very high price point for this card, I think partially because it’s a very high-end card (slotting in above the HD6970 but below the HD6990 – not really a true HD6970 replacement), and partially because Nvidia has not launched their new cards yet,” concluded Johnston.
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We are South Africans, apparently it is ok to be ripped off, would have loved to have had the same priced retailed overseas here, it would be a bargain second to none, oh well!!