AMD Radeon HD 7970 Graphics Card

Overview

• Ready for Microsoft Windows® 8 and DirectX® 11.1 gaming! Learn more.
• The world’s first 28nm GPU. The revolutionary new GCN Architecture. Ready for DirectX® 11.1. PCI Express 3.0.¹ The AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 is your personal checklist for ground-breaking technology.
• The next generation of AMD Eyefinity technology is here, featuring all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation and brand new display configurations. Face it: the best just got better.^2,3
• Armed with the new PCI Express 3.0 standard, multi-GPU configurations with AMD CrossFire™ technology are just another way to obliterate the competition with the revolutionary AMD Radeon™ HD 7970.^1,4
• Leave no performance behind. Get higher clocks and faster gaming with AMD PowerTune technology on AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 Graphics.⁵
• Fold and mine faster than ever with AMD App Acceleration powered by the unprecedented 28nm GCN Architecture.⁶
• The market isn’t ready for 4k video, but Radeon™ is. With full support for HDMI® (with 4K) and DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2, the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 is set for quad HD.

System Requirements

• PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
• 500W (or greater) power supply with one 150W 8-pin PCI Express power connector and one 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector recommended.⁷
  • NOTE: Minimum recommended system power supply wattage is based on the specific graphics card and the typical power requirements of other system components. Your system may require more or less power. OEM and other pre-assembled PCs may have different power requirements.
• Certified power supplies are recommended.  Refer to https://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products
• Minimum 4GB of system memory
• 8GB (or more) of system memory recommended for AMD CrossFire™ technology
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive, a keyboard, a mouse, and a display
• DVD playback requires DVD drive and a DVD
• Blu-ray™ playback requires Blu-ray drive and a Blu-ray disc
• For an AMD CrossFire™ system, a second AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 Graphics card, an AMD CrossFire™ Ready motherboard and one AMD CrossFire™ Bridge Interconnect cable is required
• Use of 3 or more displays with AMD Eyefinity technology requires a DisplayPort-capable panel or an AMD Eyefinity validated dongle. See https://www.amd.com/EyefinityDongles for a list of validated DisplayPort dongles
• Windows Vista® or Windows® 7 operating system. 64-bit operating system highly recommended. Windows® XP not currently supported – see the following support page for additional details: https://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/hd7900seriesxpsupport.aspx
• Not for industrial or commercial use. See AMD FirePro™ Graphics solutions for these applications.

Specifications

• Up to 925MHz Engine Clock
• 3GB GDDR5 Memory
• 1375MHz Memory Clock (5.5Gbps GDDR5)
• 264GB/s memory bandwidth (maximum)
• 3.79 TFLOPS Single Precision compute power
• 947 GFLOPS Double Precision compute power
• GCN Architecture
  • 32 compute units (2048 Stream Processors)
  • 128 Texture Units
  • 128 Z/Stencil ROP Units
  • 32 Color ROP Units
  • Dual Geometry Engines
  • Dual Asynchronous Compute Engines (ACE)
• PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus interface
• DirectX® 11.1-capable graphics
  • 9th generation programmable hardware tessellation units
  • Shader Model 5.0
  • DirectCompute 11
  • Accelerated multi-threading
  • HDR texture compression
  • Order-independent transparency
• OpenGL 4.2 support
  • Partially Resident Textures (PRT)
    • Ultra-high resolution texture streaming
• Image quality enhancement technology
  • Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
  • Adaptive anti-aliasing
  • Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA)
  • 16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
  • 128-bit floating point HDR rendering
• AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology²
  • Up to 6 displays supported with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport
  • Independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls, and video overlays
  • Display grouping
    • Combine multiple displays to behave like a single large display
• AMD App Acceleration⁶
  • OpenCL 1.2 Support
  • Microsoft C++ AMP
  • DirectCompute 11
  • Double Precision Floating Point
  • AMD HD Media Accelerator
    • Unified Video Decoder (UVD)
      • H.264
      • VC-1
      • MPEG-2 (SD & HD)
      • MVC (Blu-ray 3D)
      • MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX/Xvid)
      • Adobe Flash
      • DXVA 1.0 & 2.0 support
    • Enhanced Video Quality features
      • Advanced post-processing and scaling
        • Deblocking
        • Denoising
        • Automatic deinterlacing
        • Mosquito noise reduction
        • Edge enhancement
        • 3:2 pulldown detection
      • Advanced video color correction
        • Brighter whites processing (Blue Stretch)
        • Independent video gamma control
        • Flesh tone correction
        • Color vibrance control
        • Dynamic contrast
        • Dynamic video range control
• AMD HD3D technology³
  • Stereoscopic 3D display/glasses support
  • Blu-ray 3D support
  • Stereoscopic 3D gaming
  • 3rd party Stereoscopic 3D middleware software support
• AMD CrossFire™ multi-GPU technology⁴
  • Dual, triple or quad-GPU scaling
• Cutting-edge integrated display support
  • DisplayPort 1.2
    • Max resolution: 4096×2160 @ 60 Hz per display
    • Multi-Stream
    • 21.6 Gbps bandwidth (HBR2)
    • High bit-rate audio
    • Quad HD/4K/UHDTV display support
    • 1080p60 Stereoscopic 3D (Frame Sequential Format)
  • HDMI® (With 4K, 3D, x.v.Color™ and Deep Color)
    • Max resolution: 4096×2160 @ 30 Hz
    • 1080p30 Stereoscopic 3D (Packed Frame Format)
    • Quad HD/4K/UHDTV video display support
  • HDMI® (With 4K, 3D, Deep Color and x.v.Color™)
    • Max resolution: 4096×2160
    • 1080p60 Stereoscopic 3D
    • Quad HD/4k video support
  • Dual-link DVI with HDCP
    • Max resolution: 2560×1600
  • VGA
    • Max resolution: 2048×1536
• Integrated HD audio controller
  • Output protected high bit rate 7.1 channel surround sound over HDMI with no additional cables required
  • Supports AC-3, AAC, Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio formats
• AMD PowerPlay™ power management technology³
  • Automatic power management with low power idle states
• AMD PowerTune technology⁵
  • Intelligent TDP management technology
  • Dynamic clockspeed/performance enhancement for games
• AMD ZeroCore Power⁵
  • Ultra-low idle power when the system’s display is off
  • Secondary GPUs in an AMD CrossFire™ configuration power down when unneeded
• AMD Catalyst™ graphics and HD video configuration software
  • Software support for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP
  • AMD Catalyst™ Control Center – AMD Catalyst™ software application and user interface for setup, configuration, and accessing features of AMD Radeon products
  • Unified Graphics display driver – AMD Catalyst™ software enabling other PC programs and devices to use advanced graphics, video, and features of AMD Radeon™ products

Footnotes

Additional hardware (e.g. Blu-ray drive, HD or 10-bit monitor, TV tuner) and/or software (e.g. multimedia applications) are required for the full enablement of some features. Not all features may be supported on all components or systems – check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies.

1. Utilization of PCI Express 3.0 bandwidth requires a mainboard equipped with a PCI Express 3.0 PHY. Not all mainboards feature this technology – check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities.
2. AMD Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, additional panels with native DisplayPort™ connectors, and/or DisplayPort™ compliant active adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your cards DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s), are required.  Support for six simultaneous displays may require complementary products compatible with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport. Maximum number of configured displays may vary – check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies.  SLS (“Single Large Surface”) functionality requires an identical display resolution on all configured displays.
3. AMD HD3D is a technology designed to enable stereoscopic 3D support in games, movies and/or photos. Requires 3D stereo drivers, glasses, and display. Not all features may be supported on all components or systems – check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies. A list of supported stereoscopic 3D hardware is available at https://www.amd.com/HD3D.
4. AMD CrossFire™ technology requires an AMD CrossFire Ready motherboard, an AMD CrossFire™ Bridge Interconnect (for each additional graphics card) and may require a specialized power supply.
5. AMD PowerPlay™ and AMD PowerTune are technologies offered by certain AMD Radeon™ products, which are designed to intelligently manage GPU power consumption in response to certain GPU load conditions. Not all products feature all technologies – check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities.
6. AMD App Acceleration is a set of technologies designed to improve video quality and enhance application performance. Full enablement of some features requires support for OpenCL™, DirectCompute or DirectX® Video Acceleration (DXVA). Not all products have all features and full enablement of some capabilities and may require complementary products.
7. Minimum recommended system power supply wattage is based on the specific graphics card and the typical power requirements of other system components. Your system may require more or less power. OEM and other pre-assembled PCs may have different power requirements.

The AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7970 Graphics Card Is First to Market With 28nm Process Technology and PCI Express 3.0; Harnesses AMD GCN Architecture, AMD ZeroCore Power and AMD Eyefinity 2.0 Technologies
SUNNYVALE, CA, Dec 22, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –AMD (NYSE: AMD) today launched the AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7970 graphics card for desktop PCs, introducing the world’s fastest single-GPU graphics card and the only GPU based on 28nm production technology.(1) With the arrival of the AMD Radeon HD 7970, AMD has unleashed its revolutionary new Graphics Core Next Architecture that enables new levels of gaming and compute capabilities — realizing an improvement of over 150% in performance/sq mm over the prior generation.(2) Engineered with support for PCI Express 3.0 and AMD CrossFire(TM) technology, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics card arrives prepared for the next level of gaming.(3)

“True to the maxim, ‘never settle,’ AMD is once again aggressively advancing the state of the graphics industry — this time with the arrival of the world’s fastest single-GPU graphics card, the AMD Radeon HD 7970,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. “This graphics card represents a revolution in the graphics industry. To put it bluntly, the AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7970 changes everything!”

AMD further extends its GPU leadership with the AMD Radeon HD 7970 through AMD App Acceleration, which enables exquisite high-definition video images and exceptional performance improvements for everyday applications. Ground-breaking advancements with AMD Eyefinity technology enable gamers and desktop enthusiasts to connect up to six displays to one graphics card, delivering immersive stereoscopic 3D experiences and astonishing 16k x 16k display resolutions.(4) It’s also armed with the latest PCI Express 3.0 standard to enable uncompromised image quality, and is additionally equipped with GDDR5 memory, enabling accelerated GPU performance. Through its intelligent AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore Power technologies, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 enables higher performance levels while maximizing power efficiencies.(5)

“The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is an awesome tool in any gamer’s arsenal,” said Johan Andersson, Rendering Architect at DICE. “We have worked closely with AMD during the development of the Frostbite 2 game engine to take full advantage of AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology and DirectX(R) 11 for a more realistic, entertaining and visceral gaming experience in Battlefield 3.”

Efficient Architecture for Leading DirectX(R) 11 Performance

--  New architecture for greater performance: AMD has further enhanced its
    GPU design efficiency through the introduction of the 28nm process
    technology and Graphics Core Next Architecture, realizing an
    improvement of over 150% in performance/sq mm over the prior
    generation.
--  Refined AMD PowerTune technology: Designed with the most advanced
    power management features, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is equipped with the
    intelligence to convert unused power headroom into extra performance
    by dynamically controlling clock speeds, allowing gamers advanced
    performance inside of the power envelope they specify.
--  AMD ZeroCore Power Technology: Gamers asked, AMD delivered -- the AMD
    ZeroCore Power technology found in the AMD Radeon HD 7970 ensures that
    no power is wasted when the graphics card is not in use, enabling
    lower idle power than any other currently available graphics card.
    With support for AMD CrossFire technology, AMD ZeroCore Power
    eliminates wasted power, as well as additional heat and noise from
    extra cards when you are not using them.
--  PCI Express 3.0: The AMD Radeon HD 7970 comes natively equipped with
    support for PCI Express 3.0. With world-class performance scaling,
    enthusiasts' GPU experience is maximized when paired with the latest
    platforms.
--  Discrete Digital Multi-Point (DDM) Audio: DDM Audio provides multiple
    independent audio streams for audio-capable displays via DisplayPort
    or HDMI signals. DDM Audio delivers unique experiences in cases where
    multi-display video conferencing, directional audio or multi-room
    entertainment hubs are being used.
--  Enhanced Multi-GPU Capabilities: AMD CrossFire technology is the
    ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform. Unlocking
    game-dominating power, AMD CrossFire technology, coupled with PCI
    Express 3.0, will allow for unprecedented bandwidth in TriFire and
    QuadFire configurations.

The Ultimate Immersive Gaming Experience and Innovative AMD Eyefinity 2.0 Technology

--  Next Generation AMD Eyefinity technology: AMD Eyefinity 2.0 features
    all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation, brand new
    display configurations and an expanded and more immersive field of
    view. This allows users with 2560x1600 monitors in an AMD Eyefinity
    5x1 landscape configuration to achieve a horizontal resolution of
    12,800 pixels, driving more than 20 million pixels of screen real
    estate. More than 70 game titles have been AMD Eyefinity-validated,
    while many are AMD Eyefinity-ready, and hundreds more are AMD
    Eyefinity-compatible.
--  DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a: With full support for 3GHz HDMI 1.4a
    and DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is set to drive next
    generation displays at up to 4K resolution.
--  3D entertainment choices with AMD HD3D technology: With the arrival of
    the latest in stereo 3D technology, AMD continues to deliver an
    enhanced visual experience on stereo 3D-capable desktops and notebooks
    powered by AMD Radeon graphics. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is backed by
    AMD's open 3D initiative for stereo 3D gaming and Blu-ray 3D movies.

Better Performance through AMD App Acceleration

--  AMD App Acceleration lets you do more, faster: Enthusiasts will enjoy
    improved GPGPU performance and new features in many top media,
    entertainment and everyday productivity applications with AMD App
    Acceleration.
--  Extensive support of industry standards: AMD Radeon HD 7970 fully
    supports DirectCompute(R) and OpenCL(TM) technologies, enabling
    broad application support today and tomorrow.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is available January 9, 2012 from retailers worldwide, with select models starting at $549 US SEP.

Supporting Resources

--  Product page: Learn more about the AMD Radeon HD 7970
--  Twitter: Follow AMD graphics news on Twitter at @AMDRadeon
--  Facebook: Become a fan of AMD technology on Facebook
--  Blog: Matt Skynner's Blog On The AMD Radeon HD 7970

About AMD AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, CrossFire, Radeon, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. OpenCL is a trademark of Apple Inc., used with permission by Khronos. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

(1) As of December 22, 2011, the AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7970 scores in excess of X2700 in 3DMark(R) 11, the highest single-GPU graphics card score achieved on a stock platform to date.

(2) The AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7970 Series GPU offers more than 1.54X times the compute power/mm2 when compared to the AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6970 Series GPU: the AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6970 Series GPU has been calculated at 2.703 TFLOPs of compute power with a measured die size of 389mm2, while the AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7970 Series GPU has been calculated at 3.789 TFLOPs of compute power with a die size of 352mm2.

(3) Utilization of PCI Express 3.0 bandwidth requires a mainboard equipped with a PCI Express 3.0 PHY. Not all mainboards feature this technology — check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities.

(4) AMD Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, additional panels with native DisplayPort(TM) connectors, and/or DisplayPort(TM) compliant active adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your card’s DisplayPort(TM) or Mini-DisplayPort(TM) connector(s), are required. Support for six simultaneous displays may require complementary products compatible with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport. Maximum number of configured displays may vary — check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies. SLS (“Single Large Surface”) functionality requires an identical display resolution on all configured displays.

(5) AMD PowerPlay, AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore are technologies offered by certain AMD Radeon products, which are designed to intelligently manage GPU power consumption in response to certain GPU load conditions. Not all products feature all technologies — check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities.