Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (DirectX 9)
The Empire of Tamriel is on the edge. The High King of Skyrim has been murdered.
Alliances form as claims to the throne are made. In the midst of this conflict, a far more dangerous, ancient evil is awakened. Dragons, long lost to the passages of the Elder Scrolls, have returned to Tamriel.
The future of Skyrim, even the Empire itself, hangs in the balance as they wait for the prophesized Dragonborn to come; a hero born with the power of The Voice, and the only one who can stand amongst the dragons.
Our settings for Skyrim
Here is a video our testing run through, for your reference
While Skyrim tends to be somewhat CPU bound, that doesn't mean that all high end graphics cards perform the same. In fact, though we see no reduction in observed frame rates because of runts, both the HD 7990 and the HD 7970s in CrossFire are behind the GTX 690 and GTX Titan at 1920×1080.
All four graphics cards produce very similar frame time results with mostly consistent bands. There are spikes in all four results, with maybe a handful more seen in the AMD options.
The GTX 690 and the GTX Titan stay consistently faster than the HD 7990 or HD 7970s in our minimum FPS percentile graphs.
Frame variance is pretty low across the board, which means we would recommend the card with the best average frame rate, in this case the GTX 690 or GTX Titan.
Though we don't see scaling with the HD 7970s using 13.3 driver, we do see that pick up once again with the 13.5 beta with the HD 7990, but with the unfortunate addition of some runts.
There are really only two spots of runts in our run through here with the HD 7990, though in our multiple test runs we saw them consistently. Otherwise, the frame time data looks pretty strong for AMD here.
The new combo of 13.5 beta + HD 7990 is able to make a stronger case up against the GTX 690 and GTX Titan in Skyrim at 2560×1440 but its episodes of runt frames do drag down the minimum frame rate data more quickly.
After the 80th percentile mark you can see that we have some increased frame variance on the HD 7990, but it doesn't get over 6 ms until the 99th mark – you'll likely still have a good experience with the card.
Once again, we couldn't get reliable results from Eyefinity + CrossFire from the HD 7990, so we are leaving it out of discussion here. More on this in another piece up soon!
Very nice review Ryan. FPS
Very nice review Ryan. FPS does mean everything. Great methodology.
FPS won’t mean everything
FPS won’t mean everything anymore as soon as amd has a single feature like PhysX or TXAA that nVidia does not – then we will hear how IT MATTERS and is of utmost import, and definitely makes the purchasing decision for everyone…
I can hardly wait… since AMD is about 5 or 6 massive features behind nVidia, and all those of course do not matter at all, only fps, which as we all now must admit instead of just me saying it for years, amd FAILS AT cf FPS.
Man I tell you, I am so, so sick of it, I have been so sick of it for so long, for so many years, and now finally, I bask IN THE HOLY GLORY OF THE TRUTH ! AMD SUCKS VERY BADLY !
I told you all so for years, while I got kicked and stomped with lies and fanboy emotes gone wild, man is it ever good to be totally freaking vindicated.
I will add, no thanks and a pox on all you amd wackadoos that screamed for years about your amd loser cards. I have recieved zero apologies from all of you, and in fact, have seen EXACTLY ZERO APOLOGIES ON THE WEB FROM ANY OF THEM ! SITE OWNERS, AND ALL THE POSTERS !
Thus we can be certain it will all happen again.
Sigh.
no.
no.
You deserve nVdia.If it makes
You deserve nVdia.If it makes it easier to have special names for things that all modern graphics cards are capable of.
When nVidia gets Full directX11.1 support we’ll talk.
Well I was waiting on getting
Well I was waiting on getting my GPU(s) until this the 7990 was reviewed to make sure I wasn’t missing out on a new CFX patch. Now the 780 is coming out in May….
I CANT TAKE INTEL HD4000 ANY LONGER MAN.
What do with $1200? Dual 680 4GB or Single Titan OR Wait for 780 and pick up a couple of those.
You could buy a single GTX
You could buy a single GTX 680 and then contribute to our Indiegogo project? 🙂
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pc-perspective-video-set-and-production-equipment/wdgt/3034236
Ohh Ryan….
Spamming your
Ohh Ryan….
Spamming your own site 🙁
Still If something, instead of a 680 it should be a Titan and then contribute a bit to PcPer 😛
If you can’t wait any longer
If you can’t wait any longer to spend the money I would say Titan, as both dual GPU solutions still are not as smooth as a single card. And far more power hungry.
You can probably kill a man
You can probably kill a man if you fling some of those cards at some unfortunate sap.
This testing methodology is
This testing methodology is deliberately created to make Nvidia look good.
I watch other reviews and the frame times don’t look that bad.
Here Nvidia looks great and AMD look very bad. Plus a saw reviews where average and minimal fps are quite tight.
Others also used the
AMD Catalyst Frame_Pacing_Prototype v2 For Radeon HD 7990
and it showed nice reduction of frame latency. In time it can only get better
Testing methodology isn’t
Testing methodology isn’t deliberately created to make Nvidia look good, it was to show the issues associated with dual GPU.
The only reason NVidia cooperated was that they knew they had the issue fixed where as AMD ignored it for some time.
If Nvidia still had the issue, they would never participate in developing this testing methodology.
Luckily this method of not looking at FPS (started up by TechReport site) opened our eyes to something we have seen for some time but simply accepted it. And it Forced AMD to actually do something about it. And I have to say, they did an amazing job on it.
Read the last page, PCPer
Read the last page, PCPer mentioned that driver too, just as a reminder it exists and shows promising results. But it isn’t user ready yet, so doing entire review on it would be stupid.
Read Ryan’s other article
Read Ryan's other article here: https://pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Rating-AMD-Improves-CrossFire-Prototype-Driver
If you want another view,
If you want another view, look at THG’s version: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-review-benchmark,3486-18.html#BOM_comments
The result is the same, though their definition of a runt frame is far more forgiving (less than 2% of the screen, or 20 lines worth). However, they added objective testing at the end, with several different people taking blind tests. All of them found the 690 was smoother.
Also note Ryan is using
Also note Ryan is using REALLY old 314.07 drivers.
NV has 314.14, 314.22 and even 320’s out now (heck they had a few others in there also). Not sure why he keeps using an ancient driver other than saving a lot of retesting.
NV has much higher scores in almost every game now.
Start testing with a new driver please. Every other review I’ve seen uses 320. You are at least a few months behind.
So AMD would look even worse vs the latest drivers.
7970 in CF is better deal if
7970 in CF is better deal if you are going to overclock the card. Seeing how power envelope and constraints is limited on this card, there is very little overclocking headroom.
Great Review Ryan and
Great Review Ryan and team.
Now what about those 780 rumors that just hit?
Message to AMD, fix your damn
Message to AMD, fix your damn drivers! I agree they are headed in the right direction but they’re still miles behind Nvidia on this issue.
Ryan,
I love your site,
Ryan,
I love your site, podcasts, and reviews. I cannot for the life of me figure out why you have once again railroaded AMD without trying any of the publicly available solutions to fix your issues? Can you at least acknowledge that Radeon Pro exists? I understand it is a third party program, but we are PC gamers, we tweak things, is it really that far of a stretch to imagine that in the real world we take advantage of Radeon Pro? I sometimes spend hours tweaking game settings before I actually start playing the game, I am sure most of your readers do the same, why do you continue to ignore the obvious?
Those things really didn’t
Those things really didn't fix much and introduced other issues (Ryan covered that in an article that had the videos you could download).
Also, this! https://pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Rating-AMD-Improves-CrossFire-Prototype-Driver
For this review I didn’t put
For this review I didn't put a high focus on the RadeonPro solution because I knew and was playing with the prototype drivers from AMD – that is the REAL solution. I will still tryout RadeonPro eventually but that is just a hack or patch job in reality.
All due respect call it what
All due respect call it what you like it works??
Really love to see in depth report based on your experiences which I recognize are greater than most of us.
RadeonPro fixes the problem
RadeonPro fixes the problem by limiting FPS. However, it has at least a couple draw backs you will see noted by different people.
1) It does lower your average FPS to work.
2) If a game has different average fps in different areas, you have to lower it to the worst case, lower FPS even more (skyrim users have to limit FPS for outdoors, even though indoors has much higher FPS)
http://www.overclock.net/t/13
http://www.overclock.net/t/1363712/pcper-frame-rating-part-3-first-results/190#post_19371169
Its fair to say that AMD currently requires more tweaking, its not fair to say issues cant be corrected, just my opinion. Look forward to the podcast later.
Maybe I just dont get or see
Maybe I just dont get or see it…. I had 7950 crossfire and picked up a GTX 690 somewhat cheap on Ebay and got frustrated very quickly when I couldn’t get it to work as well as what I had. Tomb Raider was brutal if I turned on the hair and Bioshock took a lot of tweaking to get me where I was with the 7950’s. Just sold the 690 (little profit bonus) and ordered a couple of Vapor X 7970’s….
Tomb Raider had problems with
Tomb Raider had problems with the 314 drivers on Nvidia, the drivers that were current on release. Going back to 310 make it run great. I believe the most recent 314.22 drivers fixed the issue as well. Bioshock infinite is having troubles with both cards.
Anyways, the point isn’t about FPS, but performance. Tomb Raider is particularly bad on crossfire by all accounts: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-review-benchmark,3486-12.html
Hey Ryan i just wanted to say
Hey Ryan i just wanted to say congratulation on the 10k mark you and your team truly deserve it. And don’t let these trolls influence you man you’re doing an amazing job. You write it we read it. Im going to contribute $10 this weekend.
No homo
i love you man
It is possible to disagree
It is possible to disagree without being a “troll”…..
Thank you for your support!
Thank you for your support!
Yes It is possible to
Yes It is possible to disagree without being a “troll” but the real question is are you in a position to disagree.
Ryan, thank you.
AMD must be
Ryan, thank you.
AMD must be sado masochistic handing you one of these cards which does show positive signs that they may want to actually fix this.
I am excited for this. I’m
I am excited for this. I’m not going to buy it but if AMD can improve their Xfire performance next time I upgrade it will definitely be AMD.
Hello
Thank you very much,
Hello
Thank you very much, Mr. Ryan I’ve been following your site and all of your articles for quite some time
And I’m very interested in the modern way to test the Graphics Accelerator
I need your consultation in some of the things in this regard
Hopes provide me with your Email
Thank you very much again
And continued the wonderful effort
Where can i buy the AMD
Where can i buy the AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB i cant find it anywhere!!
I’ve read another review (on
I’ve read another review (on tom’s hardware) about 7990’s performance, FCAT, prototype driver, etc, basically the same thing, although there was something i noticed.
In their benchmarks the hardware (FRAPS) FPS was also quite bigger for the prototype d. compared to the basic catalyst 7990. While for the observable FPS this difference is easy understandable, i found no explanation for the extra FPS.
Prototype driver just “arranges” the frames in a smoother way, but why it appears to produce more frames?
I am running this card with 6
I am running this card with 6 monitors- 5790×2160 in games and getting high smooth frame rates. I have one of those mythical MST hubs (bought from the UK) and it works perfectly.
To each his own. BTW I sold my TITAN since Nvidia can never (their words) support more than 4 monitors. It was a nice card though. The 7990 is faster though (as it should be with 2 GPU’s.)
Seems these fan boy threads always devolve to AMD or Nvidia bashing.
Just installed the 7990 last
Just installed the 7990 last night and went straight to BF3…frame rates SUCKED!! I had a GTX 570 and it’s rates were WAY faster. How do I resolve this problem? How do I get the card to work as expected? How do I get good frame rates with this card? What am I doing wrong. I want to run BF3 on ULTRA settings and enjoy all the “eye-candy” that comes with a high-end card like the 7990. PLEASE HELP!!