Editor's Update (Ryan): After the long holiday I finally got around to asking AMD for an official response to this rumor. AMD says simply:
"Plain and simple: AMD has not EOL'd the world's fastest graphics card, the AMD Radeon HD 7990."
Obviously the company is steadfast that the report from WCCFTech is incorrect so I eagerly await the new driver due by July 31st for improved frame pacing and multi-GPU performance!
END UPDATE
WCCFTech caught wind, via Overclockers.Ru, of a Radeon HD 7990 cancellation rumor. The flagship card, codenamed after the Mediterranean island, "Malta", contains two Graphics Core Next (GCN) GPUs in Crossfire. Before the canonical AMD design, certain third-party add-in-board (AIB) partners created their own designs with the 7990 moniker with a pair of 7970 GPUs as its foundation. The first official 7990s launched in April 2013.
But, it did not have the best reception.
Never Settle, get it before it settles.
The two main issues regarding 7990 adoption are, according to WCCFTech, micro-stuttering with Crossfire setups and the better dollar value of paired 7970s. The 7990 comes in at the thousand dollar ($1000 USD) price point despite being, for all intents and purposes, nearly identical to a pair of separate 7970 cards. While the 7990 has access to a superior "Never Settle" bundle when compared to twin 7970s, with the addition of a Deux Ex: Human Revolution license, it would be difficult to consider that as an excuse for the $200-$300 USD price gap.
Cost aside, this would be a really odd time to cancel the 7990. The product was launched just a few months ago, despite similar price concerns, only to be allegedly killed right before the driver that makes it worth its weight? If true, either AMD decided to annul their "mistake", or we will get some interesting news when the frame pacing driver finally gets released.
While pure speculation, my immediate reflex would be that AMD had some problem during the development of their frame pacing driver. The initial results presented by Ryan showed a great improvement, but what about a pair of 7990 cards? The way in which they, allegedly, are killing off the 7990 would suggest something abrupt came up.
Hopefully, for AMD, that was not the case.
Sounds like they havn’t been
Sounds like they havn’t been selling as well as they hoped. Considering you can get 2×7970 for 200$ less then 7990. Yea they added in Deux ex HR with 7990, but that is only 20$ game on steam right now.
I expect that the HD 9970
I expect that the HD 9970 which will come out at that time will be very close in performance and have a much better price.
i dont think 9970 will be
i dont think 9970 will be able to match the performance of 7990. the rumor has it comes out this september or october time frame. if that’s the case then it will be based on 28nm process from tsmc. such performance jump is unlikely for the same process node. unless it is built with next process shrink which is not coming this year
I would really hate to be a
I would really hate to be a HD 7990 owner right now, with the product being discontinued, I'm assuming they are going to get even more screwed over by newer drivers? 🙁
AMD is making too many
AMD is making too many mistakes for my liking this days.
I am still expecting a reboot
I am still expecting a reboot of the hardware in late 2013 where the frame pacing situation is baked into hardware- might drift into 2015.
but i really don’t see the software approach lasting too long.
Don’t remember where I heard
Don’t remember where I heard it, most likely PCper podcast but putting the hardware in is not something that can be easily done. Something about a few years of work.
You may be right- i think
You may be right- i think though the first results of framerating with the updated software fix is what they will really look at.
i just doubt if AMD will hit the same efficiencies as Nvidia and this framerating is about to start a whole new benchmarking war.
be interesting to see the impact- if the framerating results post the software fix does not improve enough to justify crossfire anylonger- that’s a lot of cards that won’t be sold.
Discontinued after few
Discontinued after few months. Worst card ever made?
Kudos again to PC Perspective
Kudos again to PC Perspective for advancing the protocols of graphics card testing! This contribution is EXACTLY what manufacturers need to compel them to make better products and cannot be understated.
I can’t even read some of the older review sites who are not testing for latency and runt frames.
The Radeon 7990 is just a
The Radeon 7990 is just a limited production card for people with too much money, just like the Titan and 690.
Wait until Sept/Oct when the Radeon 9000 series are released.
AMD Radeon are at the heart of the next gen consoles, all next gen games are written for and optimized for 8 core AMD cpu’s and Radeon graphics.
Forget the present, look into trends, it’s obvious AMD is on a winner.
Intel and Nvidia hardware isn’t even considered by those game’s developers that are this minute developing the next gen games based on AMD Radeon architecture.
Tough luck if you have a weaner Intel i5, even the i7 might struggle, I’m going AMD Radeon, facts are facts.
Amd FX won’t beat intel i7,
Amd FX won’t beat intel i7, keep in mind intel core i7 has 8 logical cores as well along with those giant quad-cores! Anything that are optimized for Amd FX-8350 will do better on a core i7 but i5’s as you’ve mentioned will suffer LOL! If you don’t trust me, look at Crysis 3, i7-3770k does better than Amd FX-8350, facts are facts.
As for the GPU’s, yes you have a point but remember both of the next gen consoles support Physx so nVidia also is a winner, because the desktop GPU’s don’t support that, “Only consoles do”. And just because next-gen games will be optimized for GCN GPU’s doesn’t mean the difference will be huge, maybe 10%, but I’m pretty sure the difference between physx on vs off will make a huge change. And last but not the least, I <3 both AMD, nVidia & Intel, and I buy whoever serves me the best with highest quality...
God Bless PC Gaming!!!!!