$549? Sheesh... Not worth it at the moment. 6870 is cheap as shit and still runs modern games fine, but I have a 6950 so something like this is pretty out of the question for now. Good info though, and considering that it's not the best graphics card out there right now, I think we can expect the price on this to go down pretty quickly.

Snesboy said: JEMC said: Nice card, and a very good improvement over the HD6970, between 30-40% faster! Not bad at all. Unfortunately the improvements are not as impressive if we compare it with the GTX 580, and then there is the price, $549! I'll wait for the HD7950 with its dual BIOS "Retailers will surely tack on an early-adopter premium, but if they somehow miraculously release at their MSRP, the GTX 580 is going to need a price drop before long. Of course, NVIDIA is supposed to release its new Kepler architecture in 2012. AMD has beat them to the punch, and upped the ante. In some areas, even an overclocked GTX 580 can’t match the new HD 7970 beast at stock. 2012 just got very interesting for GPUs. AMD has taken back the hill. It’s your move NVIDIA." From Overclockers.com I think I'll wait for the 7750 or 7770

Oh, it is a very good card, but given that it's done on a new fab process, the first 28nm, some were expecting a revolution. And it's not. It's a solid upgrade for anyone with an HD5xxx/lower HD6xxx card or Nvidia equivalent but for the enthusiasts that have a GTX580 / HD69xx or even a Xfire/SLI  setup, the gains aren't that big to justify the price tag.

The price, and the noise (it seems to be a bit noisy, but given the good temps you could lower the fan speed or wait for a 3rd party custom cooler), are the only cons for an excellent card.

And if rumors are true (and I'm playing devil's advocate here) the GTX 780 is going to something revolutionary.

lol

Honestly Im disappointed with the performance. I have waited for so long for this card and I expected around 60% increase compared to the 6970. Now I must figure a new plan on what to replace my beloved Radeon 4850 with to be able to play Skyrim on max.

I don't like that AMD invests so much in compute performance instead of gaming performance (same with nvidia). It feels like I'm paying for something that I will never use.

Your move Nvidia

What resolution does your monitor have?

http://hardocp.com/article/2011/12/22/amd_radeon_hd_7970_video_card_review/5

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-benchmark-tahiti-gcn,3104-9.html

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1361/pg7/amd-radeon-hd-7970-graphics-card-review-skyrim.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/22.html

With this can should be able to play Skyrim on max evan at Eyefinity resolutions.

Okay that sounds promising but I need lots of headroom for graphics mods for Skyrim. My 4850 cant even handle the Morrowind graphics mods Ive installed, not to speak of Oblivion. My screen is 1920x1200 BTW.

I was hoping for a 5870 kind of improvement and similar pricing  (roughly $400 for the 5870 and $300 for the 5850 at launch). Yes I hoped for too much and AMD has made a great card. I feel I can't spend $500 for this. Im leaning towards getting a 6950 and settle for sub-maximum performance in Skyrim while we wait for the 8000-series. 

I don't do Nvidia...

I'm an AMD fanboy.

JEMC said: Snesboy said: JEMC said: Nice card, and a very good improvement over the HD6970, between 30-40% faster! Not bad at all. Unfortunately the improvements are not as impressive if we compare it with the GTX 580, and then there is the price, $549! I'll wait for the HD7950 with its dual BIOS "Retailers will surely tack on an early-adopter premium, but if they somehow miraculously release at their MSRP, the GTX 580 is going to need a price drop before long. Of course, NVIDIA is supposed to release its new Kepler architecture in 2012. AMD has beat them to the punch, and upped the ante. In some areas, even an overclocked GTX 580 can’t match the new HD 7970 beast at stock. 2012 just got very interesting for GPUs. AMD has taken back the hill. It’s your move NVIDIA." From Overclockers.com I think I'll wait for the 7750 or 7770 Oh, it is a very good card, but given that it's done on a new fab process, the first 28nm, some were expecting a revolution. And it's not. It's a solid upgrade for anyone with an HD5xxx/lower HD6xxx card or Nvidia equivalent but for the enthusiasts that have a GTX580 / HD69xx or even a Xfire/SLI  setup, the gains aren't that big to justify the price tag. The price, and the noise (it seems to be a bit noisy, but given the good temps you could lower the fan speed or wait for a 3rd party custom cooler), are the only cons for an excellent card. And if rumors are true (and I'm playing devil's advocate here) the GTX 780 is going to something revolutionary.

yea the price is a tad high, they are probably trying to turn a profit off it as fast as possible. AMD needs it ATM especially after the dissapointing Bulldozer launch. They have to make hay while the sun shines (before kepler launches) and the 28nm has been an expensive transition mard with delays (which delayed both AMD and Nvidia) so they will probably sell out what they can make anyway. 

And I would never trust GPU rumours (metro last night lol) TBH 

http://www.guru3d.com/news/amd-hd-7970-performance-leaks/

The 680 will likely out perform 7970 by ~20% use more power than a 580 and launch at $599