AMD launches its Radeon HD 7950 graphics card

CHIP DESIGNER AMD has launched its Radeon HD 7950 graphics card codenamed Tahiti Pro.

The Radeon HD 7950 is a cut down, budget version of the 7970 Tahiti XT, which AMD launched in December but no one could actually buy it. AMD has got its act together this time around, a little earlier than expected, and the card is available for around the £350 mark.

"With the arrival of the AMD Radeon HD 7950, AMD has set the bar exceedingly high for 28nm graphics technology and performance," said Matt Skynner, corporate VP and GM of the GPU division at AMD.

"From the wraparound immersion made possible by AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology and the AMD HD3D technology stereo 3D experience, to the incredible realism of today's DirectX 11 capable games, we're delivering an unrivaled experience for gamers. The AMD Radeon HD 7900 series products are in a class of their own," he added.

The Radeon HD 7950 is the second card to use the 28nm 'Tahiti' design. It has the same 3GB of GDDR5 RAM as its bigger brother but lower specifications in other areas. The RAM is clocked slightly lower at 1.25GHz instead of 1.38GHz. The engine clock speed is 125MHz lower at 800MHz and it has fewer stream processors at 1,792 compared with 2,048.

It uses the same PCI Express 3.0 interface as the Radeon HD 7970 and has identical connection options, consisting of DVI, HDMI and two Displayports.

You can get the Radeon HD 7950 from vendors including Sapphire, HIS, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. A scan of the reviews for the Radeon HD 7950 indicates it's an impressive graphics card for about £100 less than the Radeon HD 7970. µ