We throw a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition in with the new HD 7990 6GB dual-GPU video card and look at CrossFireX gaming performance.

Introduction

VIEW GALLERY - 25 IMAGES

The other day we looked at the brand new Radeon HD 7990 6GB and found ourselves extremely impressed with what AMD was offering. Following that we looked at the overclocking side of things and found ourselves not quite as impressed. It's clear at the moment that there are some issues when it comes to overclocking, as we saw everything from big drops in performance to big gains and more often than not, no change at all.

One of the setups we really wanted to test is a pair of HD 7990 6GB cards in CrossFireX. Today, though, we'll be testing a setup that's actually quite an important one, especially in the case if you're already holding one of the pieces to the puzzle. With the release of the new HD 7990, we've got the ability to throw a new CrossFireX configuration into the mix. Being based on the HD 7970 GHz Edition core with just a small 50MHz drop in core speed, the similarities between the two cards are close - the most major difference being that the HD 7990 is a single PCB video card that has two GPUs on it.

While we'll of course be throwing a second card into the mix and essentially double the amount of cards we have in our system, the big thing to remember is that the maximum performance increase we'd expect to see is only around +50%, since we're adding just a third GPU into a two GPU mix that's created with the HD 7990 6GB.

Due to the fact that we've already looked at both cards in detail before, we'll simply just be moving from here onto the testbed. We'll take a quick look at the cards that will be in our graphs here today and check GPU-Z to make sure that everything looks fine.

Once we've gone through the motions we'll then get stuck straight into the performance and see just what this CrossFireX setup can bring to the party.

Benchmarks - Test System Setup

We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASUS and Corsair.

The video cards you'll see in our graphs today are fairly standard with what you've been seeing lately from us. From the AMD side we've got the PowerColor HD 7950 overclocked to over 1100MHz on the core, the AMD reference HD 7970 GHz Edition and the AMD reference HD 7990. We've chosen to not include the HD 7990 6GB OC results in our graphs today because of the issues we had when overclocking the model.

As for the NVIDIA side we've got the reference GTX 650 TI Boost in SLI, alongside a pair of Gainward cards that are overclocked to over 1100MHz each. We've also got the GTX TITAN in a bunch of setups, including at the out of the box clocks that EVGA offer in the SuperClocked model, along with the core overclocked at 975MHz and finally a pair running in SLI mode.

Before we get into the performance, we just want to take a quick look that everything is working fine. You can see above that CrossFire is indeed enabled and in this instance it's enabled via three GPUs. While the memory clock on both cards are the same, the HD 7970 GHz Edition has a 50MHz core clock increase. While normally we'd push the HD 7990 6GB up to that speed, so that all three GPUs lined up, because of the issues we had with the new dual GPU model when overclocking, we decided to leave it at the default clock speed.

The FPS Numbers Explained

When we benchmark our video cards and look at the graphs, we aim to get to a certain level of FPS which we consider playable. While many may argue that the human eye can't see over 24 FPS or 30 FPS, any true gamer will tell you that as we climb higher in Frames Per Seconds (FPS), the overall gameplay feels smoother. There are three numbers we're looking out for when it comes to our benchmarks.

30 FPS - It's the minimum number we aim for when it comes to games. If you're not dropping below 30 FPS during games, you're going to have a nice and smooth gaming experience. The ideal situation is that even in a heavy fire fight, the minimum stays above 30 FPS making sure that you can continue to aim easily or turn the corner with no dramas.

60 FPS - It's the average we look for when we don't have a minimum coming at us. If we're getting an average of 60 FPS, we should have a minimum of 30 FPS or better and as mentioned above, it means we've got some smooth game play happening.

120 FPS - The new number that we've been hunting down over recent months. If you're the owner of a 120 Hz monitor, to get the most out of it you want to get around the 120 FPS mark. Moving from 60 FPS / 60 Hz to 120 FPS / 120 Hz brings with it a certain fluidity that can't really be explained, but instead has to be experienced. Of course, if you're buying a 120 Hz monitor to take advantage of 3D, an average of 120 FPS in our benchmark means that in 3D you will have an average of 60 FPS, which again means you should expect some smooth gameplay.

Why are some graphs incomplete?

Adding new game benchmarks is a long, tedious and time consuming task as every video card has to be re-tested in those new benchmarks. Because of that reason we have always just evaluated our benchmark line up every six months. To stay up to date and current with the latest benchmarks and games available, we've changed our approach to adding new benchmarks.

Our benchmark line up will progress and be updated as newer more intensive games with benchmarks comes to light. While this will mean that initially you may only see a single video card in those particular graphs, as the weeks go on and we test more and more video cards, the results will grow quickly. This will help keep our benchmark line up as up to date as possible as we introduce and remove games on a constant basis.

Benchmarks - 3DMark 11

3DMark 11

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/

Buy It Here

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC's gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

Starting of with 3DMark 11 you can see that the increases are good and the Performance score comes in at a slightly annoying P19,999 - oh so close!

You can see that we're siting behind the GTX TITAN SLI setup in this instance. It's not necessarily a bad thing, considering that the NVIDIA setup is more expensive.

Benchmarks - Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Version and / or Patch Used: 3

Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com

Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//

New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

Heaven performance is very impressive with some truly excellent gains being seen. You can see we're ahead of the GTX TITAN SLI setup in this instance, and the lead is even stronger when you compare the higher resolution numbers between both setups.

Benchmarks - Phantasy Star Online 2

Phantasy Star Online 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.sega.com/?t=EnglishUSA

Product Homepage: http://www.pso2.com/us/html/index.html

Play Phantasy Star Online 2 and experience revolutionary combat in an action-driven, free-to-play multiplayer online RPG from SEGA. Take a journey into an immersive sci-fi fantasy narrative and explore mysterious worlds to unravel their secrets. Join fellow adventurers and fight against the legions of darkness to banish them from the galaxy.

Score explanation: Less than 2000: Please adjust your game settings because the processing load is quite heavy.

2000 through 5000: The game runs fine at the setting, if you have room, you can adjust some settings.

5001+: The game works wonderfully at this setting.

While PSO2 performance is very strong, it doesn't get the same kind of gains like we see on the NVIDIA offerings. The numbers are great considering we're testing at the highest resolution, but you can see that overclocking and SLI brings massive gains to the GTX TITAN setups - the same can't be said about the AMD solutions.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1

Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."

We see strong numbers again here and you can see we hit an FPS wall a little earlier than we do on the NVIDIA cards. Still with a 219 FPS average at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050, it's not a wall to be worried about.

At the highest resolution you can see the AMD setup fall behind the GTX TITAN SLI setup, but it's only by just a few FPS.

Benchmarks - Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Dark Tower

Developer Homepage: http://www.eidos.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.justcause.com/

Just Cause 2 employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in Just Cause. The game is set on the other side of the world from the original Just Cause, on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Panau has varied terrain, from desert to alpine to rainforest. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist, aiming to overthrow the evil dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon.

We don't see too much change under Just Cause 2 at 1920 x 1200 as we weren't that far away from an FPS wall.

You can see that moving to 2560 x 1600, though, we get a strong boost in performance, and in this instance, this setup is ahead of all the other setups.

Benchmarks - F1 2012

F1 2012

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com

In F1 2012 players will feel the unparalleled thrill of becoming a FORMULA ONE driver with a host of new features, wide-ranging technical and gameplay advancements and extensive competitive and co-operative multiplayer components. F1 2012 will feature all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the 2012 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, including the debut of the 2012 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX at Austin, Texas and the return of Germany's famous Hockenheim circuit to the calendar.

Looking at the performance of this CrossFire X setup, you can see there's no change due to the fact that we hit this 115 FPS wall with just the single HD 7990 installed.

Benchmarks - Metro 2033

Metro 2033

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.4a-games.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.thqnordic.com/

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.[3] In March 2006, 4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game.[4] The game was announced at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig;[5] a first trailer came along with the announcement.[6] A sequel was announced, currently titled Metro: Last Light.

Looking at Metro 2033 you can see no real change at all resolutions. This doesn't seem to be due to an FPS wall, but instead seems to more simply be the fact that throwing the third GPU into the mix isn't made use of by Metro 2033.

Benchmarks - Dirt Showdown

Dirt Showdown

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/dirtshowdown/360/

DiRT Showdown is the new arcade racing game from the team that brought you the award-winning DiRT series, uncaged in 2012. Pick up and play controls combine with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills from event one.

Dirt Showdown performance sits ahead of the GTX TITAN SLI setup at the highest resolution and you can see that across the board we're hitting a 145 FPS limit that is present.

The setup clearly seems to have more room for performance. This is a number that will satisfy 120Hz monitor users, which is important.

Benchmarks - Nexuiz

Nexuiz

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.alientrap.org/

Product Homepage: http://www.nexuiz.com/

Nexuiz is an Arena First Person shooter coming soon to consoles. Nexuiz is fast paced with extremely competitive game play. IllFonic brings Alientrap Software's Nexuiz to next-gen gaming consoles around the world while staying true to the game play refined over the years through development. IllFonic introduces a new Victorian influenced art style that is simultaneously futuristic and sophisticated. Nexuiz for consoles is powered by CryENGINE 3.

With Nexuiz making no use of CrossFire, the performance of this setup continues to be at around the same level of just a single HD 7970 GHz Edition.

We hope that we see this issue fixed soon!

Benchmarks - Sniper Elite V2

Sniper Elite V2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/

Product Homepage: http://sniperelitev2.com/us/age.html

Sniper Elite V2 features detailed sniping simulation with advanced ballistics, taking into account gravity, wind, velocity, bullet penetration, aim stability and more. Guaranteed to provide players with the most realistic simulation of military sharpshooting yet available.

Sniper Elite V2 performance is just massive across the board with strong gains and fantastic overall numbers for anyone wanting some serious FPS for solid gameplay.

Benchmarks - Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://eu.square-enix.com/en

Product Homepage: http://www.sleepingdogs.net/

The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization. On foot, the player character has the ability to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts in combat. Players also drive a variety of vehicles including cars, boats, and motorcycles.

Throwing the third GPU into the mix doesn't change Sleeping Dogs performance that much.

You can ultimately see across the board that the numbers are almost identical with all the super high-end setups here.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01

Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/

Buy It Here

The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

Far Cry 2 numbers on a whole are just extremely strong at all resolutions. While not the most useful benchmark on these super high-end setups these days, the game continues to be excellent at showcasing intensity on more mid-range options, which is why we still include FC2 in our testing.

Benchmarks - Hitman Absolution

Hitman Absolution

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.ioi.dk/

Product Homepage: http://hitman.com/

Hitman: Absolution is an action-adventure stealth game developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix. It is the fifth entry in the Hitman game series, and runs on IO Interactive's proprietary Glacier 2 game engine. Before release, the developers stated that Absolution would be easier to play and more accessible, while still retaining hardcore aspects of the franchise. The game was released on 20 November 2012, which is in the 47th week of the year (in reference to the protagonist, Agent 47).

Hitman Absolution hits a wall on both NVIDIA and AMD video cards. What's interesting is that the wall comes a little later on the AMD cards, which means that the driver is slightly more optimized for the game.

The numbers are strong, but we'd prefer if the average wall was a higher, especially for those with 120Hz screens.

Benchmarks - Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.nixxes.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.tombraider.com/us/base/agegate?refer=184&

Tomb Raider is an action-adventure platform video game. Published by Square Enix, Tomb Raider is the fifth title developed by Crystal Dynamics in the Tomb Raider franchise. As the first entry in a new Tomb Raider continuity, the game is a reboot that emphasizes the reconstructed origins of the culturally influential lead character Lara Croft. Tomb Raider was released on 5 March 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows to universal critical acclaim.

Tomb Raider sees some excellent gains across the board.

Compared to the GTX TITAN SLI setup, numbers are similar to better on the CrossFireX HD 7990 + HD 7970 setup.

Benchmarks - BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://irrationalgames.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.bioshockinfinite.com

BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game and the third installment in the BioShock series. Previously known as "Project Icarus", it is being developed by Irrational Games and was released worldwide on the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms on March 26, 2013. BioShock Infinite is not part of the storyline of previous BioShock games but features similar gameplay concepts and themes.

BioShock Infinite sees a little bit of movement at the lower resolution, but nothing major.

The best gains are seen at the highest resolution, which is no surprise, since this is where the most pressure is applied to the GPU's. You can see across the board that this AMD setup sits behind the GTX TITAN SLI setup.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF

High Quality AA and AF

While we test all our games with maximum in-game settings, turning on Anti-Aliasing (AA) and Antistrophic Filtering (AF) helps take the intensity of our testing to another level.

Here we see video cards go from playable FPS to an unplayable FPS and the real power houses continue to help break that 60 FPS mark we always aim for to provide a smooth gaming experience.

Far Cry 2 sees some strong gains and overall fantastic performance.

Metro 2033 with AA and AF on sees a bit of a boost in performance at the highest resolution. With no AA and AF, we actually saw no change in performance. At least when we really put the setup under pressure, we're able to get more performance out of it.

Just Cause 2 sees some massive performance gains that give us some truly amazing FPS at even the highest resolution.

Finishing up with the ever so intensive Sleeping Dogs, you can see with three GPUs, we finally manage to break the 60 FPS barrier at the highest resolution, with a 68 FPS average.

Temperature Test

The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.

When it comes to the temperature, the idle is a little warmer on the hottest GPU.

As for the load, though, considering the amount of power that's on offer, the number is fairly impressive.

Sound Test

Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

Noise levels aren't too bad at both idle and load.

While they're elevated, again when we consider the performance that's on offer from the setup, it's really not a number to be worried about.

Power Consumption Test

Using our PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

Power draw on this three GPU setup is almost identical to the three GPU, three card setup of three HD 7970 non-GHz Edition video cards, and also similar to the two GTX TITAN's in SLI.

Considering it is overall faster than the three video card setup, this is a good result. Saying that, we'd still recommend a high quality 1000-watt PSU, something similar to the AX1200 Corsair unit that we use.

Final Thoughts

Performance of the AMD Radeon HD 7990 + HD 7970 GHz Edition CrossFireX setup was better than I thought it would be. It's been a while since we looked at a three-way setup, and it seems evident that AMD have been working on improving the performance of this kind of setup. We do at times see no change, but most of the time that is related to a FPS wall being hit, more so than anything else.

The only time we don't see a change because of a non-FPS wall related area is in Nexuiz. We know from previous CrossFire testing, HD 7790's (and of course the HD 7990), that the game just can't make use of it. What tends to make the matter worse is that Nexuiz was a benchmark that AMD promoted, it could also hugely benefit from the gains an extra GPU or two can offer. Probably the worst thing is that NVIDIA SLI works great under it with the GTX TITAN SLI setup putting out some awesome numbers.

Overall, though, this is a truly awesome looking setup that's going to set you back around the $1,400 mark. What makes it a bit more appealing is if you're someone who has been sitting on a HD 7970 GHz Edition video card for a while now and are thinking that you wouldn't mind some more grunt. Grab a HD 7990 6GB to throw into the mix and you can see an insta-upgrade in almost every situation. If you're looking at that kind of upgrade, then it's highly recommended you look through the graphs and concentrate on the performance of this setup here today against the reference HD 7970 GHz Edition instead of the reference HD 7990 6GB.

Against the GTX TITAN SLI setup, this AMD setup holds better value, and let's be honest, is a little tough to say when you're talking about a video card setup that costs around $1,400. With the massive game bundle that comes with the HD 7990 6GB, you'll also end up with a massive pile of games that can make use of this CrossFireX setup straight away.

While we'd normally probably move onto doing an article on overclocking the three GPU's to see just how much performance we can get out of the setup, the clear issues that are seen around overclocking the new HD 7990 make it something that is more likely a waste of time at the moment. Once the issue gets fixed, though, and we're sure it will, overclocking is something that is important to users, especially since companies like MSI make it so easy via its Afterburner utility.

For now, the next setup we want to check out is the overclocking potential of the $2,000 GTX TITAN SLI SuperClocked setup from EVGA. Stay tuned!