94 SHARES Share Tweet

Even though summer is in the full swing, it's not that companies are taking their time off. According to our sources, AMD is gearing up to launch the dual-GPU card, illusive Radeon HD 7990 in the second half of July.

Known under the codename "New Zealand", Radeon HD 7990 represents AMD's highest-end part from the Southern Islands architecture. Consisting out of two Tahiti XT GPUs and 6GB GDDR5 memory (special edition 7990s could reach 12GB), Radeon HD 7990 goes head to head against the GeForce GTX 690.

By default, AMD has the advantage in terms of 50% more video memory (GTX 690 has 4GB), significantly higher memory bandwidth and the new Turbo mode, technology similar to the Turbo mode used on NVIDIA Kepler-based cards with a few major differences.

Our sources are telling us that the boards are starting to be sampled, all in preparation for the product launch in the second half of July. We will release more details as the launch day approaches, as well as the final retail price, which still isn’t decided as we write this story. While we know AMD's press deck, the company has a long tradition of changing the price at the last moment.

At the same time, a lot of AMD partners are running the card in their labs but aren't aware of the actual product launch. We will see in just a few weeks time.