One of the joys, and also banes of being a PC gamer is that you get the chance to choose the components that power your machine, rather than having to stick with a predetermined set of hardware that cannot every be altered.
As the next console generation approaches, it is arguable that the PC gaming environment is looking even more compelling.
While Microsoft and Sony are both attempting to make their new boxes identical to mid to low-end gaming PCs, the real tech race is occurring on desktops.
Graphics cards can be affordable and impressively capable, allowing you to play the best PC strategy games and FPS titles with moderate settings at a decent frame rate. But what about specialist cards that cost as much as an entire PC on their own?
AMD’s new Radeon HD 7990 represents the top tier of this manufacturer’s range, although admittedly it is based on hardware that has been seen elsewhere in the past. And with an asking price of around £860, is it actually worth the investment?
Specs
AMD includes a pair of Tahiti XT chips on its new HD 7990 design and PC Format reports that it has actually been hand-picking the best-performing models from its production line for the purpose of serving this card.
This means that while it should be able to achieve impressive performance with both GPUs clocked at 950mHz, it will also be surprisingly energy-efficient, at least when considered relative to its capabilities.
The chips can automatically boost their clock speeds to around 1GHz when required and with a 6GB allocation of GDDR5 RAM built into the board, it could power a PC on its own, given the chance.
Living with It
In the past this type of high-end card would also have been a bit of a monster when it comes to real-world operation, with the amount of heat being generated resulting in a hotter case interior and the incessant wailing of fans.
However, AMD has attempted to follow in the footsteps of NVIDIA, whose GTX Titan is surprisingly docile and quiet. This means that while there are three fans blowing air over the heatsink of the HD 7990, helping it to hit a maximum temperature of around 80 degrees, it never makes much noise.
It is not the kind of card that will suit a passive cooling set-up, because it is impossible to completely remove fan noise, but it is a welcome break from the whirring and whining which can come from other high-end GPUs.
When it comes to performance in real games, it can beat the GTX Titan in Arkham City, Crysis 3 and Max Payne 3 by a significant margin.
This is the kind of card that appeals to people who do not really care about the cost they are having to pay and are instead interested in having a GPU that they can brag about and use to get through the most demanding games. And in this respect, the AMD Radeon HD 7990 is worth the money.
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