It’s been a quiet year for graphics. With both AMD and Nvidia playing their current generation’s hand by March 2011 with the arrival of the GeForce GTX 590 3GB and the Radeon HD 6990 4GB, the rest of the year has only seen minor or limited-run releases such as the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 1.3GB or the Radeon HD 6790 1GB.
However, with Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor rumbling closer, the next round of upgrades beckons, and it’s AMD that’s first out of the traps with the Radeon HD 7970 3GB, the world’s first consumer 28nm GPU. This will be the first of a whole new family of 28nm HD 7000-series GPUs, the rest of which will be released gradually over the first six months of 2012. For now though, the HD 7970 3GB will co-exist with the existing HD 6000-series GPUs, and its £440 price puts it well into the premium graphics bracket.
