New report highlights need for action on health in the aftermath of war

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Dec-2011
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Contact: Paula Fentiman
paula.fentiman@lshtm.ac.uk
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Issue of noncommunicable diseases in post-conflict countries must be addressed

Countries recovering from war are at risk of being left to their own devices in tackling non communicable diseases, leaving an "open door" for exploitation by alcohol, tobacco and food companies, health experts warn.

Writing in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Bayard Roberts and Martin McKee, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Preeti Patel, of King's College London, argue that the post-conflict environment risks increases of mental health problems and other NCDs, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.

After exposure to violent and traumatic events, people may be prone to developing harmful health behaviours, such as excessive drinking and smoking, which exacerbate the problem of NCDs in the long-term. This is why the lack of a strong will from the authorities to restore the health system leaves an open door for commercial ventures to influence health policy to their advantage.

The authors write: "This toxic combination of stress, harmful health behaviours and aggressive marketing by multinational companies in transitional settings requires an effective policy response but often the state has limited capacity to do this."

Afghanistan has no national policy or strategy towards NCDs and, apart from the European Commission, none of its partners has given priority to introduce and support them. High blood pressure is largely untreated in Iraq, three times as many people die prematurely from NCDs in Libya than from infectious diseases and similar patterns can be found in other countries recovering from conflict.

"This policy vacuum provides an open door for multinational companies to influence policies in ways that undermine efforts to control tobacco and alcohol use or improve unhealthy diets in transitional countries," the experts say.

Little attention is paid in reconstruction and humanitarian efforts to helping countries emerging from conflict deal with their present or future burden of NCDs with the topic virtually ignored during the United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs in September 2011. The authors argue that this gap must be filled, pointing out that the post-conflict period can provide an opportunity to completely rewrite strategies and undertake reforms to better address the health needs of a population and lay the foundations for a more efficient health system.

Dr Roberts, a lecturer in the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition at LSHTM, says: "While great attention is rightly paid to infectious diseases, noncommunicable diseases should also be given attention especially as the post-conflict environment can provide the perfect breeding ground for unhealthy activities like smoking, drinking and poor diet. We are making the argument that if the authorities do not step up to lead the way in developing policies which will benefit public health, then they leave the route clear for companies to step in and serve their own interests."

###

For more information or to interview Dr Roberts, please contact the LSHTM press office on 44-20-7927-2802 or email paula.fentiman@lshtm.ac.uk or giorgio.defaveri@lshtm.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

1. Reference: Noncommunicable diseases and post-conflict countries Bulletin of the World Health Organization, January 2012 http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/90/1/11-098863

2. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a renowned research-led postgraduate institution of public health and global health. Its mission is to improve health in the UK and worldwide through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced training in national and international public health and tropical medicine, and through informing policy and practice in these areas. Part of the University of London, the School is the largest institution of its kind in Europe with a remarkable depth and breadth of expertise encompassing many disciplines associated with public health. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk

3. King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS international world rankings), and was The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11', and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King's is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate. King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs.



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[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Paula Fentiman
paula.fentiman@lshtm.ac.uk
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Issue of noncommunicable diseases in post-conflict countries must be addressed

Countries recovering from war are at risk of being left to their own devices in tackling non communicable diseases, leaving an "open door" for exploitation by alcohol, tobacco and food companies, health experts warn.

Writing in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Bayard Roberts and Martin McKee, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Preeti Patel, of King's College London, argue that the post-conflict environment risks increases of mental health problems and other NCDs, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.

After exposure to violent and traumatic events, people may be prone to developing harmful health behaviours, such as excessive drinking and smoking, which exacerbate the problem of NCDs in the long-term. This is why the lack of a strong will from the authorities to restore the health system leaves an open door for commercial ventures to influence health policy to their advantage.

The authors write: "This toxic combination of stress, harmful health behaviours and aggressive marketing by multinational companies in transitional settings requires an effective policy response but often the state has limited capacity to do this."

Afghanistan has no national policy or strategy towards NCDs and, apart from the European Commission, none of its partners has given priority to introduce and support them. High blood pressure is largely untreated in Iraq, three times as many people die prematurely from NCDs in Libya than from infectious diseases and similar patterns can be found in other countries recovering from conflict.

"This policy vacuum provides an open door for multinational companies to influence policies in ways that undermine efforts to control tobacco and alcohol use or improve unhealthy diets in transitional countries," the experts say.

Little attention is paid in reconstruction and humanitarian efforts to helping countries emerging from conflict deal with their present or future burden of NCDs with the topic virtually ignored during the United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs in September 2011. The authors argue that this gap must be filled, pointing out that the post-conflict period can provide an opportunity to completely rewrite strategies and undertake reforms to better address the health needs of a population and lay the foundations for a more efficient health system.

Dr Roberts, a lecturer in the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition at LSHTM, says: "While great attention is rightly paid to infectious diseases, noncommunicable diseases should also be given attention especially as the post-conflict environment can provide the perfect breeding ground for unhealthy activities like smoking, drinking and poor diet. We are making the argument that if the authorities do not step up to lead the way in developing policies which will benefit public health, then they leave the route clear for companies to step in and serve their own interests."

###

For more information or to interview Dr Roberts, please contact the LSHTM press office on 44-20-7927-2802 or email paula.fentiman@lshtm.ac.uk or giorgio.defaveri@lshtm.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

1. Reference: Noncommunicable diseases and post-conflict countries Bulletin of the World Health Organization, January 2012 http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/90/1/11-098863

2. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a renowned research-led postgraduate institution of public health and global health. Its mission is to improve health in the UK and worldwide through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced training in national and international public health and tropical medicine, and through informing policy and practice in these areas. Part of the University of London, the School is the largest institution of its kind in Europe with a remarkable depth and breadth of expertise encompassing many disciplines associated with public health. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk

3. King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS international world rankings), and was The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11', and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King's is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate. King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs.



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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/lsoh-nrh122211.php

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Pam Behan, Former Kardashian-Jenner Nanny, Shopping Tell-All Book


Looks like The Help is turning on The Kardashians.

A former family nanny is shopping a tell-all book about her time with the famous family before they were that famous. Spoiler alert: She's not a big fan!

Pam Behan, served as a nanny, personal assistant and cook for Bruce and Kris Jenner for years, getting to know the Kardashian girls and Brody Jenner.

She couldn't stand Brody or his brother Brandon (Bruce's kids from his first marriage), calling the two Jenner boys "extremely spoiled and disrespectful."

As for the K-squad?

Kardashian Family

Pam describes her relationship with Kris Jenner as a "love/hate" thing. We totally get it. Sort of like THG's relationship with her, only without the first part.

Despite selling him out in a book, she seems somewhat fond of Bruce, claiming he helped her avoid prosecution when she was busted for DUI a while back.

Behan promises to reveal some "intimate details" about Kourtney and Kim Kardashian, which is surprising, as the girls were reportedly very fond of her.

Then again, it could be one of those empty promises used to sell books, since no one would by a tell-all about Brody Jenner. Sorry B. Just how it is.

Several agents have indicated interest, but no deal has been struck yet.

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/pam-behan-former-kardashian-nanny-shopping-tell-all-book/

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Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 on sale now, but only at Harrods (Digital Trends)

BlackBerry P9981 Porsche DesignHow fitting that RIM and Porsche Design has chosen one of the world?s most famous luxury department stores, Harrods in London, as the exclusive seller of its luxury BlackBerry P?9981 phone.

Announced at the tail end of October but with no firm release date attached, the flashy device has now gone on sale there, where it?s priced at a mere ?1,275, or a touch under $2,000.

That?s SIM-free of course, but admittedly the price would probably only be considered ?mere? by regular Harrods patrons, as it?s considerably more than the standard Bold 9900 on which it?s based.

Like its cheaper cousin, the P?9981 has a 1.2Ghz processor, 768MB RAM, a 2.8-inch 640 x 480 resolution touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video recording. It?s separated by that eye-catching design, the brushed metal fascia and the hand-wrapped, all-leather rear panel.

BlackBerry OS 7 has been treated to a Porsche Design makeover too, as it uses a custom UI and has the popular augmented reality app, Wikitude World Browser, pre-installed.

Available with either English or Arabic as the standard language, anyone keen to get their hands on this genuinely exclusive BlackBerry will have to make the journey to Harrods ? or at least their flunky will anyway ? as it?s only available in-store and not online. However, we?re willing to bet they would send one out with your weekly order of Dom Perignon if you asked nicely.

Phonearena.com spoke to a Harrods representative, who described the P?9981 as ?in very high demand and selling fast.?

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

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RIM officially launches BBM music service

HTC profits jump 68-percent, shipments 93-percent over the last year

Porsche Design P?9981 Blackberry Smartphone

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111230/tc_digitaltrends/porschedesignblackberryp9981onsalenowbutonlyatharrods

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Cyprus: Offshore gas find gets investor interest

(AP) ? A field off Cyprus where U.S. firm Noble Energy is conducting exploratory drilling holds an estimated 5-8 trillion cubic feet (140-230 billion cubic meters) of natural gas, a significant find for the small island, the country's president announced Wednesday.

Dimitris Christofias said the offshore discovery is attracting the interest of many foreign investors and is enabling the European Union member to contribute to the bloc's energy security. But it could also risk heightening tensions with rival Turkey, which doesn't recognize Cyprus as a sovereign state.

It's the first time the size of the deposit has been estimated based on actual drilling results. The site is some 115 miles (185 kilometers) south of the east Mediterranean island near a huge Israeli gas field being jointly developed by Noble Energy and Israeli energy company Delek, that is estimated at 17 trillion cubic feet (480 billion cubic meters).

Cyprus currently relies almost exclusively on imported oil for power generation and officials have said that a trillion cubic feet of gas could meet the island's energy needs for three decades.

"The discovery of hydrocarbons constitutes a historic development for our country and our people, filling us all with feelings of optimism for the future," Christofias said in a televised address.

More exploratory drilling will be needed at the field before work to extract the gas begins, Christofias said.

Noble Energy said the discovery further highlights the "quality and significance" of the area's oil and gas potential.

"We look forward to working closely with the Government of Cyprus to develop this discovery in a manner that maximizes value for all stakeholders," Noble Energy Chairman and CEO Charles D. Davidson said in a statement posted on the firm's Website.

Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north since 1974 when Turkey invaded after an abortive coup by supporters of a union with Greece. The island joined the EU in 1974, but only the south enjoys membership benefits.

Turkey opposes any energy search by Greek Cypriots on grounds that it could undermine the rights of Turkish Cypriots to oil and gas wealth.

Ankara has responded by dispatching a warship-escorted research vessel to look for gas and oil around Cyprus and has signed a maritime border and hydrocarbon exploration deal with the Turkish Cypriots.

It has also warned that the gas search could damage long-running reunification talks.

Greek Cypriots, however, contend that the gas could act as an incentive to speed up a peace accord that would allow Turkish Cypriots to share in any gas riches and benefit Turkey as well.

"We call on Turkey to demonstrate a spirit of peace and reconciliation and to refrain from any adventurist actions and provocations that cause problems to the talks and tension in the eastern Mediterranean," said Christofias.

Under strain from Europe's financial crisis, Cyprus officials see the gas find as a potential boost to the island's euro18 billion ($23.5 billion) economy, which is forecast to grow by a meager 0.2 percent of gross domestic product next year.

Christofias said a new licensing round for more offshore exploratory drilling inside the island's 17,000 square-mile (51,000 square-kilometer) exclusive economic zone will be launched soon.

Delek has proposed a partnership with Cyprus to build a facility on the island to process and export gas found in Cypriot and Israeli waters.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-28-EU-Cyprus-Drilling/id-e90a07cce0dd478782ea85e06401e1ac

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Bargain hunters divided shopping season into two

The holiday shopping season turned out to be two seasons: the Black Friday binge and a last-minute surge.

Together, they added up to decent sales gains for retailers. And the doldrums in between showed how shoppers have learned to wait for the discounts they know will come.

"The days that the American consumer gets excited about 25 percent off are over," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group. "Shoppers are keeping their eye on the ball for the big sales events."

In November, spending rose 4.1 percent. And from Dec. 1 to Dec. 24, it rose 4.7 percent compared with the same period last year, according to research firm ShopperTrak. A 4 percent increase is considered a healthy season.

The higher sales are good news for the economy, because they show shoppers were willing to fund a holiday splurge despite high unemployment and other lingering economic woes. Consumer spending, including major items such as health care, accounts for 70 percent of the economy.

Still, plenty of people are pinched for cash in the slow economic recovery, and they were seeking the best deals, which could squeeze stores' profits for the fourth quarter, says Hana Ben-Shabat, a partner in the retail practice of A.T. Kearney, a management consulting firm.

Stores have trained even shoppers who are primed to spend to look for a discount.

Heading into the season, stores were nervous that shoppers would be tight-fisted. Many officially opened the season with discounts on TVs and toys that started as early as Thanksgiving Day. Consumers came out in droves, resulting in record spending.

Then the frenzy tapered off. A mild winter and the fact that Christmas fell on a Sunday encouraged people to wait until the last minute and accentuated the peaks and valleys of spending.

Stores started to push more discounts to get shoppers to spend in the finale. In fact, retailers' promotional e-mails from Sunday, Dec. 18, to Thursday, Dec. 22, spiked 34 percent, compared with the same period a year ago, according to Responsys, which tracks e-mail activity from more than 100 merchants.

According to Beemer's consumer surveys, 60 percent of shoppers polled were looking for discounts of more than 50 percent to get them to buy. That's up from last year's 51 percent of shoppers polled.

Tracey Spears of Locust Grove, Ga., who was shopping Wednesday at Atlanta's Lenox Square Mall, said she got 75 percent of her holiday shopping done on Black Friday or the day after Thanksgiving. She took advantage of deals, including a Keurig coffee pot from Target and clothes from Hollister on sale.

"I had more money because I got a better bonus this year, but sales are important. You always want to buy stuff cheaper," she said.

Spears and others helped to create pronounced waves in spending.

"The downs and ups were much more accentuated," said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers. "It just shows how cautious the consumer is. Consumers are bargain hunters more today than ever before."

In the week before Christmas, last-minute shoppers gave retailers a 4.5 percent increase in revenue over the same week last year at stores open at least a year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index. The index estimates sales at 24 major stores including Macy's Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp.

Revenue at stores open at least a year is an important measurement of a retailer's performance because it excludes the effects of stores that open or close during the year.

Total retail revenue for the week ended Saturday rose 14.8 percent compared with the year ago, ShopperTrak estimates.

For the week that ended Nov. 26, which included the traditional start of holiday shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, stores had the biggest sales surge from the week before since 1993, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index.

The post-Black Friday lull was deeper than usual. The two weeks after Thanksgiving weekend showed the biggest percentage sales decline since 2000.

Then, during the final two weeks before Christmas, sales surged again, by the highest rate since 2005, Niemira said.

The season "was good but uneven," he said.

Stores are expected to benefit when shoppers come back to spend gift cards, because people often spend more than the cards' value. In addition, gift card sales are recorded only when shoppers redeem them.

People have more money on their cards to spend. According to an ICSC-Goldman Sachs survey of shoppers conducted Sunday, 18 percent of holiday spending went toward gift cards, up from 14.6 percent last year.

A total sales figure for the whole season won't be available until after Dec. 31. And a fuller holiday spending picture will come Jan. 5, when stores including Target Corp. and Macy's release December sales figures. Government retail sales data will be released in mid-January.

ICSC said it expects holiday sales for November and December to rise in line with its forecast of 3.5 percent. The National Retail Federation expects total retail sales for November and December combined to increase by 3.8 percent, up from its earlier forecast of 2.8 percent issued back in October. That's still below the 5.2 percent holiday sales increase in 2010 from the previous year.

As proof that consumers are timing their spending to seek the best bargains, Black Friday was the biggest sales day, as expected, generating sales of $11.4 billion, up 6.6 percent from a year ago, according to ShopperTrak.

But based on preliminary data, Christmas Eve and Dec. 26 were the second- and third-heaviest spending days of the season, according to ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin.

He had originally expected Saturday, Dec. 17, to be the second-largest spending day. And Christmas Eve wasn't even forecast to be among the top 10 holiday shopping days.

ShopperTrak measures foot traffic in 25,000 stores in the U.S. and blends those figures with economic data along with proprietary sales figures from merchants. The data excludes sales from auto dealers, gas stations, restaurants and grocery stores.

"Shoppers are willing to spend when they know the biggest discounts are available," Martin said.

Brooks Brothers, the upscale men's and women's clothier that doesn't discount before Christmas, learned that this year. The Monday after Christmas, when the company offered discounts up to 40 percent, was a record spending day at its stores and its website.

"The first three weeks leading up to holiday were soft," Lou Amendola, chief merchandising officer, wrote in an email. "But customers really partook in the after-Christmas sales."

___

AP Retail Writer Mae Anderson in Atlanta contributed to the report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45804100/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

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CAIRNational: RT @YAmericanMuslim: Power to the people! RT?@CAIRNational: NYC Muslim leaders to skip mayor's breakfast - http://t.co/6i1aR5we?

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[Bleacher Report] - Alabama Football: The Crimson Tide's 5 Worst Bowl Games of All Time

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AMD Radeon HD 7970

The perpetual war for supremacy between AMD and Nvidia constantly leaves enthusiasts dodging shrapnel: When you want the best video card you can afford, why buy one now instead of waiting for the better one the competing chipset designer will undoubtedly release in a few months? This leaves reviewers in a tough spot, too, as we're constantly proclaiming that nearly every new card is the fastest ever. But because you can only live in the world you live in, we're obliged to go there. So, here goes once again: The just-released AMD Radeon HD 7970 ($549 list) is the latest fastest and most feature-rich single-GPU card ever, surpassing our previous Editors' Choice winner, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580.

Though we have little doubt that Nvidia will yank back that title with its next generation of cards, the 7970 is an impressive achievement for the moment.? (It's?rumored to become widely available by early January of?2012.)? The inaugural member of the Southern Islands family, it utilizes a fresh architecture AMD refers to as "Graphics Core Next." Based on a new 28nm process technology and utilizing more than 4.3 billion transistors, Graphics Core Next uses a revised instruction set architecture, gives each compute unit the ability to simultaneously execute instructions from multiple kernels, and delivers an increased number of instructions per clock cycle per square millimeter of GPU space. The result, so AMD claims, is "designed for high utilization, high throughput, and multitasking."

We'll examine how well the 7970 achieves those goals in due time, but first we should look more deeply at what the card offers on a component level. The maxed-out new Southern Islands GPU (the 7900 series, code-named "Tahiti") can contain up to 32 compute units (CUs) supported by two geometry engines and rasterizers (one of each for every collection of 16 CUs), one L2 cache up to 768KB, four render back-ends (offering 32 color ROPs per clock and 128 Z/stencil ROPs per clock), and a 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface with bandwidth up to 264GBps. Cards in the 7900 series can also make full use of the newest and speediest PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 x16 bus interface.

AMD didn't stop with just internal developments. The company promises that the Southern Islands cards will offer improved cooling and acoustics, by way of a new sixth-generation vapor chamber and a wider fan with new blades that are capable of wicking away more heat than before. Power issues have received plenty of attention as well, with PowerTune technology for intelligent monitoring of energy usage on an application-by-application basis when the proper electrical and thermal headroom are available.

Also new is ZeroCore Power Technology, which shuts down the GPU and turns off the fan during long idle states, for a reduction in idle power usage of up to 95 percent. According to AMD, this delivers additional benefits in CrossFireX configurations: Secondary GPUs are always in the ZeroCore Power state when they're not in use, with the primary GPU joining them during long idle periods, thus saving even more power in systems that traditionally suck it up with party-animal abandon.

Like all of the company's video cards, those in the 7900 series support?DirectX 11 (and it's posed for?DX11.1 when Windows 8?comes around)?the full range of AMD's proprietary technologies. Eyefinity is back, but with a twist: Though it still makes for an easy way to run multiple monitors, the 7970 is the first card capable of driving three stereoscopic 3D displays by itself using new monitors that support DisplayPort 3D; the 7900 series isn't even limited to a single audio stream, but can out multiple independent streams at once. Other new Eyefinity features introduced with the Catalyst 11.10 driver update include new monitor configurations (5-by-1 landscape and portrait), full support for setups using multiple 1,920-by-1,200 and 2,560-by-1,600 monitors, and flexible bezel compensation.

If the 7970 sounds beefy from a spec standpoint, it is indeed. The card's 250-watt TDP hasn't changed from the 6970, but almost everything else has been dialed up. The card is driven by an astonishing 2,048 stream processors and has a 925MHz engine clock; AMD estimates the card delivers 3.79 teraflops of compute performance. Thirty-two ROPs and 128 Z/stencils max out the GPU's capability. Memory has been packed on, too, with the 7970 housing a remarkable 3GB of GDDR5, twice what the GTX 580 carries; the bandwidth is the aforementioned 264GBps, the memory clock runs at 1,375MHz, and the overall data rate is 5.5Gbps. (The last two specs are not increases over those of AMD's last-generation top single-GPU card, the Radeon HD 6970, for what it's worth.)

Video outputs are a strong collection as well, with two Mini DisplayPort jacks (supporting the DisplayPort 1.2 standard), one HDMI 1.4a port, and one dual-link DVI port. The last is beginning to look mighty legacy, as both the Mini DisplayPort and HDMI ports are now capable of driving the 4K displays that are almost certainly coming in the next generation or so. (AMD touts its cards as being the first on the market to support this new hardware.) And there is again a switch that lets you return to the factory settings any time you want, so you can overclock to your heart's content safe in the knowledge it will be tough to do any permanent damage.

Positive as all this is, the typical downsides to such a powerful card are here as well.? You will need to run two additional cables from your power supply (one eight-pin, one six-pin), and the card's oversize fan?heat sink unit means it blocks an adjacent expansion slot. But because the card is of a reasonable length (11 inches), these are minor annoyances well in keeping with video cards this high up in the enthusiast spectrum.

What does all this mean in terms of gaming performance? A lot. In our testing (on a system set up using an Asus P9X79 Deluxe motherboard running the Intel Core i7-3960X CPU) we saw some significant jumps over both AMD's own 6970 and Nvidia's GTX 580. The 7970's overall 3DMark 11 score was 2,734, an 861-point increase over what we saw from the 6970 (1,873) and 619 points higher than what the GTX 580 earned (2,115). The 7970 triumphed in almost all of our gaming benchmarks, often by large degrees, at least at 1,920 by 1,200. When we tested Aliens vs. Predator at that resolution, for example, the 7970's result of 55.1 frames per second (fps) was well ahead of the 6970's 47.2fps and the GTX 580's 43.6fps. The 7970 barely eked out a playable 31fps against the GTX 580's 27.2fps in Total War: Shogun 2 at 1,920 by 1,200, though the GTX 580 couldn't even run the game's benchmark with all the details cranked.

The 7970, it should be noted, didn't ace every test. The GTX 580 did marginally better in DiRT 3 (69.5fps versus 66.9fps) and HAWX 2 (140 versus 130), both at 1,920 by 1200. And a lot of the 7970's impressive leads dropped at 2,560 by 1,600, with only about 7fps separating the cards at Aliens vs. Predator (34.7fps versus 27.5fps), 1fps at DiRT 3 (47.7fps versus 46.7fps, the 7970 winning the competition here it couldn't quite at 1,920 by 1,200), and 12fps in Just Cause 2 (40.6fps versus 28.6fps, as compared with the wider gap between 60fps and 36.8fps for that game we saw at 1,920 by 1,200). And looked at beside either AMD's or Nvidia's more expensive?dual-GPU gaming cards, the Radeon HD 6990 and the GeForce GTX 590 respectively, the 7970 looks like small performance potatoes. (Though, for the record, the GTX 590 couldn't run Total War: Shogun 2 at 2,560 by 1,600.)

Where the 7970 really distinguished itself was in terms of power usage. AMD's efforts in this regard really paid off, as our test bed was able to idle at an impressive minimum of 99.8 watts; that's less than we saw with either the 6970 (107.8) or the GTX 580 (117.3). But when running under full graphics load the 7970's full-system power draw rose to only 245.9 watts?again, this is below the results we got from both the 6970 (249.8 watts) and the GTX 580 (264.6 watts), and the 7970 gives you the most polygon-pushing power.

So, folks, it's that time again to declare a new Editors' Choice and a new "sensibly priced" (as opposed to the dual-GPU models, anyway) enthusiast video card. No matter what game you want to play or, within reason, what resolution you want to play it at, this is the one-GPU card that will excel most at the job best. Its price may still be steep, and you may be able to find GTX 580 cards on the market for less (around $500), but if full-tilt gaming without compromises?is what you crave, you won't be able?to do better than the AMD Radeon HD 7970. At least for a while.

More Graphics Card reviews:
??? AMD Radeon HD 7970
??? Nvidia Quadro 4000
??? Nvidia Quadro 5000
??? Nvidia Quadro 2000
??? AMD Radeon HD 6450
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/4-__4XbVDms/0,2817,2397914,00.asp

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airsupremacy will help you with up to 10 questions about your Android phone for $5

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Tuesday Open Thread: Finance Edition - Big Government

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