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Are all 7970's reference design boards?

1uke

1uke

1uke

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west sussex
Think I'm eventually going to upgrade my graphics card as prices have dropped abit. I'm looking towards a 7970 unless there is anything else coming out soon that will be suitable for my resolution 2560 x 1600?

Are all 7970's reference design board wise? And do any overclock higher than others?

I really wanted to go Nvidia this time around but prices and lack of waterblocks for the 4gb versions is putting me of.
 
Hiya,

As far as I am aware (and I may well be wrong) there are non-reference cards on the market.

As far as over clocking goes, I can only speak for my card (reference 7970 - sapphire) which has overclockers from the standard 925MHz core to 1125MHz. Will be attampting to get more out of it tonight, the memory is overclockers but I can't remember by how much...
 
pgi947 said:
Use EK's 'cooling configurator' it should tell you what cards are/aren't reference design.
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Do you have a link to that? As I have tried finding it before and not been successful.

Cleeecooo said:
GTX 670 is fine for that res
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2gb of memory is not enough even on battlefield 3 let alone any new games coming out within the next 2 years at this resolution. And as far as I know there are no 670 4gb version waterblocks available?
 
1uke said:
Think I'm eventually going to upgrade my graphics card as prices have dropped abit. I'm looking towards a 7970 unless there is anything else coming out soon that will be suitable for my resolution 2560 x 1600?

Are all 7970's reference design board wise? And do any overclock higher than others?

I really wanted to go Nvidia this time around but prices and lack of waterblocks for the 4gb versions is putting me of.
Click to expand...

Luke, I have 4 XFX 7970 cards and they were pretty solid. One popped its cloggs due to VRAM and I am down to 3. They all do 1250MHZ with two of them going to 1300MHZ. One card does almost 1400MHZ in some situations.

I game at 1440p, you'll need two cards at 1200mhz plus for 60fps in BF3 at your resolution to run Ultra. If you are ok with knocking the settings down then you can use a single card no problem.
 
Hi Besty and thanks for the reply. Don't suppose you know what XFX are like with warranty when there cards are watercooled? And what software did you use to overclock/overvolt them?
 
XFX are **** with RMAs

2gb is easily enough in BF3. Ive been hanging around te EVGA forums a lot and they've all been saying that unless you have 3+ cards, 2gb is enough as you are limited by GPU power first. That's at 5760x1080.

EVGA 4gb 670 is reference design
 
the asus dcii and top are non-reference, as is the msi lightning. upcoming non-reference boards are sapphire toxic 6gb, his iceq x2 and turbo, and "improved silicon yields" amd cards clocked at 1ghz by amd (which may have new board designs?? don't know much about this kind of thing). the his cards are out already, while the sapphire and ghz edition are rumours. apparently reference boards suffer coil whine while the non-reference boards don't. the asus cards don't always overclock beyond stock volts despite having good cooling and noise levels, while the msi version overclocks pretty much a small bit over other non-reference cooler designs on air, but it seems to be guaranteed, while also going much higher on liquid nitrogen. i think reference board+non-reference cooler is economical, like the sapphire dual x or the gigabyte windforce. you can just rma if you get a really loud one :p. i'm going to get a gigabyte one soon
 
Cleeeecooo I didn't ask how much memory I would need as there are about 100 threads on overclock arguing the same thing. From my extensive research and testing 2 gb is not enough now let alone within the next 2 years, and I do plan on xfiring eventually. But as I'm only really playing diablo 3 atm I need more memory not grunt than what I have right now.

Porkpiecat thanks for ur reply but I got abit lost in what you were actually recommending me to get? Remember I will be watercooling this card.
 
1uke said:
Hi Besty and thanks for the reply. Don't suppose you know what XFX are like with warranty when there cards are watercooled? And what software did you use to overclock/overvolt them?
Click to expand...

Warranty with all of the vendors is poor with blocks.

Buy an OCUK Labs card would be my recommendation or, go for the Powercolor LCS 7970.

I use Sapphire Trixx.
 
Sorry, missed the part where you said you were watercooling.

The ASUS dcII and dcII TOP, as well as the MSI Lightning 7970s are non-reference. As I understand you may as well get any brand reference model and choose based on price/availability (and warranty - if your card dies due to manufacturing defects, just stick the stock cooler back on!).
 
PorkPieCat said:
Sorry, missed the part where you said you were watercooling.

The ASUS dcII and dcII TOP, as well as the MSI Lightning 7970s are non-reference. As I understand you may as well get any brand reference model and choose based on price/availability (and warranty - if your card dies due to manufacturing defects, just stick the stock cooler back on!).
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That approach does not work in the EU, works in the U.S tho for some brands eg. XFX. If you punch the warranty stickers on the reference cooler and you have a problem, you are on your own.

It's the risk you take or you put up a bit more cash and buy one already fitted, with a warranty.
 
1uke said:
Cleeeecooo I didn't ask how much memory I would need as there are about 100 threads on overclock arguing the same thing. From my extensive research and testing 2 gb is not enough now let alone within the next 2 years, and I do plan on xfiring eventually. But as I'm only really playing diablo 3 atm I need more memory not grunt than what I have right now.
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If you're adamant about that then these will be best for you:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-189-EA

You're allowed to take the cooler off too.
 
1uke said:
Cleeeecooo I didn't ask how much memory I would need as there are about 100 threads on overclock arguing the same thing. From my extensive research and testing 2 gb is not enough now let alone within the next 2 years, and I do plan on xfiring eventually. But as I'm only really playing diablo 3 atm I need more memory not grunt than what I have right now.

Porkpiecat thanks for ur reply but I got abit lost in what you were actually recommending me to get? Remember I will be watercooling this card.
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You may not have asked it but it's still true. Your research wasn't that good if it allowed you to come to that conclusion.
 
If you're going to watercool it you're better off just getting the cheapest reference board you can with unlocked voltage (think they all have although not 100% sure).

No point paying the premium for the custom cooler if you're going to strip it off. Chances of getting a good clocker are the same across all makes and models of 7970 i.e. a lottery.

It's clever marketing making it sound like they cherry pick GPU's for their custom OC boards. I'm relatively certain they don't. The "OC potential" marketing phrase (and its variants) derives from the fact the 7970's are clocked way under what they're capable of at stock.
 
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I had been reading on here from someone that their DCUII was voltage locked, possibly due to using a voltage regulator AB doesn't support? Would be interested to know my self as surely Asus would have updated their own GPU Tweak software to support it?

As for what card you go for, do what I'm thinking of doing and basing it on RMA location & quality of customer service, deciding between Gigabyte/MSI/Sapphire atm.
 
1uke said:
******Learn some manners*******
The Asus HD 7970 DirectCU II is the cheapest 7970 on overclockers at the moment. Plus its not just a fancy fan it apparently has a 12-phase VRM circuitry with supper alloy caps and chokes as well as a special SAP capacitor added to maximize overclocking headroom, according to Asus.
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If you're seriously into overclocking i'd avoid this card as on the later models you can't adjust the voltage.

Some go to 1200mhz which is plenty, some only go to 1100mhz. If you're just going to use it at stock or up to 1100mhz then this is the one for you, but bear this in mind when making a decision.
 
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