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7970 Matrix Platinum vs Lightning BE

thefogo

thefogo

thefogo

Soldato
Joined
20 Jul 2012
Posts
3,298
Location
Manchester
Hi guys, I have something that I hope you could help me with.
I'm getting rid of my 7970 reference crossfire setup due to a few reasons, and have decided I want to get a good, custom single GPU.

The two that have caught my eye are the 7970 Lightning BE and the 7970 Matrix Platinum, and I'm having trouble deciding which would be best. The Lightning is clocked higher at stock but I've also heard it can be quite noisy.

Also are there any better alternatives for the price? A 680 maybe?

Also I'd like either card to clock to 1.2Ghz or above, so I can keep my current performance without blowing my ears off. Is there a chance I could get one that doesn't hit that?

Cheers for any replies.
 
Even a highly clocked 7970 is going to be nowhere near 7970 CF peformance even at stock. You could always run them at stock with a non-aggressive fan profile and this way you aren't taking a large hit on the sell up.

In answer to your question the Lightning is better because the software you have to use on the ASUS Matrix is poor unless it's changed in the last couple of weeks.
 
Rusty0611 said:
In answer to your question the Lightning is better because the software you have to use on the ASUS Matrix is poor unless it's changed in the last couple of weeks.
Click to expand...

This.

GPU Tweak is frustratingly rubbish.

However the Matrix Platinum is VERY quiet, it has one of (if not THE) best heatsink & fan combos out there.

Either card will no doubt get you 1200/1800 with a more acceptable fan profile.
 
Hi Rusty.
In CF I found in several games I was either losing performance or wasn't benefiting at all from the second card. I've noticed games are a lot smoother now I have just one card too. Plus for just one screen it was a bit of a waste anyway.

Oh you can't use MSI Afterburner for the Matrix?
 
thefogo said:
Oh you can't use MSI Afterburner for the Matrix?
Click to expand...

Nope. If you want to overclock the Matrix Platinum then you have to use GPU Tweak.
Afterburner has some monitoring you can use, especially in game. But i don't advise using two overclocking utilities.
 
Is GPU Tweak really that bad? If it lets me overclock, monitor temps and set fan profiles then I'm perfectly fine with that.
 
thefogo said:
Hi Rusty.
In CF I found in several games I was either losing performance or wasn't benefiting at all from the second card.
Click to expand...

Have you installed the latest drivers and the latest CAPs? Most games where CF makes no difference are also unlikely to benefit from a highly clocked 7970 either.

What I mean is the increase in clock speed from 925 MHz to 1200 MHz probably won't make as much as a difference as you're expecting as the limits will be in other places.

I know what you mean but it's just that you will take a substantial loss on the sell up by moving to non-reference of the same GPU and on games that do benefit from Crossfire, worse performance as well.
 
thefogo said:
Is GPU Tweak really that bad? If it lets me overclock, monitor temps and set fan profiles then I'm perfectly fine with that.
Click to expand...

Fan profiles are ok now, kind of
You can overclock, save your profile and have them reset to default
Sometimes your settings won't apply
Monitoring is buggy and inaccurate
There is no in-game overlay monitoring function
The entire application is buggy, poorly developed and contains bugs

Example:

whatnm.png


The only resolution to the above is to reboot...
 
@Rusty
Yep I had the latest everything:)
Games like Far Cry 3 were unplayable with CF, but with one card I get more FPS and there's no stutter. I've noticed I get basically the same FPS in BF3 too. I only play at 1920x1080 so CF was silly to begin with :p
I've also already sold one of the cards ^_^

@Rossi
That is certainly interesting :P
I'd feel duped if I paid £390 for a card and had to use software that did that :eek:
 
thefogo said:
@Rossi
That is certainly interesting :P
I'd feel duped if I paid £390 for a card and had to use software that did that :eek:
Click to expand...

Indeed. Unfortunately i'm well past the 14 day returns period.

In my experience the card itself is fantastic, really is a well engineered piece of kit, and brilliant if you have a ROG motherboard to go with it.
But the software is a MAJOR let down.

I would choose anything up 10db more in noise (MSI Lightning isn't that much louder) and have decent software if i had the choice again.
 
thefogo said:
Hi Rusty.
In CF I found in several games I was either losing performance or wasn't benefiting at all from the second card. I've noticed games are a lot smoother now I have just one card too. Plus for just one screen it was a bit of a waste anyway.

Oh you can't use MSI Afterburner for the Matrix?
Click to expand...

This sums it up for me.

I have two 7970's, but have sold one of them as I didn't get any gain in most games and said above, in some I was actually losing some performance.
 
I seem to have bought a Lightning :D
Thanks for the help guys :) I'll let you know how it goes; hopefully I don't have to report back with problems.
 
Maybe just sell one card for now, run the other just single. Then when the next gen comes out buy a new card and sell the other 7970? you will lose over a £100 upgrading to a lighting anyway by the time you've sold you ref card.
 
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Rossi~ said:
Fan profiles are ok now, kind of
You can overclock, save your profile and have them reset to default
Sometimes your settings won't apply
Monitoring is buggy and inaccurate
There is no in-game overlay monitoring function
The entire application is buggy, poorly developed and contains bugs
Click to expand...

I was using an old version of GPU tweak with my GTX 690s and had no problem with keeping profiles on it.

When I put the Asus Platinums in I upgraded to the latest version of GPU tweak and again no problems with keeping profiles on it.

When I put my GTX 690s back in and tried to store a profile GPU tweak was totally useless.

The bottom line - Asus may have fixed profiles for AMD but they have broken it for nvidia in the process lol.:D:eek::p:)
 
Oh i missed another one. It's not applying the overclock on startup... and the burn function seems to do nothing.
 
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