7970 Lightning BE w/ Matrix Plat cf Yay or nay? + power concerns looking for advice

[hovislol]

Hey there

Currently running a single 7970 Lightning BE at the moment, basically I'm looking to upgrade via cf to make more use of my 144hz monitor. I currently have my eyes on that 7970 Matrix Platinum since its on offer right now but I'm wondering will it be any bother running along side a Lightning at all, aslong as clocks are matched? Or possibly I should just wait for the new series to arrive and sell my lightning and come up with another plan?(looking to max out games like bf4 @1080 making most of my 144hz as i said).

Also my other question is since I'm currently running a 650w seasonic gold PSU I'm going to have to upgrade that as well so I'm wondering will a 850 / 860w PSU suffice for this(running cf)? I keep hearing mixed results on Lightnings power so it's making me somewhat confused as some were saying 1000w min or even up to 1200w for x2 Lightning BE's.

Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated thanks.

Setup -
Z77 asrock extreme4
MSI Lightning BE 7970 @ 1200 / 1700 at the mo
3570k @ 4.5 (probs will change to a 3770k in future to further support cf on bf4?bottlenecking???)
650 seasonic gold psu
Noctua NH-D14
g.skill ripjaws 1600mhz 4gb x2
Win8

 

[Kaapstad]

I would avoid the Matrix Platinum and go for a regular HD 7970. The reason for this is the Matrix Platinum seems to perform differently to other HD 7970s when overclocking and you may get problems mixing them, this is only my guess though and it would be a good move to wait for some more replies.

The other problem with the Platinums is they use GPU Tweak for overclocking which is a real pain.

I have nothing against the Platinums as I use two myself.

 

[hovislol]

Alright cheers I'll keep that in mind then, that's drove me off that Matrix Plat idea already hah I'll hang on a bit and see what others say also, appreciated though.

 

[DJ_Bucho]

Sorry to be a little 'off topic' but Kaapstad, what sort of performance gain do you get from running Xfire Platinums, I'm running a single Platinum at the minute (or will be when it arrives). Also have you overclocked them at all and if so what speeds are you running?

 

[Kaapstad]

Sorry to be a little 'off topic' but Kaapstad, what sort of performance gain do you get from running Xfire Platinums, I'm running a single Platinum at the minute (or will be when it arrives). Also have you overclocked them at all and if so what speeds are you running?

Performance wise they scale much the same as any other HD 7970s in xfire.

Clockspeeds mine can manage from about 1250 to 1300mhz on the cores and around 1850mhz on the memory for benching. For gaming I would not want to use more than 1200/1750 if I was going to overclock them, me personally I run them at stock for gaming as the performance is more than enough.

If you follow the links found here you will find my Matrix Platinums on most of the single and two card benching links.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18487976

 

[DJ_Bucho]

Performance wise they scale much the same as any other HD 7970s in xfire.

Clockspeeds mine can manage from about 1250 to 1300mhz on the cores and around 1850mhz on the memory for benching. For gaming I would not want to use more than 1200/1750 if I was going to overclock them, me personally I run them at stock for gaming as the performance is more than enough.

Thank very much buddy, all good to know. I think I may have to look into getting another Platinum at some point in the future. Now I only need to save the moneyz