Andy, Nvidia mobo's have always been a problem, thats why most people avoided them for donkeys years, 7970, afaik you mostly had driver problems with one aspect, zerocore, not gaming itself nor "normal" idle power problems, etc, etc. You say a lot around the forums along the lines of "7970 has awful drivers", but for most people gaming is 99% of what they want from it, and 99% of what the driver does, one really very minor feature, that can be completely avoided very easily(though maybe inconvenient for you) would seem to be a better description.
IE, the way you say it briefly sounds like you had problems with every game, and everything, rather than a very simple alternative sentence is that, "7970, zerocore didn't work for me at all".
Same way you could say "680gtx, nothing but driver aggro", or "680gtx, adaptive vsync sucks balls".
I do laugh at anyone that wants adaptive vsync, tearing is usually worse on a 60hz screen below 60fps, the time you want vsync the most adaptive vsync turns vsync off, in the most important range, its laughably stupid as a "feature". Hey, this feature is awesome it does exactly what you want, except when you need it, wooooo. I'd take tripple buffering and vsync over no vsync without question in 99% of games.
Rroff, I've had insanely little tearing since I got a 120hz screen, I would think that with 120hz, which I rarely hit maintained either, vsync would be on for you, below its always off. You're simply gaming without vsync and getting the advantage of 120hz. 120hz is just awesome for gaming, it should have become "standard" long before 3d became big, and everyone should have a 120hz screen, they are just awesome.