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** SINGLE GTX 580 3GB VS SINGLE 7970 3GB REVIEW BY OcUK **

dstart said:
I'm intrigued now but next week I will be buying a 7970, which vendor? Can't I just buy one from AMD?

Can we get some specs of each reference card from different vendors? Price differences and stock clocks?
My motherboard is Sandy Bridge P67 Asus board, is there any compatibility gain if I went with an Asus 7970?
Would there be any differences in noise levels? Would each vendor use the same fan and motor?

Muchas Gracias :cool:
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Normally all these new cards come from the same production line just with different boxes and decals.....choose your flavour, they will all taste the same ;)
 
Gibbo said:
Hi there

Got an answer as to why they come at such low clock speeds out of the box.

One of AMD's priorities with the 7970 was power consumption and to ensure it had a max TDP of 300W to remain within ATX specification and as such to ensure this meant clock speeds had to be capped.

This is why they are clocked at the speeds they are.

The good news is that this is one of the most overclockable cards to date and overclocking these cards can yield upto an addition 20-30% more performance. :)

Obviously board partners won't be so interested in power consumption but all out performance and both XFX and MSI inform me they have very fast version coming after Chinese New Year. :D
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That sounds a little dodgy then ! as dropping the vcore will reduce the power more that the clocks, I can only read into that they have a wide "binning" range. or this new silicone is much better than the development stuff.
 
JAKUS said:
That sounds a little dodgy...
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Yes, especially since reviews seem to indicate that the load power consumption is below 250W, let alone 300W. Not to mention that AMD have power-tune which they can use to hard-cap the power draw at whatever levels they wish, so there is no longer any reason to cap clockspeed for power-draw reasons.

I suspect that we'll see an "HD 7980" part, clocked somewhere around 1200Mhz, that will appear to compete with the first iteration of Kepler cards. AMD are making hay with the 7970 while they have the performance crown, but have room to manoeuvre upwards when the competition catches up. An extra 15-20% on top of the 7970s performance (from the extra clockspeed) could put them in a position to compete with the GK104.
 
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I was going to go for a Gigabyte one based on their reputation but I just can't stand these tacky decal stickers they put on the top of the plastic cases.

Have you seen the 7970 from Gigabyte?

I'd happily pay extra for just a standard looking reference card from AMD themselves, top quality motor fan and top binned silicon.. niice.
 
dstart said:
I was going to go for a Gigabyte one based on their reputation but I just can't stand these tacky decal stickers they put on the top of the plastic cases.
Have you seen the 7970 from Gigabyte?
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I have not seen any in the flesh ! No, old Skool here, I've never given any stickers a second thought other than could it fall off into something !..The ones on the fan if not centred, wind me up if I can't easily remove them .

dstart said:
I'd happily pay extra for just a standard looking reference card from AMD themselves, top quality motor fan and top binned silicon.. niice.
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Wouldn't we all :D
 
Not that I care, but that gigabyte card looks awful. If you're going to use tacky looking stickers, at least try to make it look in style with the rest of the card.
 
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