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Which 7970, GHZ edition??

Born_2_Kill_83

Born_2_Kill_83

Born_2_Kill_83

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Ok so Ive decided to sell my 6990 for CF7970 as the 8000 series is to far away (not in time for this winters games) and it's around the same performance but cheaper than a 7990.

Question is which 7970's shall I go for, I see in the benchmark a "GHZ" edition has higher scores. Typically which ones on O/Cer's are GHZ editions and are they worth it or can you just overclock a standard 7970 to the same speeds?
 
Usually you can OC the nonGHZ to GHZ clocks (if they are voltage unlocked), if the difference of price is £20.00 or less I would get the GHZ edition.

I did test 2x 7970 Ghz edition HIS IceQ x2, they ran nice but the top card was getting 10C more than the bottom one (I think it was because of the design of their cooler, not the best for Crossfire)

I got my hands on some non ghz editions as well, overclocked they all can reach about the same clocks, ghz and non ghz.
 
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Just get 7970 Lightening Boost editions then. these boost to 1150/6000 without overclocking and they do overclock well and have voltage unlock too.
 
Or get one of these VTX HD7970 X Edition and pocket the £200 saved.

Theoretically not a Ghz edition card but comes clocked at 1050/5700 out of the box. Cooler is decent and it clocks well (voltage control up to 1.3v on default bios).

Hard to justify the extra for the Lightning in everyday use.
 
oweneades said:
Or get one of these VTX HD7970 X Edition and pocket the £200 saved.

Theoretically not a Ghz edition card but comes clocked at 1050/5700 out of the box. Cooler is decent and it clocks well (voltage control up to 1.3v on default bios).

Hard to justify the extra for the Lightning in everyday use.
Click to expand...

Agreed these cards look very nice 90% convinced this is what I'll go for but now you've said not a GHZ edition I'm not so sure, why isnt it a GHZ?
 
Born_2_Kill_83 said:
Agreed these cards look very nice 90% convinced this is what I'll go for but now you've said not a GHZ edition I'm not so sure, why isnt it a GHZ?
Click to expand...

The VTX card is basically a overclocked HD7970 (925/5500). The Ghz edition is a slightly revised HD7970 with higher base clocks and boost (1000Mhz base, 1050Mhz boost). IIRC the Ghz editions were meant to be slightly better (cooler running etc) due to the refined process, however in practice there was little difference.

In the same system a non Ghz HD7970 running at 1050/6000 will perform identically to a HD7970 Ghz out of the box. It will clock to similar clocks (how high is almost luck of the draw) and will run at a similar temperature (cooler dependant).
 
oweneades said:
The VTX card is basically a overclocked HD7970 (925/5500). The Ghz edition is a slightly revised HD7970 with higher base clocks and boost (1000Mhz base, 1050Mhz boost). IIRC the Ghz editions were meant to be slightly better (cooler running etc) due to the refined process, however in practice there was little difference.

In the same system a non Ghz HD7970 running at 1050/6000 will perform identically to a HD7970 Ghz out of the box. It will clock to similar clocks (how high is almost luck of the draw) and will run at a similar temperature (cooler dependant).
Click to expand...

The VTX say GHZ and is clocked to 1050/5700 so surely is GHZ? (without boost ability)
Hopefully this card should run stable @ 1100/6000, thats where I want to be at anyway....?
 
Born_2_Kill_83 said:
The VTX say GHZ and is clocked to 1050/5700 so surely is GHZ? (without boost ability)
Hopefully this card should run stable @ 1100/6000, thats where I want to be at anyway....?
Click to expand...

They may have revised it to now run the "Ghz" chip but it seems odd that the memory isn't clocked at 6000Mhz like other Ghz cards (not that it makes a jot of difference mind).

Mine runs at up to 1250/6400 Crysis 3 / BF3 stable. The memory can go higher but I havn't bothered to unlock Afterburner to do so as the games I am currently playing don't even require clocking the card at all (even though I am running Eyefinity).

It should do 1100/6000 right off the bat.
 
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