ASUS MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5 Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: Well built, quiet. Runs cool. I like Asus products; they build quality looking stuff.

I'm adding two eggs because the card looks well built and solid. It's a good looking card on the outside, but we're not judging books by there covers in the world of graphics cards. This thing could look worse then miss piggy and I wouldn't care as long as it gave me the performance I expected.

Cons: Bought it on Oct. 27th of 2012 and didn't get to install it until Xmas day of 2012 (had to wait for the SSD card to come in).

Literally two days after I install it it starts doing this weird Texture flickering with small geometric squares blinking in and out of the top right side of the monitor.

I assumed it was the drivers so I updated. Then, after I restart the computer, it goes away for about 2 hours and then comes right back. More tiny square flickering on the top right of my monitor. I even took the card out and set it back in.

Other Thoughts: Needless to say I'm very disappointed with this card. Right now I'm about to do the RMA dance with Asus where they send me a card (if they have any in stock) and I send them this one back for repair. One guy on here did this over 4 times already. I'm not looking for forward to this is all.

I know all cards have issues which is why I was buying a special edition; so that they'd put more careful effort into it. Apparently that was not the case.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Please let me know if you have any problems with your RMA and/or replacement card. Have you used any overclocking software with your card? Do you have this problem while you idle? Only when you play games?

You can reach me at cl-jeremy@asus.com with any questions, comments, or concerns you may have. I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Jeremy
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Amazing looking cooler that remains relatively quiet between 10-50% fan speed (compared to Sapphire's Vapor-X).

The cards appear well constructed, the backplate and the PCI bracket provide plenty of support and the card PCB does not seem to bow or flex at all.

Out of the 4 cards I have tested, GPU-Z reports ASIC quality between 58-70% which is good for an air cooled card.

Cons: I purchased two of these cards on 10/27/2012, and had one card arrive DOA. Both the DL-DVI and SL-DVI ports would only output @ 1080p.

I had this card replaced by Newegg, with a (now third) card that was completely unstable under any load. I sent this card back for repair and it arrived on 12/21/2012. ASUS repair tech spent 1 day "repairing" it, and shipped it back to me with the exact same issues as before.

I contacted ASUS support again, and was offered an Advanced RMA (Cross-Shipped) Replacement for the card that they couldnt repair on 01/08/2013. Upon receiving the 4th card, it was immediately evident that the DL-DVI display out had signal artifacts.

I contacted ASUS support once more, and was told that they were unwilling to offer me another Advanced RMA, until a floor manager inspected my new defective card.

ASUS received the 4th card on 01/17/2013 to the attn of said floor manager, and after 5 days was informed that the card could not be repaired, and I would be shipped a new replacement as soon as one was in stock.

This entire time I have had a single semi-functional ASUS Matrix 7970 Platinum card, which actually gives me texture flicker, and geometry and texture artifacts on occasion (Possibly AMD drivers for some of the issues like texture flicker.) Also, the RGB LED on the functional card gets stuck on purple sometimes, and its likely that I will need to get a replacement for this card as well eventually.

Recap:

Card 1 - Texture Flicker, Geometry and Texture Artifacts (12.10, 12.11 Beta, 13.1, 31.2 with both DisplayPort

Card 2 - DL-DVI did not output @ 1440p, even with multiple DL-DVI Cables used.

Card 3 - Unstable under any 3d load.

Card 4 - DL-DVI had signal artifacting. Could not be repaired by ASUS.

So far I'm either 1 for 4, or 0 for 4 in terms of fully functional video cards. ASUS ROG technical support has been friendly, but the 1-day failed "repair" in December, and the 3 month repair/replace cycle have been extremely disappointing.

Other Thoughts: I gave a 3 egg rating. While my personal anecdotal experience has been absolutely horrific, it is still a personal experience, and unless many others have had similar issues.. I can only hope that this has been a run of terrible luck that will end when ASUS sends me my 5th and 6th cards.

System specs:

Intel i7-3930k 4.4Ghz @ -.060v
Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866 16gb (4x4) @ 1.5v
ASUS Rampage IV Formula
Corsair AX1200i

Pros: Looks Nice, worked great for 3 weeks,nothing else nice to say

Cons: had card one 2 days after it was released, Build a new gaming system with Asus ROG Formula V Motherboard. Intel 3770k and this Matrix 7970 card. It worked well for about 3 weeks, and I DID not overclock this card at all I ran it stock.

then I started to notice trouble with artifacts while playing games, IE battlefield 3, other games. slow movement, the light on the side of the card would go from Red to Green to red to green about 20 times then it would just start flashing green. it gets Plenty of air, temps at high load where at around 68C, a card of this caliber should be able to eat those temps with no problem.

Tried Asus GPU Tweak dropped "mem" and "gpu" levers down, and nothing, still the same, get message "do you want to recover Video card" when I start up Asus GPU tweak and computer restarts. games are now impossible to play. Dropped in my older Nvidia card and it system worked no problem..
I have called /Emailed 8 times to ASUS help dept. and No help at all. I am a big Asus fan ,however their customer service needs improvement and this will be the last time I buy a AMD/Radeon based card..

I truly wished this card would have worked properly as it looked great in my case. a truly bad investment..

Pros: So far I have ran Crysis, COD black ops 2, Batman Arkham City, Hitman Absolution, Metro 2033, Diablo 3, and Borderlands 2 at max settings with no hiccups at stock speeds overclocks to 1260 no problem didn't even try to go further no need

Cons: Some what loud at 100% but card rarely hits that mark

Other Thoughts: System
FX 8350 at 4.6 on air Phanteks PH-TC14PE
8Gb 1600mhz Gskills Ripjaw X
Crosshair V Formula Z
60gb Mushkin Chronos
1 TB WD Cavier Black
ASUS Matrix 7970 Platnium
LG DVD burner
LG BluRay Burner
750 Watt PC Power and Cooling
24 inch Acer

Pros: Sturdy construction. The performance is just right and I'm able to max out all settings in every single game from Guild Wars 2 to Farcry 3 with high fps.

Cons: Runs a bit hotter than I expected it to. Highest I've seen the card get is 68c @ 80 percent fan speed. The fan is pretty darn quiet under normal desktop conditions but under extremely heavy gaming you need to crank that sucker up really high to keep the heat away and it gets louder than expected. There seems to be some slight artifacting but I'm not yet sure if it's the card or the drivers since I'm using 12.11 beta drivers.

Other Thoughts: Happy with the performance, not happy with temperatures or fan noise under heavy load.

Pros: None to speak of.

Cons: Card does not work anymore

Card was high priced compared to other card and all you get is gizmos that really dont do much for the cards overclocking.
Slow card even with better cooling

$100 more then an other 7970 model thats cooler and faster And SMALLER

Other Thoughts: Now rma with asus will be a lengthy nightmare of unreturned emails and phone calls on deaf ears

Pros: Unlocked voltages. Yep while the GTX 680 now comes locked on voltage adjustment, this card stands alone.

Overclocks with ease, this is the top AMD single GPU card until new Gen comes out.

Build quality is bar none

Cons: Asus GPU Tweak is not consistent in monitoring clock speeds.

Not really a con but take note, this is NOT a blower exhaust cooling design. I have no issues since my case (Tt Level 10) has uber ventilation.

Other Thoughts: Replaced my aging Diamond 5870 1GB card after 3 years of dedicated service... More than doubles the 5870 performance. First week of overclocking got GPU @ 1230Mhz and Vram @ 7300Mhz. Use driver 12.11, epic driver. 3D Mark 11 score - 11160. Most powerful single GPU and it should be since towards the end of AMD 7 series cards and Nvidia 6xx series cards. If you want to hold out for AMD 8 series cards, expects the end of 2013 for 8970's to mature and also resolve any driver issues. I've learned not to buy cards at the start of launch, wait out for non reference cards to develop and select from a crop of great cards vs ok cards.

Pros: LEDs on the card show the current load
Out of the box fast
ASUS tuning software has a nice UI

Cons: none so far

Other Thoughts: on everything automatically adjusted, it runs kind of hot. with Far Cry 3 on optimal settings for the card (high-ultra) it runs around 70*C. maybe ill play around with it later

Pros: Fast, looks good.

Cons: Bought this card after reading reviews that said it was capable of clocking to almost 1300 Mhz core, but received a card that artifacts occasionally at 1100 (it is shipped at 1100 so, great).

Other Thoughts: Don't waste an extra 100+ dollars, not worth it.

Pros: Blazing fast, awesome cooling, epic overclocker.. just amazing. Priced very well, I would recommend it to anyone that's looking for the best high end gpu out. 3gb ram and higher memory bandwidth is a plus

Cons: N/A