- 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5
- Core Clock 1000 MHz
- 2 x DVI (1 Single Link, 1 Dual Link) 4 x DisplayPort
- 2048 Stream Processors
- PCI Express 3.0 x16
Great Card - Some downsides
06/22/2012
This review is from: ASUS Radeon HD 7970 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card HD7970-DC2T-3GD5
Pros:
This card runs extremely cool, even when put under severe pressure. I do constant parallel computing keeping this card at 100% usage 24/7 and keep it overclocked at 1190MHz. It remains stable and sitting at about 80C in the summer. That may sound hot, but when you're doing constant high-intensity calculations (far more than any game would do) it's very impressive. In 3D applications I did not see this card exceed 60C.
For overclockers, I was able to get this card to 1190MHz without touching voltage. I'm sure it could go further if you wanted to play with the voltage a bit; I've heard of people breaking 1300. The on-board voltage control mechanism is really neat for those of you EE types that really want fine-grained control and configurability.
Cons:
It seems like underclocking this card is a little more difficult. I attempted to reduce voltage and memory clock. The memory clock refuses to go much lower, and the voltage does not seem to be able to be controlled by software, in either direction. (Even with the provided software.)
Honestly, the provided utility to overclock the card is not particularly useful. I ended up just using MSI Afterburner which handles the card. The provided tool has very low limits that the card can easily exceed.
I was also not able to get this card to work with an nvidia card on the same system. Most will ask "well why would you do this" and it won't be relevant, but again, I do parallel computing and would have liked to see both be able to work in the same system. Alas, it seems when both are in, either one or the other fails to be properly detected.
Overall Review:
If you're willing to shell out the cash, this card can really put out some impressive numbers.
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- Matthew B.
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Verified Owner
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Owned For:
1 week to 1 month
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