XFX HD 7970 Black Edition Double_D 3GB
Review & Benchmarks
There are plenty of good graphics cards out there but due to the wealth of choice available to end users, it takes something special to stand out from the crowd. Only a few have had this certain “je ne sais quoi” and as a result became wildly popular. AMD’s new HD 7970 seems to have this same envious combination in the form of high efficiency combined with class leading performance and unlike some newly released GPUs, it actually surprised us with decent availability from day one.
Just a few short weeks ago, I had the opportunity to look at and test a reference HD 7970 from Sapphire for the official launch of AMD's latest video cards, which feature an all new architecture based on the 28 nm Tahiti core. On top of the die shrink, this new architecture from AMD includes a move to PCIe 3 support, an increase to 3 GB of high speed GDDR5 memory, DX 11.1 compliance, Power Tune and Zero Core power technologies, and Eyefinity 2.0, which brings its own upgraded feature set. AMD's GCN, or Graphics Core Next Tahiti core, is a step away from the VLIW design and towards a non-VLIW SIMD engine for higher computing performance. As you might expect, board partners were quick to embrace AMD’s strategy and have come up with numerous unique HD 7970 cards which incorporate higher than reference clock speeds, custom heatsink designs and a long list of other features. In many ways, XFX has been leading the pack since along with all of the aforementioned items, they have also incorporated a lifetime warranty into some of their SKUs, something which is a bit of a rarity these days. Naturally, their flagship HD 7970 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation takes this mantra and runs with it.
This new core comes with a large increase in the transistor count to 4.31 billion, an increase in the streaming processor count to 2048 with 32 raster units, 128 texture units, and finally a move to a 384-bit wide memory bus for increased memory performance. For XFX, they have decided to further improve the reference design in the form of the Black Edition Double Dissipation HD 7970 – the latest card to carry the Black Edition pedigree. While you get the new tech from AMD, XFX includes their own X-Factors such as Duratec components, Hydrocell vapor chamber cooling, dual fans for a 13 dB drop in acoustics and at least a 7°C improvement in cooling performance, and a significant boost in the base clock speeds to 1000 MHz on the core and 1425 MHz on the GDDR5 memory. Let’s see if the improvements and hardware enhancements equate to a better end user experience.
Just a few short weeks ago, I had the opportunity to look at and test a reference HD 7970 from Sapphire for the official launch of AMD's latest video cards, which feature an all new architecture based on the 28 nm Tahiti core. On top of the die shrink, this new architecture from AMD includes a move to PCIe 3 support, an increase to 3 GB of high speed GDDR5 memory, DX 11.1 compliance, Power Tune and Zero Core power technologies, and Eyefinity 2.0, which brings its own upgraded feature set. AMD's GCN, or Graphics Core Next Tahiti core, is a step away from the VLIW design and towards a non-VLIW SIMD engine for higher computing performance. As you might expect, board partners were quick to embrace AMD’s strategy and have come up with numerous unique HD 7970 cards which incorporate higher than reference clock speeds, custom heatsink designs and a long list of other features. In many ways, XFX has been leading the pack since along with all of the aforementioned items, they have also incorporated a lifetime warranty into some of their SKUs, something which is a bit of a rarity these days. Naturally, their flagship HD 7970 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation takes this mantra and runs with it.
This new core comes with a large increase in the transistor count to 4.31 billion, an increase in the streaming processor count to 2048 with 32 raster units, 128 texture units, and finally a move to a 384-bit wide memory bus for increased memory performance. For XFX, they have decided to further improve the reference design in the form of the Black Edition Double Dissipation HD 7970 – the latest card to carry the Black Edition pedigree. While you get the new tech from AMD, XFX includes their own X-Factors such as Duratec components, Hydrocell vapor chamber cooling, dual fans for a 13 dB drop in acoustics and at least a 7°C improvement in cooling performance, and a significant boost in the base clock speeds to 1000 MHz on the core and 1425 MHz on the GDDR5 memory. Let’s see if the improvements and hardware enhancements equate to a better end user experience.
Its Current Price is $441 at amazon.com
Specifications:
Test Setup:
BenchMarks
- Great Performance including OC.
- Quality, Design and Build.
- Nice Power Efficiency.
- 4K display support,.
- Switchable BIOS, Probably can be overclocked even higher.
- Nice and Cool card under 100% Load.
- Best 28nm AMD card available.
- Low Noice.
On allocation, so expect a backorder.
No PhyX support.
