Future 7970 owners?

[sparkuss]

I hope to get at least one as long as the Reference cards are available. I want one for finally going WC and the first WC blocks are always locked to reference PCB.

 

[3DVagabond]

Everything this guy says is false, huge fail troll.

Tweak is, um, unusual, and sometimes his opinions don't jive with most other people, but that's OK. His is not a troll post, though.

Well I think ATI fans this is a exciting time. BTW the 7990 is out in stores so I hear, Well see the user reviews soon..

nVidia fans will have to wait until March for their Christmas...

Just lives in a slightly altered universe, 7990's are already out and nVidia will have their cards out in March.

 

[hclarkjr]

i am deciding between a 7950 or another 6950 to crossfire with the one i have. watching to see what kind of pricing comes out for the 7950's

 

[RussianSensation]

Whenever you all start to get your cards, if you are into overclocking, please let us know what sort of clocks you are getting.

Excellent idea. :thumbsup:

Someone should create a "database" thread for HD7970 Overclocking by brand with Core / Memory overclocks and GPU voltages. That would be very helpful since HD7970 seems to be an overclocker's dream.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Sure, I'd be down for that, RussianSensation! This is pretty damn exciting

 

[Arachnotronic]

Just got the cash back on a radeon 6790 just to make sure i could afford mine on the 9th as well till then i am stuck on hd2000.

Worth it

Haha, yeah. Let's just say I'm spending my winter break from school getting very reacquainted with some classic games! It's SUCH a win/win.

 

[badb0y]

Guru3D 7970 overclocking guide. 925MHz --> 1125MHz. 2C increase in temps.

"[FONT=verdana,geneva]We know that the upcoming 7950 will be freed from PCB limitations completely, board partners are allowed to design their own product. And man .. we do expect to see some good stuff when that happens."
Does this mean the 7950 will launch with non-reference PCB designs?
[/FONT]

 

[3DVagabond]

"[FONT=verdana,geneva]We know that the upcoming 7950 will be freed from PCB limitations completely, board partners are allowed to design their own product. And man .. we do expect to see some good stuff when that happens."
Does this mean the 7950 will launch with non-reference PCB designs?
[/FONT]

That's the way I understand it. Custom designs from day 1. We could see some pretty interesting cards. Lightnings and S.O.C's and Toxic's, oh my! :awe:

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Not in. Just gonna live vicariously through you guys. I'm at acceptable levels in BF3.

I really want a new chainsaw instead. Stihl.. drool...

 

[Arachnotronic]

This is the first time I've planned on buying a new GPU at launch...and it marks my return to the red team for my own main PC. It's been 8 years since my 9800 Pro in 2003...*gulp*

 

[Kippa]

I'd be a bit cautious about overclocking. I got my old HD 5870 XFX which was slightly overclocked by the manufacturer. The thing was unstable when playing L4D. I had to underclock it to the standard 5870 settings for the games not to crash.

 

[lavaheadache]

Not in. Just gonna live vicariously through you guys. I'm at acceptable levels in BF3.

I really want a new chainsaw instead. Stihl.. drool...

I just got a new chainsaw cause hurricane Irene put a tree down on my house and my old one had a chain tensioner problem. I'm looking to turn the old one into a go cart or something. I've been looking to put my mig welder to good use .

On another note, the 580 is sold along with my 5870. I'm going back to my trusty 4870x2 trifire setup till I score a 7970.

This really gets me to thinking.... I've been playing around with roughly the same performance level since 2008.

4870 trifire-> 5870 crossfire->gtx 580 & gtx460 sli. About the only thing that has changed is feature sets and power envelope.

 

[utahraptor]

I am getting one for sure, but I need some advice.

I hear a lot of people swearing the the reference board designs... Are these just built to extra high standard and likely to overclock well?

I have a Gigabyte 5870 now that was not OCed from the factory, but it has the ultra durable 2 tech and all those goodies and a special cooler. What make me sad is the core clock can't even be raised 5 mhz from stock without artifacts. I figured gigabyte was a great brand and their custom cooler would make it strong.

My dellima is that if I order one on launch day that is reference design I could end up in the same boat... one that won't even overclock 5 mhz. I am leaning towards waiting for one that is OC from the factory so I know 100% it can OC, but I get the feeling it will be a few months after launch before one is available.

Any advice?

PS

I have been a Gigabyte fan for a long time, but this last card that has 0% overclocking head room has put a 2 year bad taste in my mouth. I am leaning heavily towards migrating to MSI assuming they produce a frozr III or lightning version of this card that is highly over clocked. I heard a lot of good things about those cards.

 

[notty22]

I like the reference cooler. Nvidia and AMD have been each making the cooling better and borrowing design the last few launches, making a better cooler.
They are using a vapor chamber, with a large copper plate bottom. The way the secondary components beyond the gpu get cooled, is well designed.

http://hothardware.com/image_popup.aspx?articleid=1777&image=big_7970-cooler-3.jpg&t=a
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/5.html

One component on your current card is probably not getting proper cooling, stopping any o/c.

 

[Will Robinson]

The AIB's have a good overclocking chip to work with it seems.
With better cooling and less fan noise some of the overclocked models are going to be wicked fast.

 

[3DVagabond]

There are 2 types of custom cards. There's the ones that are built to superior specs, like the Lightnings and DCII's, and the one's that are built to be cheaper, which would likely start a heated debate by their proponents if we mentioned them.

 

[UJ09]

Does 7970 come with custom board design just like 7950? I prefer reference board because I'm going to watercool it, the first waterblock for 79XX is very likely to fit in reference board, so I force to get 7970 since most 7950s will mostly go custom, while 7970 remains reference from what I heard so far.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

I believe the 7970 will only have reference designs at first and then after an allotted amount of time AIB partners will be allowed to come out with custom designs, much like the 5870 and 6970.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Not in. Just gonna live vicariously through you guys. I'm at acceptable levels in BF3.

I really want a new chainsaw instead. Stihl.. drool...

im out as well. 1 wouldn't be an upgrade for me, id have to buy 2. Then add waterblocks..... far too much money.

Ill skip till the refresh.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I'll be in for one. I have a U3011 and my 5870 1GB only allows me to really play games at 1920x1200.

The 7970 outperforms my card by 50% and overclocks a heck of a lot better.

You'll be seeing a lot of 5870's in FS/FT soon I bet.

 

[3DVagabond]

Does 7970 come with custom board design just like 7950? I prefer reference board because I'm going to watercool it, the first waterblock for 79XX is very likely to fit in reference board, so I force to get 7970 since most 7950s will mostly go custom, while 7970 remains reference from what I heard so far.

There are waterblocks made for non reference designs, as well. Although, not typically at first. You have to look at the waterblock manufacturer's compatibility listing.

im out as well. 1 wouldn't be an upgrade for me, id have to buy 2. Then add waterblocks..... far too much money.

Ill skip till the refresh.

Typically, top of the line usually allows you to skip a generation and still have perfectly playable games. Your 6970's aren't going to get slower on the 9th of Jan.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Haha, yeah. Let's just say I'm spending my winter break from school getting very reacquainted with some classic games! It's SUCH a win/win.

If i had my old copy of BF2 i am sure the hd2000 would be more balls then anything to play that game.

Played some battlefieldplay4free last night without much issue but i forget how much i hate that crappy ass free for all.

Been playing a bit of ut2004 and its pretty smooth as well so as far as i stay back in 2005 or before hd2000 can play it lol i may try counterstrike source as i never played it to pass up time but i don't know

Merry xmas to you all i hope you have a good day tomorrow and hope to catch you all on the 26th back in gear

 

[Bateluer]

I've been being my Radeon cards on even numbers since my 2900XT. And my Wolfdale C2D is getting long in the tooth, so I'm going to upgrade before I do another video card upgrade. Possibly to IVB.

 

[Carmen813]

Planning to grab one as well. Hope it beats my xfire 5870/5850 setup.

 

[nOOky]

I'm planning to get one. I'll sell one 6870, put the other in the gf's computer. The new 7970 should be comparable to what I have now with a single card.