(Hardware.fr) HD7970 temps

[3DVagabond]

This is why I am going to slap a Shaman on mine the day it gets here lol

VRM temperatures on my 6950 were spectacular despite overvolting it. We are talking about 60 degrees Celsius here .

That's an awesome cooler. If you get a decent card I wouldn't be surprised to see you hit 1300MHz. :thumbsup:

 

[badb0y]

That's an awesome cooler. If you get a decent card I wouldn't be surprised to see you hit 1300MHz. :thumbsup:

It's en route I was able to snag it off of nanaki for 500$ NIB

 

[SlowSpyder]

I think that you guys who are lambasting XFX are missing is that this probably isn't made to be a super overclocking card. You're paying for a factory overclock, and that higher performance coming with less noise than a reference model. My 5870's are Vapor-X models, they too have a better cooler than stock, but they aren't great overclockers, they come with a small overclock and a much quieter cooler than reference... same thing as this XFX in my opinion.

If you want really high clocks, I'd wait for a Sapphire Atomic, MSI Lightning, etc.

 

[Grooveriding]

The VRM area and circuitry is always the hottest area on your card. Granted these ones look quite toasty, but so long as they're not popping and burning out.....:ninja:

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

The VRM area and circuitry is always the hottest area on your card. Granted these ones look quite toasty, but so long as they're not popping and burning out.....:ninja:

My problem is that the XFX DDE card is a premium card with a premium price with it and the stock card outperforms it. Im not in the market for a new gpu but if I was I'd wait to see what asus or msi brings to the table in terms of better cooling.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

It really is awful that a custom cooler cannot beat the reference cooler. XFX would have been better off had they just shipped a card with the reference cooler with the GPU at 1000mhz.

I would go far as to say that XFX should have made this card cheaper then the rest, put the clocks at stock, and marketed it as a quiet card.

This card should not have been marketed as a good overclocking card. Maybe next time XFX will actually test the cooler before shipping.

Back to the drawing board XFX.

 

[3DVagabond]

I think that you guys who are lambasting XFX are missing is that this probably isn't made to be a super overclocking card. You're paying for a factory overclock, and that higher performance coming with less noise than a reference model. My 5870's are Vapor-X models, they too have a better cooler than stock, but they aren't great overclockers, they come with a small overclock and a much quieter cooler than reference... same thing as this XFX in my opinion.

If you want really high clocks, I'd wait for a Sapphire Atomic, MSI Lightning, etc.

You definitely get the gist of my post. The XFX is not a super O/C'ing card, I feel people should hold off for the other cards too.

The part you seem to be passing over is that the card is a dearer card with what is touted as a superior cooler. They then ship a model that is factory O/C'd to 1GHz. This will lead a lot of people to assume that it's a superior cooler that is better suited to O/C'ing. According to these images though, it's not. It's, in fact, an inferior cooler albeit possibly except for noise. Early adopters will in most cases (except where noise is critical) will be better off saving some money and getting a reference design. Even where noise is important, the reference design is not noisy if run stock.

This is not, necessarily an attack on XFX. Seems like they screwed up a bit here, but it's not a horrible mistake. Rushing to get a product to market is often not without flaws. People who buy cards on release should realize they are not a mature product and they are taking some risks. It's just the nature of the beast. This info though is important for those making a buying decision, IMO.

 

[Carmen813]

I wonder if this explains my furmark crashes even at the stock oc. Wondering if this warrants returning it ...

 

[VulgarDisplay]

If you can't run a stability test at stock speeds you should definitely get rid of it with all possible haste...

 

[Panopticon]

I wonder if this explains my furmark crashes even at the stock oc. Wondering if this warrants returning it ...

You should send it back and snag a ref design... You will be happy with the OC headroom and unless your computer sits 6 inches from your face the noise isn't an issue. At stock the noise is not even noticeable when gaming. I have been running my card at 1125/1575 and the performance gains are worth the OC.

 

[uvizion]

Hi guys,

I have fixed my XFX BE DD R7970 VRM temp problem. I think their stupid heatsink design causes this problem. The thick black Al case in the reference model functions as (1) a strong case to prevent the PCB from bending, (2) primary cooling for RAM and VRM.

Their modified design has blocked the air from the fan (near the power sockets) to the Al case.

I've cut the heatsink as in the picture and the problem solved!


---
Here is my real picture

 

[lehtv]

What were your temps before, and how are they after that mod?

 

[railven]

Yeah, would definitely like to know how your temps changed.

The last time I had to cut a heatsink was to make an Articl Cooler 5 fit on an AIW Radeon X800 XT PE haha.

 

[john88]

cant see your pictures...

 

[ZGR]

Wow, nice hack! I hope you got some good temperature reductions.

 

[Will Robinson]

Hmm that's a decent mod:thumbsup:...welcome to AT video and graphics forums by the way.

 

[Silverforce11]

Makes me wonder how badly XFX was hit with this gen, everyone avoided their radeons like the plague.

 

[3DVagabond]

I know it's not scientific, but if you look at the number of user reviews on Newegg, it doesn't look like it hurt them too badly. They still offer a lifetime warranty on many of their cards and have a very recognizable brand that plays in their favor.