Visiontek 7970 black box vs. white box

[bobni]

Visiontek sells two different models of the reference design 7970. The 900491 model has a lifetime warrenty and comes in a white box. The 900556 has a 3 year warrenty and comes in a black box. At times the black box 900556 model is deeply discounted and includes free games. I asked Visiontek if there was any difference besides length of warrenty between these two models. They said they are the same except for warrenty. As reference cards they would also be the same 7970 reference cards sold by other companies. So why is this card selling below everyone else, what's the catch?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...81851&csid=_61

 

[RussianSensation]

You just answered your own question: Warranty. $365 for an HD7970 is a reasonable price for a reference cooler since it's much louder than the after-market versions. Still a good deal if you plan on dropping a water block on it, or game with headphones. Also, Visiontek and Diamond are less popular brands, which usually means they tend to compete on price and not on making their cards standout with after-market coolers, high end VRM components and so on. They stick to the reference design. Some people don't want anything more than a reference blower fan design and for them these brands deliver great bang for the buck.

 

[blastingcap]

You just answered your own question: Warranty. $365 for an HD7970 is a reasonable price for a reference cooler since it's much louder than the after-market versions. Still a good deal if you plan on dropping a water block on it, or game with headphones. Also, Visiontek and Diamond are less popular brands, which usually means they tend to compete on price and not on making their cards standout with after-market coolers, high end VRM components and so on. They stick to the reference design. Some people don't want anything more than a reference blower fan design and for them these brands deliver great bang for the buck.

Reference 7970 cards actually are not that much louder unless you overclock and overvolt a lot... At stock and moderate overclocks it isn't bad. I speak from experience. They also eject hot air out the back instead of recirculating it into the case, unlike most nonreference designs, which is especially important if you crossfire or have poor case cooling. Lastly, reference parts are good quality parts fins vrms etc. Nonreference can be worse quality, such as xfx double dissipation coolers, roughly equal quality like sapphire dualx, or higher quality like msi lightning. And if you watercool it may important to have reference pcbs for compatibility.

 

[CTA4LC4PON3]

I can tell you this as I own a VisionTek 7970 black boxed version that i got at a wicked good price. Newegg has a Visiontek 7970 black box for sale for $359.99 with 4 Free games so I purchased it.

Before this is had a very bad experience with x2 MSi Twin Frozr III 7950s that both were defective right out of the box. Well anyways so far my Visiontek 7970 has been a great card but anything over 40% fan speed is kind of loud and 50% easily louder

The card I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814129264

Right now I run a custom fan profile up to 50% fan MAX which keeps my temps in BF3 65c max and my VRMs never reach above 48c. This is all stock ATM as I really dont find I need anymore power for 1080p as I am maxing out my BF3 (No AA) with ease. Yes I can run x2aa but I dont.

Its been a fantastic card. The cooler is loud I will tell you that because mine is semi loud. 40-50% is where its noticeable but its tolerable.

 

[chimaxi83]

I have the black boxed Visiontek 7970. I have it water cooled, so I can't speak for how well the cooler performs, though it's reference and reviews are everywhere. For gaming I have it running 1250/1750, with GPU volts at 1.225. Running great, and at that price with the 4 free games it's an absolute steal.

 

[blastingcap]

I can tell you this as I own a VisionTek 7970 black boxed version that i got at a wicked good price. Newegg has a Visiontek 7970 black box for sale for $359.99 with 4 Free games so I purchased it.

Before this is had a very bad experience with x2 MSi Twin Frozr III 7950s that both were defective right out of the box. Well anyways so far my Visiontek 7970 has been a great card but anything over 40% fan speed is kind of loud and 50% easily louder

The card I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814129264

Right now I run a custom fan profile up to 50% fan MAX which keeps my temps in BF3 65c max and my VRMs never reach above 48c. This is all stock ATM as I really dont find I need anymore power for 1080p as I am maxing out my BF3 (No AA) with ease. Yes I can run x2aa but I dont.

Its been a fantastic card. The cooler is loud I will tell you that because mine is semi loud. 40-50% is where its noticeable but its tolerable.

Oh wow same here re msi 7950tf3. Defective so I had to send it back. I agree that 50% or so starts to get loud.

 

[RussianSensation]

The PCB of most 7970 cards won't be better than the reference cards but they'll have upgraded components. For example, there is no way you can overclock the reference card like the Sapphire Vapor-X, Sapphire Dual-X, Gigabyte Windforce 3x to 1150-1200mhz and have a quiet PC. It's possible with those other cards. Also, after-market cards come with beefed up VRM (for example 5+2 on DX that allows higher memory overclocks) or black diamond chocks on the Vapor-X. Now whether the extra premium is worth it depends if the person is sensitive to noise levels, intends to overclock on air or water, wants to gamble with coil whine, etc.

Generally speaking, the noise levels on air alone are worth it to spend a little extra for after-market cards. Most modern cases will have no problem at all dissipating the heat from a 200W card. Of course, the price for $365 is good, so it compensates somewhat.

 

[blastingcap]

The PCB of most 7970 cards won't be better than the reference cards but they'll have upgraded components. For example, there is no way you can overclock the reference card like the Sapphire Vapor-X, Sapphire Dual-X, Gigabyte Windforce 3x to 1150-1200mhz and have a quiet PC. It's possible with those other cards. Also, after-market cards come with beefed up VRM (for example 5+2 on DX that allows higher memory overclocks) or black diamond chocks on the Vapor-X. Now whether the extra premium is worth it depends if the person is sensitive to noise levels, intends to overclock on air or water, wants to gamble with coil whine, etc.

Generally speaking, the noise levels on air alone are worth it to spend a little extra for after-market cards. Most modern cases will have no problem at all dissipating the heat from a 200W card. Of course, the price for $365 is good, so it compensates somewhat.

Imho it's not worth a big premium for the highest-end cards. You gain too little in performance to justify the cost, in many cases. Imho you can either go reference and save some money in exchange for limiting your oc to something good, or pay a LITTLE extra for a moderately-more-expensive premium card like a DCu, Dual-X, etc. and eke out a little more performance at the same sound level--hopefully, because there have been plenty of duds out there with great coolers and VRMs and such that STILL can't oc better than reference cards.

In any case, I said for stock or moderate oc's the reference card is fine and not the jet turbine people try to make it out to be. I stand by that. Only with major oc's/overvolting will you land in jet turbine land. Somewhere around 55%-60% it crosses over into "uncomfortable" for me, personally, and 75%+ is definitely way too much for me. At stock speeds it should keep well below 50%; even with a modest oc it probably won't reach 50% unless your case airflow stinks.

 

[RussianSensation]

I guess it depends on what you consider loud. To me at stock speeds, the 7970 reference is way too loud compared to a quiet after-market card.

So I would say overclocking on reference above 1050mhz would already be jet engine. I'd actually buy an after-market 7950 instead of a reference 7970 since I know the after-market 7950 would overclock well, while remaining much quieter than the reference 7970 card.

I already used an HD6950 blower and it's better than the 7970 reference design and that 6950 blower wasn't that quiet.

At 1050mhz-1100mhz, the reference blower on the 7970 is loud.

vs. whisper quiet on an after-market 7970 card:

It's night and day and that's why the reference cards are often so much cheaper.

Since HD7970 has decent overclocking headroom, buying a reference card + overclocking on air means putting up with a jet engine 7970 OR having to go out and buy an after-market cooler OR not overclocking the 7970 OR needing to use headphones.

 

[blastingcap]

You have your charts and I have my own ears and experiences. I have already said noise tolerance for the 7970 fan is subjective and varies from person to person. Furthermore, if you know a thing or two about how db(A) works, it is a fudge factor measure that tries to measure how human ears perceive sound, because we are more sensitive to some frequencies than others. Even so, it is often the case that two things at the same db(A) measurement sound subjectively louder or quieter due to the noise signature. I have nothing further to say about that because then we'd get into a long discussion about fans, bearings, etc. and I don't want to derail this thread.

 

[RussianSensation]

In my last post I added a link to a sound noise level video.

Aren't you currently running an OC Sapphire DX 7970? I went with that card partly because you said it was very quiet and now you don't think noise levels are a big deal? Thanks to you, I read a bunch of reviews on the DX and confirmed how quiet it was, and eventually bought one.

 

[blastingcap]

In my last post I added a link to a sound noise level video.

Aren't you currently running an OC Sapphire DX 7970? I went with that card partly because you said it was very quiet and now you don't think noise levels are a big deal? Thanks to you, I read a bunch of reviews on the DX and confirmed how quiet it was, and eventually bought one.

Yeah but you and others doubted me, at least for a while, due to the overblown "coil whine" whining on newegg. I have bought and sold a few cards and returned one (RMA). Currently still running my Sapphire 7970 OC Edition (Dual-X with factory OC) on 5760x1080.

 

[RussianSensation]

What's the max overclock on that card? ASIC quality?

 

[blastingcap]

What's the max overclock on that card? ASIC quality?

No idea. I don't push it that hard, because Source games run over 60fps minimum fps at fairly high settings, even on 5760x1080. I usually run it at something like 1100MHz core, stock voltage 1.049V, with ASIC quality ~85%. Memory left at factory oc speeds, since that's not going to bottleneck anything unless I oc the core more.