AMD Radeon HD 7970 3gb Price Tumbling

[jlin101]

Newegg is having HIS IceQ X² H797QM3G2M Radeon HD 7970 3GB for $400 after $30 rebate. This is the lowest price for a non-reference 7970, and features HIS's highly-touted IceQ X2 cooler. This is not the GHz edition, but you can probably overclock it to that level. At this price, it competes favorably against GTX 670/680. The only downside is there's no free game.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161412

 

[spinejam]

Nice!

 

[jlin101]

the graphic card price war rages on--XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB for $395 after a $30 rebate at TD; or for $20 more get the Black edition.

XFX Radeon HD 7970 FX797ATDFC http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...42918&csid=_61
XFX FX-797A-TDBC Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...23334&csid=_61

Or if you prefer ASUS you can get ASUS HD7970-DC2-3GD5 plus DirtShowdown for $415 after $20 rebate at NE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121560

 

[1nf1d3l]

How is the XFX's cooler? I know literally no-one who has ever used an XFX product and I never see them in any reviews.

 

[jlin101]

I don't own the current generation, but had a previous gen 6870 with Double D cooler which was pretty cool/quiet. The new edition seems to be quite good as well, comparable to MSI's TwinFrozr. Here are some reviews of the Black Edition (oc'd but with the same cooler)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5314/...-double-dissipation-the-first-semicustom-7970
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/xfx_hd7970_black_edition/
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/45..._dissipation_3gb_video_card_review/index.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...-black-edition-double-dissipation-review.html

 

[Rvenger]

How is the XFX's cooler? I know literally no-one who has ever used an XFX product and I never see them in any reviews.

Double D on the 7970 isn't a very good cooler. Doesn't keep the temps below 80c and the VRMs run very hot.

 

[p_monks33]

I have had 2 DD 7970s the first one was quiet and ran at load under 70c vrms at 90c the second one I got sucked 89c load with 115c Vrms and coil whine that sounded like a strobe light. I think they are hit and miss. I however have had pleasant experiences with XFX CS and RMA's normally a week turnaround and easy to understand reps.

 

[lazarus000]

Fall prices fall

 

[Borkil]

um this was $395 without rebate like 2 weeks ago. i picked one up. card runs cool. but mine has coil whine and another guy on here had really bad coil whine and exchanged his.

 

[RussianSensation]

Right now I'd rather buy this Sapphire Dual-X 1Ghz HD7970 is $380+8 shipping and has a great cooler.

You get Dirt Showdown and at 1 Ghz (BIOS 2 flip) = GTX680 in performance for $90-100 less. Mine stays cool and reasonably quiet in a well-ventilated case despite my overclock. Runs at 70-72*C most of the time @ 1150mhz and VRM temperatures are still under 100*C at 99% GPU load.

This particular model uses 5+2 VRM design with 2 dedicated to the memory. There is also a metal dissipation plate for the memory. This is why this particular card tends to have good overclocking GDDR5.

You also get 1 Active Display-to-Single link DVI adapter in the box which allows you to have 3 Screen 1080P Eyefinity out of the box.

Keep in mind since neither the HIS 7970 nor the Sapphire Dual-X have after-market chokes, there is no guarantee that you will not have coil whine (Otherwise you pretty much have to buy the HD7970 MSI Lightning, Asus DCUII or Sapphire Vapor-X, HIS ICEQ X or PowerColor Vortex II PCS +).

 

[lavaheadache]

@ russian... My lightning 7970 has a faint coil whine to it.

 

[sze5003]

um this was $395 without rebate like 2 weeks ago. i picked one up. card runs cool. but mine has coil whine and another guy on here had really bad coil whine and exchanged his.

Yeh I got my refund for it today. Checked newegg and looks like they are sold out of the 7970 Ghz Edition of the Vapor X. Hope it comes back soon since I will be waiting for that refund to process on my card before I place another order.