Fastest/Top 7970 Card

[jwl24]

As the title states, I'm looking for the fastest, top of the line 7970 card.
There's so many different ones out there, I've read all the reviews, and what not but still haven't been able to determine which card actually takes the lead..

I'm hoping that posting here, I can get some help in determining the outcome. From what I've read and everything, it seems possibly... that these few are the top cards for 7970 edition cards?

Of course I'm assuming the Ghz edition cards are always faster than the non, but this is including overclocking, etc.

From what I put together, a couple of the cards that I figure in the line up are:

MSI Lightning 7970
Asus Matrix Platinum 7970
Sapphire Vapor X 7970
....?

Any others that would beat these cards, and take the lead would be greatly appreciated. Hope some folks can give me feedback, can't decide on what card to actually get.
I know the Titan beats the single card, but I can't justify the price (if i was to xfire, around $800, rather than just $1k for a single card), and from what I know the 7970 ghz edition single cards, beat the current nivida single cards (exception of titan)

 

[Durvelle27]

In my opinion the ASUS Matrix Platinum is the best but that's my opinion as the Lightning is still an amazing card also

 

[Elfear]

AFAIK the model with the highest clocks is the Sapphire Toxic (1200Mhz). But at $700 I don't believe the value is there. Amongst the top-of-the-line cards the Asus Matrix Platinum is hard to beat. Amazingly robust PCB and still clocked at 1100Mhz from the factory. [H] got there sample up to 1310Mhz on air. I believe it's MSRP was $500 but I can't find any in stock so maybe it was discontinued.

 

[chimaxi83]

I have 3 Lightnings, so I'm biased when I say this....... Lightnings. 😀

The Matrix Platinum looks great too, never got a chance to play with one though.