Sapphire 7970 Dual-X: That cooler!

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Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
TheAdvocate said:
Why is this comment being ignored?
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Because it wasn't posted by a mod. As a regular user he has no authority to decide if a thread should exist or not.

For the most part, a threads existence is directly related to how much interest people have in it, posting replies and bumping it to the top. Obviously if this thread still exists quite a few posters are interested in discussing the card. That is why the thread exists.

Also, it apparently isn't perfectly normal, as it seems to perform better than most (or all?) alternatives, for 7970 based cards.
 
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filouk

Junior Member
Mar 11, 2012
12
0
61
Chiropteran said:
Because it wasn't posted by a mod. As a regular user he has no authority to decide if a thread should exist or not.

For the most part, a threads existence is directly related to how much interest people have in it, posting replies and bumping it to the top. Obviously if this thread still exists quite a few posters are interested in discussing the card. That is why the thread exists.

Also, it apparently isn't perfectly normal, as it seems to perform better than most (or all?) alternatives, for 7970 based cards.
Click to expand...


Couldn't say better.
 
TheAdvocate

TheAdvocate

Platinum Member
Mar 7, 2005
2,561
7
81
Chiropteran said:
Because it wasn't posted by a mod. As a regular user he has no authority to decide if a thread should exist or not.

For the most part, a threads existence is directly related to how much interest people have in it, posting replies and bumping it to the top. Obviously if this thread still exists quite a few posters are interested in discussing the card. That is why the thread exists.

Also, it apparently isn't perfectly normal, as it seems to perform better than most (or all?) alternatives, for 7970 based cards.
Click to expand...

Good lord did this get lost in translation.

Neither he nor I were trying to decree that someone couldn't make a thread about this topic. It's not a power play. It's just a pretty pointless thread. The question was asked - what makes this OMG COOLER so special? Not one responder has yet to show why this one is better than the other dual fan coolers. I guess it has bigger fans than my DCII? It has 92MM while i think my DC2 has twin 80's (I forget, and it isn't a big deal anyway).

Here's an idea, since the OP and several others have acted like this Sapphire cooler is perfection - how about showing some numbers that demonstrate it? Just for those of us curious enough to have opened this thread. Otherwise, it looks like 3 pages of gushing over fairly generic non-reference cooler.

My DCII keeps my gpu about 20 degrees cooler than a reference cooler, but at the expense of dumping heat in my case. The MSI TFIII is supposedly even better with the same side effect.
 
superjim

superjim

Senior member
Jan 3, 2012
293
3
81
filouk said:
Can you tell me please whether it is written "Dual-X" on the box and on the fans themselves like on the 7970 ?

Because on the pictures on Sapphire web site I can see no "Dual-X" label on the box, and on the fans there is only a normal "Sapphire" label.

Also, where did you get that card, i thought it wouldn't be available before March 19th... ?
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My card is the 7950 model (not 7870) which was released at the end of January.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102963
Deactivated now but tigerdirect and superbiiz both have it in stock for $480 with free shipping.

The "Dual-X" is just a marketing term for this cooling solution. Whether it's on the box is irrelevant (to me at least). It consists of a black-metal PCB/memory/VRM heat spreader along with the 5 heat-pipes into a large heatsink with the two ~80mm fans with the quiet fins. XbitLabs does a tear-down of the entire card so you can see the components yourself.

The cooling system of the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC is almost a perfect copy of the cooler of the Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 DualFan but is now called Dual-X
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filouk

Junior Member
Mar 11, 2012
12
0
61
superjim said:
The "Dual-X" is just a marketing term for this cooling solution. Whether it's on the box is irrelevant (to me at least). It consists of a black-metal PCB/memory/VRM heat spreader along with the 5 heat-pipes into a large heatsink with the two ~80mm fans with the quiet fins. XbitLabs does a tear-down of the entire card so you can see the components yourself.
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Ok sorry, I thought you said 7850. Well, you're right, this is irrelevant, but it will be relevant for 7870, as it will be released soon, so it would make no sense not writing "Dual-X" on them.

What you describe, copper heat-pipes with two fans, is also what the 6970 latest cooler was, and however this 6970 dual-fan cooler, according to the review, didn't perform as well as the new coolers on the 7970 card, which are called "Dual-X".
 
Joseph F

Joseph F

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2010
3,522
2
0
After looking at those temps, I deem this to be the best 7970 ever released.
 
lehtv

lehtv

Elite Member
Dec 8, 2010
11,897
74
91
Never believe that if a review says the load temps are 56C, your particular card will have 56C load temps. It's probably a cherry picked sample that is sent to the review - your load temps might be 20C higher. It depends so much on the particular chip - it's a well known fact that operating voltage varies in different units of the same model (and that's not even the only contributing factor; different chips will have different temperatures with the same voltage and MHz). If a unit fits the requirement of being stable, then it can be sold, there is no guarantee of low load temperatures.

Case in point, Guru3D and some other review sites found load temperatures as low as ~60C for the Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti Super Overclock, the 1000Mhz version released first. My particular chip runs at about 80C with the default fan profile, and in certain conditions (low case airflow) it will be unstable at that factory OC. Hence I run it at 960Mhz and 0.1V less, stays a lot cooler even with a quieter fan profile.

I'm still convinced this DualX is a perfectly normal double slot, dual fan cooler. There's just not many ways you can improve on that design. The main things that determine how well a cooler works are (1) airflow i.e. the fans and their RPM, and (2) heatsink size and fin area. It's not rocket science. If you want to make a truly better cooler, add more fans (Gigabyte's triple fan cooler) or increase heatsink size (Asus' triple-slot DCII). Or both (Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme).
 
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railven

railven

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2010
6,604
561
126
realjetavenger said:
Is this really worth $110 over the 7950 with the same cooler?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...%2D982%2D04%23

Well, to be fair, I guess the same question can be asked (and has been) about the stock versions of each card.
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Wrong card, that's a 7950 vs a 7970, one already cost $100 more to begin with.

EDIT: And SoB! Of course it gets released the week AFTER I ordered mine haha. $20 more is nothing. Arggggg! Wonder if TD has a return policy? haha.
 
C

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
JBT said:
Is this one really worth $40 more than the PowerColor card that looks to almost have the same exact cooler? I suppose the Sapphire is factory OC'ed but for $40 more? I'm more than likely going to be able to slide the clocks as far right as possible with either one.
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You can't tell how noisy and hot a card runs based on a picture alone, you'd have to read a review- or buy one and review it yourself. The PowerColor might be just as good- or could even be better- but it's not something I want to gamble on.

I don't care about the factory OC (50mhz? a joke), but I like the cooler performance. Not all dual fan coolers are the same.
 
Zebo

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Imouto said:
What's the point? As far as I know thermals aren't an issue in 28nm for AMD cards.
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They sell waterblocks for these cards! The point is massive OCing when cooler or alternatively truly silent running if you have your radiator setup right e.g. 800-900 rpm fans and still high performance. Same holds true for decent aircoolers but to a lessor degree
 
J

JBT

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
12,094
1
81
Chiropteran said:
You can't tell how noisy and hot a card runs based on a picture alone, you'd have to read a review- or buy one and review it yourself. The PowerColor might be just as good- or could even be better- but it's not something I want to gamble on.

I don't care about the factory OC (50mhz? a joke), but I like the cooler performance. Not all dual fan coolers are the same.
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I hear you. I actually just received my delivery notice from UPS my Powercolor card has arrived at my house. PowerColor claims its 15% quieter and 10% cooler than the reference cards. I don't have any measurement tools for sound (except my ears) but I can and will post if its indeed quiet and runs cool.

I hadn't found any reviews on the card yet as I'm pretty sure its new. I'll see for my self tonight! http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Roundups/PowerColor_Sapphire_XFX_HD_7950/

Edit found reviews for the 7950's of both the Sapphire and PowerColor dual fans. I does NOT mention noise level though.
 
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Zebo

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
That's inaudible basically. Now y'all know why this thread is important, first time I've ever heard of top performance silently without watercooling.
 
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