Sapphire Dual-X HD7970 OC (1Ghz) 3GB Videocard - $379.99 after $20 MIR - Amazon.com

[RussianSensation]

Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC 3GB DDR5 HDMI/DVI-I/Dual Mini DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-01-40G

$399.99
- $20 MIR (Rebate Expires Sept 30, 2012)
= $379.99

2 year warranty.

1Ghz HD7970 ~ GTX680 level of performance.
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660/5/

You get a free Active-DP-to-Single Link DVI adapter which allows you to drive 3x 1080P monitors for gaming out of the box (Eyefinity).

Make sure you have a case with good airflow.

My personal overclocking and temperatures results with my card @ 99% GPU load. Remember the voltage in MSI Afterburner / Sapphire Trixx is your "Target Voltage" but your Actual Voltage is via GPU-Z / HWInfo64 VDDC.

Good ASIC HD7900 series of cards undervolt which means you can overclock to 1100-1150mhz on stock voltage of 1.175V.

 

[khurios2000]

My personal overclocking and temperatures results with my card @ 99% GPU load. Remember the voltage in MSI Afterburner / Sapphire Trixx is your "Target Voltage" but your Actual Voltage is via GPU-Z / HWInfo64 VDDC.

Good ASIC HD7900 series of cards undervolt which means you can overclock to 1100-1150mhz on stock voltage of 1.175V.

I can see that your actual 7970 voltage @ OC is lower than the MSI afterburner?
1.074v?

 

[sze5003]

That looks like a very nice deal. I wish they had the Ghz version too. I don't really want to take a chance with coil whine.

 

[RussianSensation]

I can see that your actual 7970 voltage @ OC is lower than the MSI afterburner?
1.074v?

Yes, exactly. My overclock to 1150mhz is at stock voltage of 1.175V (actual), but the card undervolts. This is quite common for HD7950/7970 chips (without the Boost BIOS).

The MSI Afterburner / Sapphire Trixx is your target voltage and if the card undervolts, your average voltage in GPU-Z ends up lower. This is the case for my card (it peaks at 1.174V in GPU-Z), which is what I have in my sig but average voltage is even lower than that. This specific model tends to ship with 2 common voltages: 1.162V and 1.174V (per Sapphire Trixx). This model tends to undervolt from the factory.

 

[Redmenace]

RS,
Sorry to be so dense, but are you saying that these Sapphire cards (I jumped on the Newegg 7950 Dual X at 280 AR) automatically vary the voltage based on load?

 

[Gunslinger08]

I'm probably going to buy a new card in the next few weeks. Not sure yet on this vs. the EVGA 670 FTW. I might go with the FTW for the purported lower power consumption/temps/noise of the 670/680 series. I'm fine with the blower style fan I have now (Toxic 6950), so I don't think I'll have any issues with the 670. More concerned with my case cooling and an open style cooler, even after upgrading to 2 Cougar intakes and 2 Cougar exhausts.

 

[RussianSensation]

RS,
Sorry to be so dense, but are you saying that these Sapphire cards (I jumped on the Newegg 7950 Dual X at 280 AR) automatically vary the voltage based on load?

All videocards vary voltage based on load from a statistical point of view (i..e, your average GPU load will fluctuate a little bit). Kepler GPUs and HD7950/7970 cards with GPU Boost do so dynamically as well depending on the GPU clocks. Non-GPU boosted cards still use the traditional voltage setting.

What I am saying is your MSI Afterburner or Sapphire Trixx "default stock" value may be 1.174-1.175V in the software but that is just the target voltage in software. The actual voltage your chip is using needs to be read either using a volt/multi-meter off the card itself or the less accurate but still useful software:

1) GPU-Z VDDC sensor;
2) HWInfo64 - under CHiL 8228 go look at "GPU VRM Voltage OUT (VOUT/VID) reading.

This is what your GPU is actually using. Some GPUs will have no undervolting from the factory and these ones require much higher GPU voltage to reach the same overclocks.

For example, a random HD7970 Gigabyte Windforce 3x needed 1.238V to reach 1165mhz:

If you set 1.200V in MSI afterburner, this is not necessarily what your GPU is using (or it may be). Use the 2 software programs above to confirm. If you get a card that reports lower voltages, that is actually a good thing. I cannot guarantee what chip you get since it's a lottery but certain GPUs tend to have better binned chips than others. The Sapphire DX 7970 card has a good track record for this using anecdotal reviews and user feedback. What this means in practice is that the GPU might not necessarily overclock higher than another one but if you can reach a similar overclock speed at lower voltages, you have a cooler running and less power consuming GPU.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm probably going to buy a new card in the next few weeks. Not sure yet on this vs. the EVGA 670 FTW. I might go with the FTW for the purported lower power consumption/temps/noise of the 670/680 series. I'm fine with the blower style fan I have now (Toxic 6950), so I don't think I'll have any issues with the 670. More concerned with my case cooling and an open style cooler, even after upgrading to 2 Cougar intakes and 2 Cougar exhausts.

Well the noise characteristics of the Sapphire Dual-X have nothing to do with noise or temperatures of the reference HD7950/7970 cards. The Dual-X cooler itself will be far quieter than the blower style GTX670/680 coolers, and run cooler. There is no question about that.

The power consumption is again not understood. The tested HD7970 GE cards in reviews are reference cards which use 1.25V. This is not the voltage that comes on the Sapphire Dual-X 7970 OC card. In fact the maximum voltage you will get is 1.175V @ 1000mhz from the factory. Therefore, comparing power consumption of this card vs. the reference HD7970 GE card is irrelevant.

My card uses about 225W of power at 1150mhz at 1.174V. An overclocked 680 will use about 200W. If you push the card to 1.25-1.3V, your power consumption grows exponentially. This is what really kills the power consumption level. If you overclock 7950/7970 series at 1.175V or below, you are not going to increase power consumption much.

If you don't care to overclock and just want the best performance/watt, GTX670 is a good option but I wouldn't spend any $ at all on a 680. That's just wasting it imo. A 1 Ghz HD7970 = GTX680, so why would you spend $100 more for a 680?

Just personal opinion. IF you have decent case airflow, something like a GTX670 Direct CUII or Sapphire Dual-X cards will work great.

There is a good thread here on Blower vs. Open-Air GPU coolers with the information you may find useful.

Generally speaking if you drop a GPU with an open-air heatsink design and it is quiet and you have good airflow, you will get lower GPU temperatures and lower noise levels at the same time:

If you want good customer service, RMA support, I can see a case for the EVGA 670 card over say an Asus DirectCUII or Gigabyte Windforce 3x, etc.