Overall

We knew what to expect from the HD 7970 when coming into this review but I had no idea what kind of performance jump we would see with the XFX DD Black Edition Overclocked. With its core speed bumped up to an impressive 1000MHz we saw big jumps in performance in all of our benchmarks putting this single card up with or above the performance of two GTX 580’s in SLI in some benchmarks! Add that amazing performance to the fact this is one of the sexiest cards we have ever seen and its no wonder why this card is already hard time find while most of the reference cards are still in stock. The only downside to the card is its idle to mid power noise levels when compared to the stock cooler, but when you put it under load you don’t hear a loud ramp up in speed like the reference cooler. All in all we highly recommend this card if you are on the market for an HD 7970, its going to run you around $50 more than the stock card but you get your money’s worth in the all-aluminum cooler alone. The extra performance is just a bonus.

fvtophonorseditorschoice

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #22232 19 Jan 2012 22:53
One SEXY card!
Wingless92's Avatar
Wingless92 replied the topic: #22233 19 Jan 2012 23:02
Seeing this card in person makes a world of difference. It is one sexy card.

Still pissed that AMD doesn't offer a backplate on their 7900 series of cards though. That is the side that most gamer's look at. Being in a normal case.

I would like to see some Crossfire numbers, I know that AMD has been lacking in their drivers for two cards for some time now. They have said that it's going to get better but when? People are buying 2 7970's are having scaling issues. I hope AMD gets it figured out and fast. Nvidia needs some good competition and the 7970 is that card.

For instance 1 7970, 1920x1080 Dirt 3 60fps, 2 cards 112fps. 1 card at 2650x1600, 37fps, 2 cards 40fps. Heard that over at PCper. Weird issue. Cards "can" scale really well in some instances! But in others they fall flat on their face.
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #22234 19 Jan 2012 23:07
I actually had crossfire benchmarks done before i left for CES but I'm going to retest with a more up to date driver. We didn't have scaling issues but once I was finished with the last benchmark the entire rig shutdown. After talking with AMD they think it was a driver issue.
Wingless92's Avatar
Wingless92 replied the topic: #22236 19 Jan 2012 23:09
Cool.

How about Quad Crossfire? lol

MAKE IT HAPPEN WES!!!!!

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