This is one of the first of the new AMD
HD 7970 video cards that we’ve tested and this particular one is from
XFX. This is a company that has become a major player in the video card
market, and they also produce power supplies and accessories for the PC
market. Today we will be taking a look at how well its proprietary
design and cooling solution will be able to improve upon the reference
design.
This card features a 75 MHz overclock
over the reference design. This may not seem like much but it will allow
for a few extra frames a second in some of the more demanding game
titles. This new card also uses the new PCIe 3.0 technology. This new
technology really doesn’t make a whole lot of difference yet because the
previous interface was nowhere near being fully utilized. At the most
you’ll get about a 1 to 2% difference in gaming performance.
XFX has thrown the kitchen sink at this
card in terms of their XFACTOR Features. The first of these is their GPU
Edging. What this basically does is it certifies that XFX have selected
these particular chips for their performance. This means that their
Black Edition cards have been specifically selected by XFX, and will
provide better performance and overclocking ability over non-Black
Edition cards. These GPU’s are in the top 1% in terms of wattage and
overclocking performance. Enthusiasts will particularly like this
because it will take the guess work out of selecting a high-performance
GPU.
Double Dissipation is the next XFACTOR
Feature that they’ve included with this card. What this means is that
these cards use a double fan design to cool all of the components on the
video card. Where most cards only provide direct cooling to the GPU,
this feature cools the entire card from the PCB to all of the hottest
components on the card. With this feature your graphics card will stay
cooler and should also run a bit quieter than the reference design. We
will be using our own testing and benchmarking to determine if this
actually does make a difference.
Ghost Thermal Technology is another of
these XFACTOR Features. This feature uses what they’re calling a
floating cover design to increase airflow. XFX have designed a cover
that flexes so that more air can be moved over the heat sinks. With this
design these cards should remain cooler and also produce less noise
than a traditional rigid cover. Another aspect of this design is it also
looks good. This is one of the nicest looking video cards that we’ve
seen here. In terms of cooling performance we’ll reserve the conclusion
until all of our testing has been completed. Thus far though XFX have
shown that they’re willing to try some new things in order to reduce
noise and increase thermal performance.
These
new XFACTOR cards also have XFX’s HydroCell technology. This is a
really cool technology that we’ve seen implemented in some other cards.
Essentially this is XFX’s own vapor chamber design that combines
heat-pipe technology with a heat sink to improve heat dissipation. It’s
very similar to water cooling in that it incorporates the use of
purified water to remove the heat from the component. Once the water
evaporates it collects under the heat sink where it then condenses and
starts the process all over again. In this way it’s able to efficiently
cool even a hot-running GPU. In a well-ventilated case this should
provide an ideal solution for keeping an overclocked GPU from
overheating. Again, we’ll keep our conclusions on this until we’ve
finished our testing and benchmarking.
This card also makes use of the Duratec
components. This is another XFACTOR Feature that is sure to make these
cards stand out. These are professional grade components that are meant
to increase longevity and performance. The first of these features is a
2 OZ copper PCB. This is a feature that many motherboard manufacturers
are now using and it’s good to finally see it being used in video cards.
Next is that it uses Ferrite Core Chokes. These will allow for higher
clock frequencies and lower power consumption. Also these cards use all
solid capacitors. These dramatically increase the life span over
electrolytic capacitors by over 40,000 hours. These are also designed
for much higher heat tolerances of up to 105 degrees Celsius. Another
great feature is that these use a IP-5X dust free fan. These fans are
designed to keep the dust from clogging the inner workings of the fan
and thus increase the life span of the fan. These also come with the XFX
bracket that enables better airflow. With these Duratec components
these cards should overclock higher and last longer than their
competitor’s cards.
These cards perform really well at stock
settings and with these overclocked XFX cards performance gets a nice
boost. We put this card through all of our standard benchmarks and even
added a few new ones to give our loyal readers a better understanding of
what they can expect from these cards. So let’s go over what you can
expect from a gaming performance standpoint.
These cards provided very smooth and
realistic gameplay with just about all of our gaming benchmarks. The
only exception to this was Mafia II. As you all know by now that game
heavily favors nVidia cards due to its use of PhysX. In everything else
it beat the GTX 580 without a problem. That’s no small feat. In games
that feature hardware tessellation the improvement was noticeable. I’ve
noticed that I can’t really see a difference if the frame rates go over
about 40 frames per second, but fortunately our gaming benchmarks can
detect the difference using Fraps.
Hardware tessellation has also been
enhanced on these new 7970 cards and the difference is noticeable.
Everything looks more detailed and textures look more realistic. These
cards are just amazing and will really appeal to the enthusiast market.
With a price upwards of 550 dollars it had better deliver amazing
performance. This listed price is about 50 dollars higher than the GTX
580 that reigned for quite a while as the single GPU performance king.
These cards definitely unseat it and take its crown. With driver updates
this difference in performance should increase in the future as well.
Now let’s talk about how well this card actually performed in our benchmarks and what you can expect from this card’s design. XFX have put a lot of effort and development into this card and it shows. This is one of the most striking and attractive cards that we’ve seen.
This card uses a new thermal design that
is supposed to reduce temperatures and remain relatively quiet. In our
testing this wasn’t quite the case. One thing to keep in mind though is
that this card was tested on an open-air test bench. If this card were
in a well-ventilated case with plenty of airflow it would probably
perform much better and quieter. We noticed that it was about 2 to 3
degrees warmer than our reference card and it also made a slight humming
noise when we stressed it. Under idle conditions the card was nearly
silent and remained fairly cool.
We attribute this humming noise to the
flexible shroud that covers the card. Most cards use a rigid shroud that
doesn’t vibrate like this one did in our testing. We also found that
when we increased the fans to maximum the card did drop by about 7 to 8
degrees Celsius and this put it well under our temperature results from
the reference card. One drawback to this is that the noise level did
increase significantly but still remained quieter than the reference
card. All things being equal this card was a mixed bag in terms of its
proprietary cooling solution. It did remain cooler when the fans were
maxed out but it also got considerably louder. This increased noise
though was still quieter than the reference card. If you install this in
an enclosed case with adequate airflow, you should get better
performance than we experienced.
From our benchmark scores you can see
that this card did perform incredibly well. It literally bit at the
heels of the GTX 590 in a number of our benchmark scores particularly in
the average frame rates. This is amazing considering that the 590 costs
considerably more. AMD and XFX have produced an incredible product with
this video card and I’m sure it’s going to be a huge hit with the
enthusiast market. One thing that I’ve got to make note of though is
that the 590 ran dead silent through all of our benchmarks and maxed out
at 84 degrees Celsius. NVidia’s highest end offering runs quieter but
also produces quite a bit more heat than this new card from XFX. We ran
the 590 on the exact same test bench and hardware as the new XFX card
and also used the latest beta drivers.
Conclusion
I’ve got to say that this has been an
amazing launch from AMD and they need it since their last launch of the
FX processors was such a letdown. NVidia had set the bar rather high
with their top performing GTX 580 and 590 graphics cards and for AMD to
turn around and release a card that performs so closely to the 590 is
amazing. Not only does it perform so closely but it does so at a much
lower price point.
Our 590 did easily beat this card in the
maximum frame rates but in terms of average frame rates there really
wasn’t a whole lot of difference. This is where these new cards from AMD
really show their strength. There is no question that if you want the
fastest single GPU on the market that you’ll have to purchase an HD
7970. Now if you want to get the very best 7970 I highly recommend that
you look at the XFX Black Edition Double Dissipation card. With adequate
airflow this card is going to be amazing in just about any game that
you throw at it. Without a doubt this card deserves our Editor’s Choice
Award here at Motherboard’s.Org.
source:www.motherboards.org
