Radeon 7970 help

kraftydotcom · Apr 14, 2013

Hey everyone new to the forums need some help selecting a pair of 7970's that will work in crossfire air cooled to start out (current mobo asus m5a97) then in the future to install full water blocks on them. Want the cards to be voltage unlocked. If possible please post links to cards and compatible full water blocks for them Im in the US if that makes a difference having trouble deciphering the code of what coolers are compatible with what cards and so on. Thanks for the help

I have looked on the EK website but all the item numbers listed seem to be different from ones listed at various us websites like newegg, amazon, ncix that's where its getting confusing I would like to order at least one of the cards this weekend just want to make sure i order something that is voltage unlocked and a available full water block for it i have allot more research to do before building the water loops but from what i have read in some of the guides it sounds like i will be doing 2 loops one for my gpu's and one for the cpu and motherboard (something like the asus maximus V formula that has the water pipe built into board)

clutchc · Apr 15, 2013

I would like to suggest you avoid trying to Crossfire 2 cards with that MB. The 2nd PCIe X16 slot is only X4 electrically. That will not allow your card to perform its best. If fact, it may even drag down the performance of the 1st card.

manofchalk · Apr 15, 2013

Agree with Clutch, I would say there's even a good chance the arrays performance will be dragged to lower than that of a single card. You need at least a PCI-2 8x worth of bandwidth of bandwidth in a slot if you don't want to bottleneck a graphics card.

MSI cards advertise fairly heavily that their voltage unlocked, so would look toward them. Just make sure it uses a reference design PCB and you'l be fine in regards to block compatibility.
A cooler along the lines of this card is a good sign of a reference PCB.

But you will want to make sure. In depth reviews of cards often tell you if the PCB is reference or not, as well as CoolingConfigurator. Or look up the cards PCB in Google images and visually compare to a reference design.
If your truly stuck, email the block and card manufacturer and just outright ask if their compatible.

kraftydotcom · Apr 15, 2013

I have read i few things concerning the 109-C38637-00 number printed on the pcb just above the pcie interface, some people are saying that if that number is on the card then it is a reference design card can anyone confirm this i found this card on newegg and am a fan of sapphire products anyways.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008

As for the mobo issue thanks for the info i wasnt aware of but i had plans to slowly change over to a 3770k system with the asus maximus v formula mobo anyways so i guess ill just have to speed up the process

thanks

clutchc · Apr 15, 2013

That's a great card. But it's not a reference design. Reference design is completely housed with air intake at the fan and exhaust at the rear only. The benefit being constant airflow across the heat sync cooling fins with no loss back into the case. But there's no reason you HAVE to get a reference design if your case has good cooling/airflow. If fact, some dual fan cards have better cooling IMO.

kraftydotcom · Apr 15, 2013

The reason i was looking for reference design is ive been told those are the cards that are voltage unlocked for overclocking and i want the ability to add a full water block to it when i do my water cooling system. Have not been able to find any cards that look like the one posted earlier by manofchalk without spending an extra +150.00

manofchalk · Apr 15, 2013

@Clutch
Think your missing the point that these are going to be water cooled. You need a reference design PCB if you have any hope of finding a compatible full cover water-block.

A reference design PCB can have a non-reference cooler on them, just a reference cooler is a good sign of the PCB.
According to CoolingConfigurator, that Sapphire card has a reference design PCB. You should be good to go with it.
http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/step1_complist?gpu_gpus=657

And yea, thats really strange. All the reference cooled cards are either ridiculously expensive or out of stock. You think they would have plenty of them.

kraftydotcom · Apr 16, 2013

So here is where things get really confusing for me and thanks by the way for all the info on my 7970 problems the link that i posted has the correct pcb number and item description but if you look at the model number on newegg it is listed as 100351SR. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008

The item number on the ek website states the model number as being 11197-03 or 06 http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/step1_complist?gpu_gpus=657
this is where my frustration is growing and im beginning to wonder if its all worth it. i have done a Google shopping search for 11197-03 and again only thing that comes up is cards for +$600 cards they look the same but model number is different

thanks again for any and all help

manofchalk · Apr 16, 2013

Ahh, that should have been fairly obvious to me in hindsight. The PCB's are even different colours.

Your right, it is actually pretty frustrating finding reference design cards. For me down here in Australia this was quite simple, wouldn't have thought it would be an issue in the US.
The images provided of the PCB in the cooling configurator look very similar to the reference design, its possible it isn't reference by some tiny little thing that wont impact on the water-block.
At this point I would email Sapphire and the water block manufacturer and just ask if their compatible.

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