firebird :
I have a 7970 stock card that I've added an Arctic Cooling Accelero Extreme cooler to and also applied the GHZ edition BIOS. My card sags a ton near the end of the card. I notice the ROG card has a back plate that may help with sag and heat dissipation.
The ASUS card will consume an additional PCIe slot though as it appears to be 3 slots deep vs. the 2 slots of the XFX card.
If you plan to overclock/overvolt I'd say the ASUS card would be better.
Would a PCI 3 card fit/work in a PCI 2 mobo? I don't know much about motherboards.
any power supply recommendations? I currently have the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...uces but it will never interrupt your gaming