Power, Temperature, And Noise
Now that we know it's possible to achieve very similar performance by taking AMD's Tahiti GPU and its GDDR5 memory as far as they'll go, it's equally important to evaluate power use, thermals, and acoustics.
The blue bar represents idle power usage, and the green bar shows load consumption at each card's stock frequencies. There’s a 23 W spread between the contenders under load, likely reflecting a number of factors, including cooling solutions and voltage settings.
The dark grey bar is indicative of power consumption under load of the overclocked configurations. The only real surprise is a relatively high result from Sapphire's board.
Despite an eclectic range of cooling solutions, measured temperatures are quite similar at idle and under load using factory-supplied frequencies. The exception is VisionTek's card, perhaps as a result of its reference heat sink and fan. The rest of the field’s overclocked thermal results mirror the power draw chart.
Noise is a critical consideration when comparing graphics cards with the same GPU, particularly when we consider that AMD's reference implementation was observed to be quite noisy under load back when the card launched.
A majority of today's contenders perform much more admirably, regardless of whether the card is resting idle or working hard under a load. Of course, VisionTek’s board struggles as a result of its reliance on that familiar cooler from AMD. Overclocked and under load, both the Gigabyte and VisionTek cards generate more noise than we'd like, even as the rest of the pack is significantly quieter.
MSI’s Twin Frozr IV performs exceptionally well in this situation, generating slightly more noise than idle under load, and just a tad more than that overclocked.
Related Stories :
- MSI GX60 Review: Radeon HD 7970M In A $1,200 Notebook!
- Digital Storm x17 Notebook Review: Radeon HD 7970M And Enduro, Again
- AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Review: Give Me Back That Crown!
- Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 Super Overclock: Now With Windforce 5X
- Five Radeon HD 7970 3 GB Cards, Overclocked And Benchmarked
- MSI Releases Two New Radeon HD 7970 Cards
- Sapphire Toxic HD 7970 GHz Edition Review: Gaming On 6 GB Of GDDR5
- AMD Radeon HD 7790 Review: Graphics Core Next At $150
- Xotic PC NP9150: Striking Back At Kepler With Radeon HD 7970M
- Deals August 16: Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card $360
I need a new pair of pants. Definitely graphics card eye candy. Specially the Sapphire one IMO. Do I hear giveaway THG?
I need to replace my 5870 HD I bought over 3 years ago. I can still play any game on HIGH at 1080p, but I want ULTRA on BF3 and Max Payne 3.
Lets hope the 680 GTX becomes available to see what price these AMD cards end up at. I like AMD and how they don't rebrand their cards like nVidia, but $20 cheaper than 680 GTX is not cheap enough to sway me that way.
why a reference card(visiontek 7970) with non reference competitors?
i am impressed with HIS IceQ X2 Turbo X but still MSi lightning is my favorite.they have beefier VRMs,great cooling and are overclocking beasts.
Nice write up! Really helps when trying to peg down a card. Will be revisiting alot!
The gigabyte card pcb was BLUE, not BLACK
visiontek for "Particularly at its modest $279 price."
$379 or $479??
visiontek for "Particularly at its modest $279 price." $379 or $479??
$479.99 (USD) is more or less the cheapest price point for any Radeon 7970.
Cool review. It'd be nice if SI units were included in the weights and lengths though. Guess I'll have to do a little math. It's very nice to know that the non-reference coolers are much quieter (excluding Gigabyte's) than the original design.
Let's see some typos:
In the 'Test System Setup And Benchmarks' page in the Operating System row it is written as Microsoft Windows 7 x6. I assume it's supposed to be x64.
In the first paragraph of the 'Sapphire HD 7970 OC' page the card is described as "HD 7970 PC".
Good review Don.
I agree with your first and second choices ... well thought out.
Fixed the typos; thanks weatherdude and nekromobo.
I'm surprised the Asus DirectCUII didn't make it on here. Still, the MSI Lightning seems to be the best of the bunch in terms of performance, wattage, cooling, and noise, but at $50 more than the other cards, it's not very appealing.
Nice review.
I hope you guys do another one like this later on the Radeon 7870 since imo, that is the best 7000 series card in terms of price to performance. It's just a shame that there are no new nvidia cards to push the price of the 7800 series lower. Please include the MSI 7870 hawk and the asus direct cu card as well if you do make the review
I have to admit the 7970 really has quite a big OC headroom. I mean compared to the GTX 680 it really can catch up. hahahaha
I'm wondering why HIS do not sells IceQ X2 Turbo in NA......
Is the shiping + tax will drove the price to high, or the market is too small and HIS brand not strong enough in NA?
The 12.4 Catalysts raise the overdrive OC limits and have been available for over a week now, why weren't they used?
The first Gigabyte card certainly doesn't look like it has a black PCB...are my eyes messed up?
A few thoughts:
-Pretty sure that the Gigabyte and Sapphire cards used in this roundup are reference, not custom, PCBs.
-The Lightning has been unavailable in the USA for almost a month, though its price was $520 a few days ago on newegg. I just imported one from the UK (for $580) to get a second one for crossfire, because it's completely MIA. It's not even like the 680, where it's unavailable at MSRP but available on sites like ebay if you're willing to get price gouged.
If it were in stock, I think the Lightning is the best card here, because it's the most durable and it remains quiet when overclocked. If you want to run an overclocked card for a few years and not worry about blowing up a VRM, it's the way to go and you pay a premium for the peace of mind. Aside from the noise, you are paying for intangibles with this card, but I think it's worth it.
My thoughts: If you are overclocking and don't need a dual link DVI connector, get the Lightning. If you are overclocking and DO need a DL-DVI connection, get the Sapphire. If you're not really gonna overclock the card, get a reference board and save $50 (or, better yet, wait till you can get a 680 for $500... it's the better card by far for non overclockers).
I like AMD and how they don't rebrand their cards like nVidia, but $20 cheaper than 680 GTX is not cheap enough to sway me that way.
is that the only thing you like about AMD? Sad.
Nice Article & Thanks!
From lead-in
It would have been nice to toss-in a some GTX 680 benchmarks for comparison sake. Just reuse some of Chris's benchmarks -> http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,3161.html or run your own.
Otherwise this is only a reference vs non-reverence HD 7970 article. You 'should' have been able to OC theses cards all the same and the difference should be within margin of error. No doubt effective cooling & Noise is a critical part, but I'm a little confused here -- I assume both Temps & Noise data is based on Factory (OC if applicable) settings which is fine BUT what about your OC Temps & Noise data?? To me this is critically important, what's the use in OC benchmarks if you need Jet rated earmuffs and temps that (exaggerating) to melt lead? Duh, I misread the data.
The HIS IceQ X2 Turbo (Turbo X) & MSI R7970 Lightning are the standouts with noise and temps with OC. Since I know how both noise & temps can change in a snap of a finger, both are fine. -- Thanks for that data!