Reviews - Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 OC (GV-R797OC-3GD)

[HEXUS]

A pre-overclocked and custom-cooled take on the world's fastest GPU.

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[Brewster0101]

What's the point of the back io plate having gaps for air to be pushed out when the fins on the heatsink push the air out the sides of the card into the case. Might as well used the space for more display ports or something.

[Phage]

Seems to be fairly common, only the reference coolers exhaust out the back any more it seems. The XFX double disappation card is the same.

[Noxvayl]

That is the reference design from AMD, obviously this is the exact same design with a different cooler attached so you can't expect anything different. Custom designs might change things, maybe Sapphire will have something that you prefer.

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I was wondering how the benchmark for Total War: Shogun 2 is done, is the "Benchmark DX11 Graphics High 1080p" option used? When I use that setting my system manages 48FPS, which is 16FPS more than a similar card in your tests... Comparing my results with your 2Gb HD6950

System Specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 3825Mhz
4Gb Crucial Balistix @ 1080Mhz 5-5-5-18
Gigabyte EP45-UD3 @ 1800Mhz FSB
1Gb Gigabyte HD6950 OC Standard
120 OCZ Vertex 2E Hard Drive

I understand I have an overclock running but the Intel i5 2500K should still be faster than my system and my overclocked HD6950 should't be 30%+ better than a standard 2Gb HD6950... I suspect the standard High 1080p benchmark option isn't used and you have higher AA and AF set for your game setting, but I just wanted to ask to be sure.

[scaryjim]

What's the point of the back io plate having gaps for air to be pushed out when the fins on the heatsink push the air out the sides of the card into the case.

Some air will flow over the heatsink, and after it's been pushed through the fins some will spread under the heatsink in all directions, so there will be a little flow backwards and out of the case via the vent. More importantly, if you've got a front fan at the bottom of a standard tower case, the vent allows air to escape from the bottom half of the case (because a 10.5" graphics card essentially divides most cases into a top heat chamber and a bottom heat chamber!), which will assist with venting the warm air that channels down onto the motherboard and effectively gets trapped underneath the card.

So in terms of venting hot air directly from the graphics card you're absolutely right, that vent doesn't do an awful lot. But in most instances it will improve general case airflow, so there is a point to it.

[Parm]

I was wondering how the benchmark for Total War: Shogun 2 is done, is the "Benchmark DX11 Graphics High 1080p" option used?

ExHail, we don't use the predefined benchmark modes. Our custom in-game settings are high quality textures with 4x MSAA and 16x AF.

[danroyle]

sexy looking card but not keen on the prices. i thought these cards were comin at £420-450 most retailers selling £50 over that so this card will most likely come in over £500

[Terbinator]

The bad omen on these cards ATM is that for anyone looking at BF3 specifically, they're not that good relative to the competition, considering the price.

[shaithis]

Yup, staying with my GTX580 until something happens with regard to Frostbite engine games.....seems BF2 has the same performance issues as BF3, which makes it seem like an engine issue.

[Terbinator]

Yup, staying with my GTX580 until something happens with regard to Frostbite engine games.....seems BF2 has the same performance issues as BF3, which makes it seem like an engine issue.

AS in BC2, or the actual BF2?

Given how relatively 'new' the FB(2) engine is i'd be surprised if anything like that would carry over - more so given the current 'Compute/CUDA/GCN' approach wasn't around in the days of the Refractor engine?

Maybe it is a bi-product of their programming philosophy at DICE?

Interesting that the Crysis 2 results are similar to BF3's as well. I know theres a lot of hot air in relation to Crysis 2/Nvidia, I just find it odd that the same margins are found in a different game under a different engine - the only link being EA...

[shaithis]

I did mean BC2......do not think I've seen any benchies for base BF2 (although not surprising I guess)

[Terbinator]

I did mean BC2......do not think I've seen any benchies for base BF2 (although not surprising I guess)

Derp! Your post was sort of self-explanatory with mention of the Frostbite engine.

[Andi-C]

sexy looking card but not keen on the prices. i thought these cards were comin at £420-450 most retailers selling £50 over that so this card will most likely come in over £500

I was waiting for these cards & looking to buy one but the price is 2/3 of my mortage !!! I've bought a GTX580 to replace my HD6950 as BF3 & AMD seem to lose a lot of eye candy when using the high & ultra setting.

Looks a nice card from a good supply'er but cost is TOO much...

[Noxvayl]

ExHail, we don't use the predefined benchmark modes. Our custom in-game settings are high quality textures with 4x MSAA and 16x AF.

Thanks.

I'm guessing you mean "High" in the sense that the setting has options: Low, Medium, High*, Ultra High and your choice was High* rather than the highest possible setting available for each option.

I'll try those settings and see, I don't think Shogun 2 will allow those settings with my 1Gb card, always complains when I try maximum settings

[Phage]

Broke my budget and bought one of these. Stats were recorded in Fraps on various maps in 64 slot BF3 servers no further OC applied.

1920*1200 on Ultra, but no MSAA, High on Post MSAA
It looks the same, but it plays a lot better than the CF setup which used to have FPS drops. Subjectively a much 'smoother' experience. Sounds rubbish I know, but it does.

GPUz tells me that temp never went higher than 56C @ a core clock of 1000MHz and that I usually had 1.3Gb of VRAM used. I think I have some OC headroom !

Really quiet too.

Min Max Avg
38 103 64.694
35 108 60.939
37 145 63.428
46 201 103.95