XFX’s Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition Double Dissipation: The First Semi-Custom 7970
by Ryan Smith on January 9, 2012 6:00 AM ESTCompute Performance
Compute tasks, in spite of the name, are not always purely GPU bound. Depending on the task memory bandwidth can also play a significant part – which is why memory bandwidth was the single biggest increase on the 7970 over the 6970 – and our compute benchmark end up reflecting this.
Among our tests only the DX11 Compute Shader Fluid sample fully benefits from the increased clockspeed of XFX’s factory overclock, gaining 9% over the reference 7970. Our Civilization V and SmallLuxGPU benchmarks meanwhile only gain 4-5%, and our AES benchmark only gains 2%, the latter likely due to the fact that the setup time for the program’s dataset does not decrease, only the execution time does.
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radium69 - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
Maybe it's me, but this looks VERY classy!Not gimmicky and plasticky but very tight and sexy!
I'm going to keep an eye out for this card. hope they stick more with the allumium design.
RubyX - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
Couldn't you fix the idle noise issue by just changing the fan speed via software? Or is that not possible with this card for some reason?Ryan Smith - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
The lowest fan speed with AMD's fan profile is 20%, which is where it already settles to at idle. It's not possible to go below 20% right now, hence 43dB really is as quiet as the DD cooler can get.dj christian - Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - link
Well i can go to 0% in MSI Afterburner. But the fan never stops no matter how low you put itRyan Smith - Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - link
Afterburner is just a frontend to Overdrive in this case. It can't take the fan any lower than Overdrive will allow, and that's 20%.james.jwb - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
what about speedfan?cactusdog - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
I'm going to wait for a better quality non-reference cooler like the Asus DCUII, MSI Twin Frosr, Sapphire vapourX, Gigabyte Windforce.If you can hear the card at idle that is a disaster, especially when it costs $60 more
LB-ID - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
I completely agree. Sapphire's VaporX cards have spoiled me, I won't settle for less as far as acoustic management is concerned.Artifex28 - Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - link
Got lucky year back or so and got a VaporX 5870 instead of my original 5850. Can´t complain. Excellent card!In my case it´s an external HDD fan that makes the most noise and this pulsating hum...
piroroadkill - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
I agree that it is pathetic you can hear it at idle, especially given ATI's massive gains in the areas of idle power. Massive gains.I use a custom fan curve through MSI Afterburner on my Radeon 6950 Twin Frozr III, and it is simply inaudible at idle.