How 'bout 6GB? Or one clocked some 50% higher? :




Yes please!

[EDIT] LegitReview news item

Thanks, for that one, JAMF.

Now, I'll consider waiting for the Sapphire products because they would give me more than the few percent boost I was expecting (I have time as my CrossFire setup runs everything well). Heck, the boost could easily approach 20 percent (maybe more??).

BTW, why would I buy for a few percent? As I've posted before, I'm a fan and I give the HD5870s to family members -- so we all benefit from my excesses

Of course, the Sapphire price may be "eyewatering" -- just as the performance will be "mouthwatering". So, I've not made up my mind, yet

Good rumors on the overclock potential, hoping that's true.

It would be cool if the 7950s could be flashed to 7970s like the recent situation with the reference 6950 2GB cards which could be flashed and unlocked to a quasi 6970...

I am actually going to keep an eye out to see if some stash of ref 6950/2GB reference cards ever shows up on sale for the $150 price point that the 5870 cards seem to have shown up recently, a pair of those 6950s flashed to 6970s and crossfired would make a good upgrade while I wait for the 7970/680 prices to come down into reasonable range.

Looks like a "reference" HD7970 will go to 1.26GHz and P10259 in 3DMark 11 (3DMark Graphics Score 9785). This beats my two CrossFired HD5870s quite nicely. Outstanding Physics score too (beats GTX580 which has architecture originally designed for calculations and adapted to graphics). So, now the "stock" single HD7970 is looking good to "somewhat justifiably" replace a CrossFire setup (at least an AMD fan needs less of an excuse ).

The OC is not dirt simple. They say it needs special software, firmware, and voltage increase. I assume the above Sapphire product will incorporate the same (transparently to the customer).

HD7970 Hits 1.26GHz

I see a "water block" has been developed for the HD7970. Since I use water cooling for the CPU, I might consider it to get the highest OC on the GPU. I am guessing the high price will NOT be "cost effective" for the FPS increase. But, it could be a fun experiment.

HD7970 Water Block

It's not clear whether VR-Zone reached the max core speed allowed with the unreleased BIOS. On the one hand 1267 MHz seems like an odd number for the BIOS limit to end on, suggesting that they didn't; on the other hand, they only bumped the voltage by 0.10 to 1.25v [EDIT: on reflection, 0.10 bump is not insignificant...]. If 1267 was not the limit, and the card wasn't overheating it begs the question as to why VR-Zone didn't push the voltage a little more (perhaps the 3rd party software didn't have higher voltage options) [EDIT: it's very possible the card couldn't take more thant the 0.10 bump.

With the fan going 100% they got temps of 66 celsius which indicates that temps were not the limiting factor (maybe the noise level was the limiting factor ).

Given the upside potential for this card I suspect we are going to see a broader than usual range of factory OC cards and enthusiast mods for the 7970 in the coming months... especially since it looks like nVidia's Kepler might be delayed.

For myself, I still don't see the benefit to upgrading my 6970 given that I'm able to play everything pretty much maxed out... then again, I don't play Metro 2033 or other such games.

I'd place a small wager that of the list of Sapphire cards I linked to, the "Atomic WC" comes equipped with a water block.

A Sapphire HD7970 showed up on the AMAZON site in Germany -- it was there when I looked

Supposedly, HD7970 should not be on the market, yet. But, rumor is, that they may hit the market at many sites tomorrow (January 7) -- ahead of the "official" January 9 publicity date. HD7950 release is now moved to the first week in February.

Its not there now....