Today, I’ll be doing a review of one of AMD’s newest flagship graphics card, the Radeon HD 7970. AMD was extremely kind and sent us a new PowerColor PCS+ HD 7970 for my review. With AMD stepping up to compete against their competitor, NVidia and their new GeForce GTX 700 series, you can see how a lot of time, process, and thought went into this new HD 7970 model.
Throughout the article I’ll be looking over five major areas of this graphics card (GPU): unboxing the item along with the included contents, build quality/design, performance, the PowerColor’s add-ons, and my thoughts about the card. It should be noted that some of the things said within this review are true only to this exact graphics card model (AX7970 3GBD5-2DHPPV). Your results may vary.
Figure 1 – The GPU and its retail box.
Unboxing
This item retails for $399.99 (Newegg.com) so be prepared for a high budget. The box itself provides a wealth of information about the GPU with content found on the back and under the popup front cover, that also provides a sneak peak at the card. Just like any other individual PC item, unboxing is quick and easy.
The graphics card itself is wrapped in an anti-static bag surrounded by hard foam to protect from shipping damages. To protect against any dust or oils from your hands touching the connectors, both the CrossFire connector and PCIe connector have their own plastic protectors. Personally, I would have liked to see dust covers as well for the display ports and DVI ports on the back.
Included in an additional box is a direction sheet on how to use the Vortex II fans, a quick install guide, driver CD, CrossFire bridge connector, DVI to VGA adapter, two 6-pin to 8-pin PCIe power adapters, one mini display port to display port adapter, and finally a mini display port to DVI adapter. In other words you’re ready to go for any type of setup you may have or need.
Figure 2 – Included Accessories
Build Quality and Design
Starting this section off with the card’s build quality, I have to say for an item manufactured in China I am very pleased with how well constructed the card is. Installed on the back of the GPU is a strong metal back plate, something I was surprised to find. The plate has many great offers like protection from any accidental drops, providing a shield to block dust wanting to lie on the PCB, and most importantly, dissipating heat that is shed from the GPU itself. A rare feature that really should be added to other GPUs as well.
Let’s face it; when looking to buy a new GPU the card’s looks and design do matter, especially if you have a windowed case. Looking at the top of the GPU you see the card’s red and black plastic display shroud. The shroud holds two 95mm fans with adjustable rings that allow the fans to extend out giving a larger surface area to spread the air across, something no other card manufacture has ever done. A neat feature indeed. However, chances are you’ll set it how you wish and leave it be. The two fans are also angled away from one another to prevent turbulence.
Figure 3 – Front Facing Shroud.
Between the metal back plate and front shroud we find a black PCB along with even more cooling accessories. At the top you’ll see four massive heat pipes, all of which touch the pure copper base of the GPU. Is it safe to say that this card will get hot running at maximum performance? Under load the card can reach 77C (170F) so the more effective cooling the better! There is also one massive 61pcs aluminum heat sink which spans the entire PCB.
Side Note: For all of you water coolers out there, this GPU isn’t a card that you would want to water cool. My reasons for saying such are, for one, water cooling offers zero extra cooling over standard air, and two, this GPU was designed on how effective the cooling can be with the stock fans and shroud.
At the edge of the card we find two display ports: one full size HDMI port, and two DVI ports. Now don’t forget that if your monitor supports a different display input, included in the packaging are those many adapters, one of which should fit. The metal bracket will take up two card slots within your case. However, requiring two PCI case slots is turning into the standard for all GPUs.
To finish off the build quality/design section we’ll look at the card’s dimensions. This is a big card, larger than most so always be sure that your case can support the card before purchasing. Dimensions are as follows: 285x135x45mm.
Figure 4 – AMD specifications
Performance
As one of AMD’s top performing GPUs, this card is no slacker. Comparable to a NVidia GeForce GTX 760 or even a GTX 770 the HD 7970 clocks in with an extremely high core clock speed of 1100MHz, and expect to get more if you plan to overclock.
The memory installed is a whopping 3GB of GDDR5, something NVidia cards, such as the 760 or 770, have not upgraded to. Having 3GB of RAM on a graphics card is a large amount and can only be fully used if doing very heavy gaming or graphics rendering. The effective memory clock is lacking, only running at 1425MHz, but makes up for it with a 384-bit interface.
When looking at the top video card benchmarks provided by PassMark, you can see how the HD 7970 is ranked 7th in the high end video cards list, reaching an average G3D mark of 5087.
To all the gamers out there frame rates per second are really all that matters. At a 1920X1080 display here are the following FPSs for three different games:
• Battlefield 3: Minimum FPS (72) – Average FPS (97)
• Elder Scrolls: Skyrim: Minimum FPS (42) – Average (67)
• World of Warcraft: Minimum FPS (83) – Average (104)
Of course all of these games were at the highest possible graphics settings. Prepare to play any game with ease and outstanding performance for many years to come.
Don’t forget that this card is designed for you to overclock it to reach even better performance and the numbers above are at stock settings. Remember that overclocking may VOID your warranty as well as shorten the life of your components and be sure that your settings allow the card to be completely stable and does not set off any BSODs. Overclocking should only be done if you have had previous experience.
The Microsoft DirectX supported on the graphic card is version 11.1 and runs in a PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot but is backwards compatible with PCI Express 2.0. Consult your motherboard’s manual to check which slot to use, depending if you plan to run in CrossFire or Single use.
With so much performance built into this card and with the overclocking availability, the GPU will draw a lot of power. A recommended power supply would be either a XFX or SeaSonic branded 620W or higher power supply. Keep in mind this is not a card you want to starve of power. If overclocking is applied I would recommend a 650W PSU. Also take note that the GPU needs two 8-pin PCI express power connectors but can convert 6-pins to 8-pins via the included adapters.
Figure 5 – Fan design
PowerColor Add-ons
Just like any NVidia or other reference graphics card PowerColor adds in their own unique features to draw in potential buyers. PowerColor has added this GPU into their PCS+ and Vortex II line.
Beginning with the PCS+ Vortex II technology it allows users to gain an extra 18% overclocking ability, lowers the temperatures by 15%, maintains 20% better stability and lowers noise levels by 12%. Professional Cooling System (PCS) is the addition of the custom fans that are shown above in figure #5.
Also added into the GPU is a dual BIOS. This is one of my favorite features. Since this card is so overclockable there’s a chance you could miscalculate the correct settings, rendering the card into an expensive paper weight. With a dual BIOS you can feel safe knowing there is a reset to factory defaults option.
Amazingly the GPU can support up to four different monitors at once, each having a maximum HDMI resolution of 4096×2160. Now that is some serious gaming and resolution.
My final thoughts
This GPU is actually my first ever AMD Radeon graphics card. As always, being an NVidia user, it was nice to see the other side of things. With my time using the card I am extremely happy with the build quality, features, and performance. Overall the entire card is well built and designed. I do however believe that the price point is a little high, especially considering that a new Asus GeForce GTX 760 is only $259.99 (Newegg.com) and is compatible in their specifications.
As I said above this card is big! You need to ensure that you have enough room within your case to install the GPU. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your current system or building an entirely new one and it fits your budget, this could be the card for you!
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