XFX’s Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition Double Dissipation: The First Semi-Custom 7970
by Ryan Smith on January 9, 2012 6:00 AM ESTGame Performance: Crysis, Metro, DiRT, Shogun, & Batman
As the 7970 BEDD is a factory overclocked card it has a leg up in performance on the reference 7970, with the specific advantage depending on the game and whether it benefits more from the 8% core overclock or the 4% RAM overclock. Since this is architecturally identical to the reference 7970 we won’t make any drawn out conclusions, but it’s easy enough to see the benefits of higher clockspeeds on a 7970 card.
The BEDD leads the reference 7970 by about 4% in Crysis, more closely trending the memory clockspeed difference than the core clockspeed difference.
With Metro the story is similar; at 2560 we’re seeing a 4% gain. At 1920 however that gain is closer to 8%, which may mean Metro is teetering on being memory bandwidth limited at the highest resolutions.
DiRT 3’s performance gains almost strictly mirror the increase in the core clock, if not lead it by a bit. For this reason DiRT 3 is clearly the most GPU limited title in our lineup, and the title to benefit the most from XFX’s factory overclock.
Shogun is much like Metro: around 4% at 2560, and around 8% at 1920, indicating that it too may be reaching the limits of the 7970’s memory bandwidth.
Batman meanwhile is far more consistent. The gains from XFX’s overclock are just under 4%, almost exactly matching the memory bandwidth difference.
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piroroadkill - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
I'm not one of those people. I'm not buying a 7970.But just because you don't think it offers a large enough increase is an absolutely meaningless statement.
Fact is, people bought stuff like 8800 Ultra, 7800GTX SLI, Vapochill, and so on.
Cost is not a factor.
Morg. - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
you're a head case.VRAM is a non-issue for 2011 games in low resolution.
SlyNine - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
But people do care about heat. Thats the biggest reason to keep power usage down when its not in use.If your like me and your gaming PC is also your server you don't want much more then 100watts idle.
Which is why I love my 2600k @4.4ghz w/ 5870. At idle its only pulling around 120 watts.
Sabresiberian - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
The cheapest GTX 580 on newegg is $480 AFTER rebate (479.99). Even TigerDirect doesn't quite match that price. I did a search and came up with one seller that is pricing the GTX 580 near $400, some company named Starworth Computers. Maybe it's legit, but I'm wondering why they have it listed $100 or more below everyone else.The only thing accurate about your post is your self-appointed name.
WileCoyote - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
I accept your challenge:http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....
3GB 580, picked one up last week. $429.99 - $300MIR = $399.99
Boo-yeah!
If the 580 hadn't fallen in price I would have purchased the 7970.
Duraz0rz - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
The card you linked is a 1.5GB card.iamezza - Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - link
lol, failMorg. - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
It would take a fanboy to think that card is less than 6% faster than a gtx580 ;)Just bring that 7970 to GTX580 TDP ... and you'll start understanding ;)
The only advantage the GTX580 ever had over any card was that it had the bigger TDP . nothing else.
ET - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
It would take a fanboy to buy a card that's less than 6% faster a Radeon 6970 and costs $200 more. Namely the GTX 580.deaner - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link
It would take a fanboy to quote such % to $ value, against a GTX 580. Maybe, just maybe there are people who are AMD fans!!?? That is an intersting thought.... Curious to your stats as well.