Board Layout - Page 3 - LanOC Reviews

Sapphire HD 7970 - Board Layout

Details: Category: Video Cards; Published: Tuesday, 10 January 2012 01:14

Page 3 of 9

Board layout

The HD 7970 is similar to the HD 6970 in both the cooler design and size. All along the side you have a red strip with the Radeon logo formed into it.

AMD upgraded the GPU fan with thicker fins, the difference is slight but you can see by looking close.

Unlike the GTX 580 AMD stuck with an 8 pin connection and a 6 pin for power over the dual 8 pin that is becoming common.

The PCI slot has a little higher flow ventalation than past models. For connections you only have a single DLI, one HDMI, and two Display Port connections. In the future you will be able to run up to four monitors per Display Port, but currently just one with a DP monitor or using the adapters provided.

I was a little disapointed to see no backplate this time. The HD 6970 had a backplate, making the card stronger to prevernt sagging later on.

Dual Crossfire connections mean up to four way crossfire

Posts in discussion: Sapphire HD 7970

Arxon replied the topic: #22116 10 Jan 2012 14:44

Dear god that thing is a BEAST!

Dreyvas replied the topic: #22118 10 Jan 2012 18:16

Was hoping to see some BF3 benchmarks, but looking awesome otherwise.

L0rdG1gabyt3 replied the topic: #22119 10 Jan 2012 18:24

That is an amazing piece of hardware. Compared to the 580s which run $499, the amount of performance gain you get going to this card for just another $50 is really a great deal!

I hope to hear something from nVidia pretty soon on their Kepler cards.....

THUMPer replied the topic: #22120 10 Jan 2012 18:56

hardocp.com/article/2012/01/09/amd_radeo...performance_review/5

They also OC great. Here are some BF3 benchies

lonewolf170 replied the topic: #22647 08 Feb 2012 08:46

ugh, seeing these all make me realize how behind I am with my crossfire 5750's...

Wingless92 replied the topic: #22648 08 Feb 2012 08:48

Yea, those are getting long in the tooth. It all depends on what resolution that you play at. 1920x1200 and lower you don't need a "Monster" card to run games at. A 6870 would be just fine. Then again, it depends on what game that you're playing and how much eye candy you want on.

lonewolf170 replied the topic: #22649 08 Feb 2012 08:52

Wingless92 wrote: Yea, those are getting long in the tooth. It all depends on what resolution that you play at. 1920x1200 and lower you don't need a "Monster" card to run games at. A 6870 would be just fine. Then again, it depends on what game that you're playing and how much eye candy you want on.

Yea I haven't really played anything new recently. LoL, SC2, BF3 run fine so far. My last comp I ran into the ground. 4 years on a single Nvidia 9600...

garfi3ld replied the topic: #22650 08 Feb 2012 08:56

what resolution? BF3 on high settings can be demanding

lonewolf170 replied the topic: #22652 08 Feb 2012 09:12

1920 X 1080 on auto settings. Mostly on high though.

EDIT: I hardly play though. Got the game for $10 and haven't played since alpha... I'm lvl one still...