Other than stock clock being at 1000 mhz, is there any other difference? If I OC a standard 7970 to 1000, will it get the same performance? (obviously mem clocks oc'd as well) If so, is there a reason to pay the premium for the Ghz Edition?
Your basically buying a guaranteed clock speed, which is why I payed extra for 1100Mhz. If I purchased a standard card the chances of me getting two which would clock to 1150+ would be so small no words can describe (in all my years of PC building I have never had one single ANYTHING that is not bare average at best, that's CPU's GPU's) I would rather pay a bit more and be 100% I am able to get minimum 1100Mhz. SUPPOSEDLY the Ghz editions are cherry picked however likely a load of ballz not to mention a lot is simply BIOS vcore. OH HI PILL - hows the JL obsession today? when it wears off a bit I put 100 quid you regret that thread. LOL
As far as I know, the two cards are exactly the same except for a Tahiti XT2 chip on the GHz edition that runs at a rated 1000MHz. The chips *should* be different, though both cards seem to OC to similar levels, given all things equal. I haven't seen GHz editions have the particularly higher OCs out there. The memory chips, well they run at a stock 1500MHz instead of 1375MHz, but I haven't seen anyone mentioning those memory chips are different. If they are different, then they might OC to different levels (given there isn't much tolerance in VRAM compared to core), and if they are the same, then this is a green light that you can run your memory chips on the standard 7970 at 1500MHz, given that the memory controller hasn't undergone any changes (which it shouldn't have). The GHz editions will not necessarily clock further than standard 7970s. If they have a lower ASIC and higher stock voltage, it would mean they overclock worse without additional voltage. If they had a higher ASIC and lower stock voltage (better yields related to lower stock voltage?), then they would overclock better at stock voltage and worse with OV than low ASIC 7970s generally. I got the 7970s because I knew what they OC to and I wasn't sure, before the release of the GHz Edition, how far they overclock. There was going to be quite a wait for availability too.
Also the memory clock is up to 1500 from 1375. I have the ghz BIOS in my second BIOS bank so i can tell you the core clock speed stays at 1050 90% of the time.
There is no difference. They're just pre factory-OCed (and come with a higher voltage - another bios). And also they may be cherry picked. There's no point to pay for the extra, just get a normal 7970 one and OC it yourself. I have a 7950 (1200/1700) and it pretty much almost performs the same as a maxed out OC 7970. The difference is always at best 400-600 points in 3dmark11. Anyone got anything to compare with? Any 7970 users with their max OC, how much have you gotten for a 3dmark11 graphics score?
Non ghz version here, Sapphire Dual-X (one of the cheapest 7970 you can find) and i'm running a solid 1100/1600 overclock across any game at stock voltages and keeping it under 50ºC (full load) with fan at auto there's no point imo to spend the extra for a "guaranteed" 1000 mhz clocked card, they are supposed to be binned but that doesn't mean a regular one cannot achieve same or more clocks, i didn't hear about any single 7970 card that cannot hit 1ghz save your $$ and just go for a "normal" one, choose one with a good cooling solution and you're set i encourage you to grab a Dual-X from Sapphire
Maybe he has a lot of case fans? Although I find that hard to believe under full load, would like to see temps after a few loops of Heaven or some such. Still, he's right in recommending Sapphire cards. They don't have a bad 7900 card out at the moment, you'll get decent results from whichever you choose.
haha, that guy was hilarious. real life hero/expert haha. 50C would be possible with a great case and lots of fun in some less demanding games. I only hit 57C max playing ME2, still, I have 6 case fans and a vapor-x with pretty mild overclock. under proper load it goes over 60C of course. so yeah, 50C definitely sounds too low. unless he has copper. of course
Why make things up, though? I have the same card and it's great although I think the vapor x cooler is a few degrees better. I run a moderate overclock of 1125/1575 and usually cap games at 60fps but my temps get into the mid 60's. At full load it gets close to 70 degrees and I'm sure it will go up in the hotter months.
lol what's up with all this??? are you telling me i don't know what load means? i have hold several overclocking World Records in the past, super pi, 3DMark, Aquamark, etc, etc, i know how to monitor temps and i know how to keep my computer cooled down