Asus ROG Matrix HD7970 Platnium arrived :)

[rich9cinti]

It's been a happy 3 years with my Diamond 5870 1GB... it is now my backup video card. It's been since December 2009 when I last upgraded my video card.

Earlier this afternoon, UPS dropped of the package. The Asus ROG Matrix HD 7970 3GB Platnium. Crazy how hard it was to find this card in stock. I ran out to Micro Center to get an extra 6 pin to 8 pin PCIe adapter (only one came with it, needs two 8 pins to power this card) and fired up just an hour ago. Using driver 12.10 which I upgraded earlier today while on my 5870. No problems. I hear driver 12.11 gets some substantial performance increases but a bit leary using beta drivers unless someone here convinces me otherwise

So far so good... no problems thus far. Ran a few benchmarks at its default clocks at 1100Mhz/6600Mhz. I'll compile them later. I took some photos with my daily carry camera (Olympus E-P3). Pics are nothing special but just documenting stuff. I'll post them later... Gonna try some gaming now

Additional Comment:

Just a little spec review and video: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphic...cs-Card-Review

[Orthello77]

Run 12.11s, they are well documented to give large increases across the board. I've had no problems with them so far.

Its a really great card, its a crying shame that asus don't release this kind of card with a waterblock .. be right up my ally. However i got the msi lightnings instead for waterblocking.

Anyway great choice on your card, i doubt theres any better on the market at present.

[rich9cinti]

Originally Posted by Orthello77

Run 12.11s, they are well documented to give large increases across the board. I've had no problems with them so far.

Its a really great card, its a crying shame that asus don't release this kind of card with a waterblock .. be right up my ally. However i got the msi lightnings instead for waterblocking.

Anyway great choice on your card, i doubt theres any better on the market at present.

Thanks Orthello... I will definitely try out the 12.11 beta driver. So far, 12.10 has not shown any dark side to it, yet. Really impressed with the card so far. It looks like CCC has some additional controls to it's overdrive. Almost doubles the performance in gaming and benchmarking compared to the 5870 1GB which was no slouch. I'll continue to test things out at the default OC's then I'll start to push the GPU and Vram.

[_DOM_]

im also running the 12.11 beta drivers on my 7970

[Witchdoctor]

Man dude I want one so bad .........

I'm broke ...

This card pwns all competition. it has the power trane and cooling to run at 1250 to 1300 on stock cooler, I won't be surprised to see someone hit 2000 on cold

[rich9cinti]

Originally Posted by _DOM_

im also running the 12.11 beta drivers on my 7970

Good to hear DOM, surely good news. And yes, pics are on the way my man Maybe it's just me... But I'm savoring the moment before I overclock. Silly huh?

Additional Comment:

Originally Posted by Witchdoctor

Man dude I want one so bad .........

I'm broke ...

This card pwns all competition. it has the power trane and cooling to run at 1250 to 1300 on stock cooler, I won't be surprised to see someone hit 2000 on cold

Witchdoc... For some time, I thought I was the only one that wanted one so bad This card came out at a price of $499 and supply just got scooped up. Newegg has been out of stock for quite sometime. Funny how I feel lucky to get one for just $526 with free shipping no tax. I do have to say, when the 5870 came out I waited to see how everyone liked it. It was my first no holds bar single gpu card and paid $419 for it. Yeah... Not made out of money but it was a **** good card for its time and still better than most mid-level cards today.

Additional Comment:

Here's some images I took just before and after install of the actual card. Taken with an Olympus E-P3 and 17mm f/2.8 pancake lens. Handy little camera... just sucks in low light LOL.

















to convert my two 6 pin pcie to 8 pin pcie:

[_DOM_]

nice, i bet WD is going to get a hard on

[Witchdoctor]

Pron FTW

Sick Pics

[Dil-tech]

Originally Posted by Witchdoctor

Man dude I want one so bad .........

I'm broke ...

This card pwns all competition. it has the power trane and cooling to run at 1250 to 1300 on stock cooler, I won't be surprised to see someone hit 2000 on cold

Unfortunately, your 3d vision set up wouldn't work if you used that card.

Same reason why my 660ti is my main card and not my 7950.

[Witchdoctor]

No doubt, but that beast would go on the bencher, it is the benching card to have if you want to compete for globals.........

nV for the gamer fo sho

[901-Memphis]

Those are some nice and large fans on the card. You can really see it when compared to the stock 5870 fan.

[Witchdoctor]

Card is simply a death sentence for anything else out there

[darkvw]

One word...Animal...

[rich9cinti]

Still on driver 12.10 to see how it performs prior to the 12.11 beta. Overall I'm pretty stoked with the cards default overclocks of 1100/1650.

Some observations:

1. Since it does not have a blower style cooler, warm air spreads throughout case unlike my 5870. NOT a problem for my Tt Level 10 case with massive air circulation. Just a note for those with restrictive air flow.

2. CCC sometimes disconnects and cannot apply changes to settings for overdrive... Random.

3. GPU Tweak - buggy. Monitor does not always track speed of gpu and memory. At times it shows zero. Gpu and memory usage monitors along with temps seem to track well. It can bump up fans independently to your liking.

4. Functional backplate. Not just for looks. Warm to the touch shows nice heat disappatiom.

When either software is working, it easily can be overclocked to 1200/1750 without voltage bumps. Seems like there's more headroom to even go higher but want to wait it out a little more. GPU never goes above 52C. I may try MSI Afterburner.

I have done some benchmarks but still need to do more including benchmarking after driver 12.11. I'm hopeful to see improvements not that I'm not blown away already compared to my 5870

[Dil-tech]

Originally Posted by Witchdoctor

No doubt, but that beast would go on the bencher, it is the benching card to have if you want to compete for globals.........

nV for the gamer fo sho

Yeah, the DX9C bug is too big of a deal right now to make AMD the main-stay right now. I love my 7950, but until that's fixed I won't even touch mine. Borderlands 2 is HILARIOUS with the artifacts though, that much I will admit.

Although, for benching, the 680 still holds the crown (if you can find a 680 that can still be adjusted voltage-wise). I don't think anyone is going to top Kingpin's 2ghz boost run this generation. As a little side note, that isn't the highest he got, he has more than a few scores he is just sitting on if anyone ever comes close to him.

Originally Posted by rich9cinti

Still on driver 12.10 to see how it performs prior to the 12.11 beta. Overall I'm pretty stoked with the cards default overclocks of 1100/1650.

Some observations:

1. Since it does not have a blower style cooler, warm air spreads throughout case unlike my 5870. NOT a problem for my Tt Level 10 case with massive air circulation. Just a note for those with restrictive air flow.

2. CCC sometimes disconnects and cannot apply changes to settings for overdrive... Random.

3. GPU Tweak - buggy. Monitor does not always track speed of gpu and memory. At times it shows zero. Gpu and memory usage monitors along with temps seem to track well. It can bump up fans independently to your liking.

4. Functional backplate. Not just for looks. Warm to the touch shows nice heat disappatiom.

When either software is working, it easily can be overclocked to 1200/1750 without voltage bumps. Seems like there's more headroom to even go higher but want to wait it out a little more. GPU never goes above 52C. I may try MSI Afterburner.

I have done some benchmarks but still need to do more including benchmarking after driver 12.11. I'm hopeful to see improvements not that I'm not blown away already compared to my 5870

Fair warning for your own sanity. Steer clear of anything running lower than DX10 (i.e. DX9C). I know someone who got that same card for what could practically be considered giving it away and sold it for a 670 less than a week later after trying to play borderlands 2 on it. Hopefully AMD will fix the issue sooner than later, but for now it IS that bad.

As long as you steer clear of DX9C, you'll be a happy camper for sure though.

[rich9cinti]

Originally Posted by Dil-tech

Yeah, the DX9C bug is too big of a deal right now to make AMD the main-stay right now. I love my 7950, but until that's fixed I won't even touch mine. Borderlands 2 is HILARIOUS with the artifacts though, that much I will admit.

Although, for benching, the 680 still holds the crown (if you can find a 680 that can still be adjusted voltage-wise). I don't think anyone is going to top Kingpin's 2ghz boost run this generation. As a little side note, that isn't the highest he got, he has more than a few scores he is just sitting on if anyone ever comes close to him.



Fair warning for your own sanity. Steer clear of anything running lower than DX10 (i.e. DX9C). I know someone who got that same card for what could practically be considered giving it away and sold it for a 670 less than a week later after trying to play borderlands 2 on it. Hopefully AMD will fix the issue sooner than later, but for now it IS that bad.

As long as you steer clear of DX9C, you'll be a happy camper for sure though.

I have boardlands but not 2. I didn't see any probs when I played it on my 5870 @ 5760x1080. Is it only problematic with 2?

Here's a bit of discussion about the game and using 680 vs 7970:
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic...han-on-gtx-680

I'll report on any games that the 7970 cannot handle. So far, nada. My workflow seems fine with no hiccups which is more important in my book than Dx9c game performance.

Another observation I have noticed is that the games I play, memory usage is at 2.1GB's.

[rich9cinti]

3DMark11 using Driver 12.10 / GPU Tweak:
Stock OC 1100/1650(6600Mhz)
9375

OC 1210@1325mV/1800(7200Mhz)
10018

Note: My 5870 @ 900/1250 scored a 4956 with driver 12.10

Still holding off on driver 12.11 beta to compare before and after.

[Dil-tech]

Originally Posted by rich9cinti

I have boardlands but not 2. I didn't see any probs when I played it on my 5870 @ 5760x1080. Is it only problematic with 2?

Here's a bit of discussion about the game and using 680 vs 7970:
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic...han-on-gtx-680

I'll report on any games that the 7970 cannot handle. So far, nada. My workflow seems fine with no hiccups which is more important in my book than Dx9c game performance.

Another observation I have noticed is that the games I play, memory usage is at 2.1GB's.

It's DX9C in general on AMD 7xxx cards. A lot of people get artifacts that look like overclocking artifacts even at stock due to the AMD drivers as of now. A lot of it was cleaned up with the 12.11 beta 11 drivers, but it still occurs.

[Witchdoctor]

Originally Posted by rich9cinti

3DMark11 using Driver 12.10 / GPU Tweak:
Stock OC 1100/1650(6600Mhz)
9375

OC 1210@1325mV/1800(7200Mhz)
10018
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5251370

Note: My 5870 @ 900/1250 scored a 4956 with driver 12.10

Still holding off on driver 12.11 beta to compare before and after.

You have to love 1210 with stock cooling effin crazy bro .....

12.11 are epic from what I am told, 11 is also very dependent on CPU clock and how many cores are in play as x79 typically dominates this bench.

9990 GPU score is on par for those clocks

[rich9cinti]

Originally Posted by Witchdoctor

You have to love 1210 with stock cooling effin crazy bro .....

12.11 are epic from what I am told, 11 is also very dependent on CPU clock and how many cores are in play as x79 typically dominates this bench.

9990 GPU score is on par for those clocks

Thanks Witchdoc... I'm gonna keep trucking along with 12.10 for comparison purposes. See where I end up at before 12.11.

This morning I bumped up to 1220Mhz and stayed with 7200Mhz for the Vram:
Driver 12.10
3DMark11 score - 10051

Update:

Ok, been running my i7 2600K @ 4.74Ghz@1.3v for quite some time. Bumped it slightly to 4.841Ghz with same voltage of 1.3:
Driver 12.10
3DMark11 score - 10132

2600K from 4.74 to 4.84... cpu bottlenecks the Matrix 7970?

Update:

CPU: 4.84Ghz@1.3V | Matrix 7970 @ 1230Mhz@1338mV/7200Mhz:
Driver 12.10
3DMark11 score - 10174

Update:
Bumped up Vram to 7300Mhz
CPU: 4.84Ghz@1.3V | Matrix 7970 @ 1230Mhz@1338mV/7300Mhz:
Driver 12.10
3DMark11 score - 10230

Temps on GPU Maxed out @ 55C, Vram around 41C. I think I'll stop here for now... finally broke into the next tier (10200+)