Asus HD 7970 Direct CUII 3Gb

[hizodge]

Hello. I'm probably getting one of these card next week and another one sometime next month to run in Crossfire. However, I have a couple of questions that keep puzzling me.

For one, should I go for the normal or the 'TOP' version which comes with higher base clocks. How about the new Matrix platinum version which does even higher? Are they the same thing as the normal version that has been overclocked or do they have some benefits to them that are actually worth the extra price?

Also how does this all work in Crossfire? Say if I were to buy a normal one and an TOP or Matrix Platinum one and run them together, would I get any benefits from the 'special version' or would it be grounded to the same level as the inferior card?

I tried looking some benchmarks which specifically compare these version to one another, but can't really find them on the same chart anywhere. I would really appreciate performance comparison or experienced advice on which 2 cards I should go for.

 

[bigshootr8]

I would actually advise against the Matrix card from ASUS. It sounds all great but you should check out this review and it may change your mind. The top cards in my opinion are better the cooler seems to work better and you end up with a cherry picked GPU. But if you aren't looking to overclock you can go with a normal directcuII card. Also with a 3 slot card you will need a extended motherboard your extreme boards, your gigabyte UP7 boards.

I'd take a look at this if you plan on a easy 2 slot solution.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001


http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/asus_7970_matrix_platinum/17
[flash=560,315]http://www.youtube.com/v/aLRr2FP1uME?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash]

NOTE: Also, what do you play, also what do you need the power of 2 7970's for?

 

[hizodge]

Thanks for the replies. I'm gaming on a 1440p monitor and been looking for an upgrade for some time so. Not playing anything major at the moment but Crysis 3 hits the shelves soon so I'm definitely looking to get 2 cards. I've had my eyes on the Asus Direct CUII because it seems to run most silent out of all aftermarket GPU coolers (hence the size, perhaps?)

I have an Asus X79 motherboard (the P9X79), with 3 PCI-Ex16 slots; 2 of them blue and the farthest one white. Can you use any of the two ports to Crossfire?

 

[bigshootr8]

^^ The Matrix Platinum got a bad review from them because TTL didn't like the light colors and because they had a card that couldn't manage a good OC (they've also had some crazy luck with some of their other 7970 samples, such that 1200 MHz is low for them).

Other sites loved it... it's one of very few 7970s to have a gold award from HardOCP, for example.

I've not seen anything to suggest that 7970 TOP chips are "cherry picked" for manual overclocking ability.

Read down the post from a ASUS representative.

If we say it is a "TOP" card then it means we have cherry picked the best GPU's from the batch which overclock further. On top of that we add extra QA procedures to the card before it leaves the factory.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?24835-7970-dc2-or-dc2-top

 

[bigshootr8]

Also I just went through your motherboards manual if you were doing crossfire and were only using 1 and 4 the slots you would get full 16x and you look like you would barely have enough room to do it barely.

 

[bigshootr8]

I'm sorry if I don't believe everything PR reps say when it's not verified (to my knowledge) elsewhere... obviously ASUS says that ASUS' more expensive card is "cherry picked".

I went back to google and found this as well. There are plenty of other links I could check out as well if you'd like.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/%5Bprimary-term%5D/asus_geforce_gtx_670_directcu_ii_top_review_0

 

[hizodge]

I looked through the manual. It said that "to achieve maximal performance you should use slots 1 and 2 in crossfire/SLI setups". I don't really know what that means. It could be 50% better performance or 0.5% better performance.

And on the other hand, the manual says a lot of crap too.

The real problem would be connecting the two cards together as they both come with the standard length CF bridge and the longer ones aren't available where I live, which pretty much scraps that idea.

 

[bigshootr8]

Well basically what they are saying is that when you use certain slots you will get a certain amount of bandwidth 8x, 16. With a ASUS 7970 card they are triple slot solutions you can use 1 that you know you cant use 2 you cant use 3 and you are left with slot 4. So you would run at 16x16 versus something like 8x, 8x. It's not something to worry about your motherboard allows you to run at full card bandwidth.

 

[hizodge]

I did look into the GTX 670s at first but they come with 2Gb RAM. I'm aware that at the moment the only games that come close to that at 2560x1440 are Crysis 2, Skyrim/GTA IV (both heavily modded) However, one of the perks in getting a dual-GPU setup is that you don't have to upgrade first thing when the new chips hit the market to keep up with the current gen games.

I'm not so sure that 2Gb will hold up for 2 years.

 

[bigshootr8]

Well, in crossfire it does make a bit of sense to have a CF setup for 1440p.

And with the TOP cards. IF a chip is Cherry Picked by merit they have the potential to be more overclockable. I'm not saying it can be overclocked a ton I'm not comparing it to other cards/series/vendors I'm just saying because the silicon chip was selected for a card makes it more likely to be easily overclocked the end. If you don't care about that stuff save the money and get a cheaper card fact.

Yea beyond 1080P nvidia tends to struggle I mean yea they have higher ram cards but they do come at a premium and there memory bit is lower so yea I agree. AMD tends to do better with more screens and higher resolutions most assuredly.

2GB will hold up for most people just not at 1440P

Also, TTL didn't like the matrix card because it didn't add anything upon the other cards within the series from ASUS. It comes at a extra price and doesn't really add anything over the top. It's setup(marketed) as a card that would be more overclockable. Why put a turn up fan button if not to be used for overclocking just feels like a waste of money on a card that won't deliver performance equal to the money spent on the card.

 

[hizodge]

That's what I'm thinking as well to be honest. Can you tell me white kind of temps/noise levels you have and what type of GPUs you're running?

Are the Asus 3slot cards out of the picture due to their size and what would be the overall next best option for silence?

 

[bigshootr8]

I'm currently running a Gigabyte GTX670OC. I run into next to zero noise. I've opened up the side panels to check noise I don't hear anything I hear my case fans more then anything and I have low rpm pwm fans.

No for you they are not if your case supports them you can have 2 3 slot solution cards. I wouldn't like having 2x 3 slot cards in my computer but you know ASUS cards are very quiet and they cool just great so the choice is yours.
IF you look at your motherboard PCI slots as shown in your motherboard manual they go over your configuration points for crossfire/sli. You could use your top slot which would then take over the next 2 slots one pci-e 1x slot and another pci-e 16x slot and then you would use your 4th slot for your other card. You would just need a bridge that could reach that far if you understand because you would be reaching over a long distance It would have to be a quad crossfire bridge. Which your board did not supply. Your card does so I would think it would work just fine. I'd just be careful 2 3 slot card sounds pretty heavy.

[flash=560,315]http://www.youtube.com/v/qvqVxmdE-q4?hl=en_US&version=3[/flash]

 

[bigshootr8]

Honestly I would avoid the headache as mac suggests with the MSI 7970 lightning and the Vapor-x ghz card from Sapphire you would have a easier to deal with configuration And yea the gigabyte windforce 3x cards are very quiet

 

[bigshootr8]

Doesn't sound to bad sound wise. I would imagine if it became a problem you could always try a case like a fractal design define r4 to try and silence that noise. If you had the funds of course.

 

[hizodge]

Thanks for all the people who replied. In the end, I think I'll go for the Gigabyte Windforce 3 7970s. I would just like to add that this forum is an absolute blast for finding help and advice with tech. I learned a ton today and probably avoided a lot of headache... And this is coming from a non-forum person!

Again, thanks to all who replied. I will stick around for sure!

 

[bigshootr8]

Well good welcome to the community man. And no matter what card you ended choosing the 7970 is a great chip hopefully you enjoy it.

 

[bigshootr8]

I'll have to bookmark that page myself if I ever go back to a AMD card.

 

[bigshootr8]

Ah I see it not good catch. Yea I may at some point SLi my 670's although I'm a bit apprehensive. I like just having one single good card then spending more then I need to on graphic performance especially for a single 1080p display.