Which 7970 (sapphire) should I get? (boost vs vapor-x)

[rageofthepeon]

Thinking about getting another 7970 now that I know my motherboard could handle it. Tacked on a Accelero Xtreme 7970 to my old reference Sapphire 7970 making it a 3 slot monster. Was able to drop it down safely to the second PCIE3.0 slot without the connectors getting in the way in this thread.

I currently play at 1080p @60Hz (next upgrade will be a 120Hz monitor) and would like to max every game for the rest of this year and hopefully the next as well .

Current specs:
Intel 3770k 4.2GHz
Sapphire 7970 1125/1375
Gigabyte UD5H
Cooler Master HAF-X
SeaSonic 1050W Gold PSU
2x Samsung 830 256GB SSD's
1x SeaGate 2TB HD
1x WD Black 600GB HD
Windows 8

Boost
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-11197-03-40G/dp/B009B6Y01Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361395082&sr=8-1&keywords=sapphire+7970

Vapor X 3gb
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-11197-12-40G/dp/B008PQAE98/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1361395082&sr=8-3&keywords=sapphire+7970

Questions I have are:

Are any of these volt locked?
Will they play nicely with my reference 7970?
Why exactly is the Vapor-X $90 more, are the components/cooling higher quality?
Is it possible to downvolt both cards?


Thanks in advance, hoping to order tonight and have it here by Friday .

 

[bigshootr8]

To my knowledge AMD cards are not voltage locked you are able to tinker with them. Especially cards like the 7970 ghz Vapor-X. You are able to mix cards within the same generation as long as there architecture is the same for example 7900 is Tahiti so you would be fine mixing anything within those cards. You asked why the Vapor-X Card is more expensive and the short reason is because its a binned 7970 chip with higher clock speeds and memory core. You also get stronger cooling on top of that with a Vapor-X cooler. In terms of undervolting I'm not sure.