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7970 sapphire vs sapphire oc vs lightning

post #1 of 4
6/23/12 at 12:46am
Thread Starter 
So finally officially decided on a 7970 tongue.gif

Do not want to wait for the ghz edition as I am running on the igpu and have a bunch of games on my hard drive waiting on me tongue.gif
Also from what I seen from the reviews they don't really have a higher oc room anyways.


Ok so it's between 3 the normal sapphire x
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11197-06-40G-HD7970-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B007IA6QLM/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1340437061&sr=8-9
925mhz out the box
£356

Sapphire x oc
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11197-01-40G-HD7970-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B0074JKJY2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1340437061&sr=8-2
950mhz out the box
£380

or the Lightning
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-msi-r7970-lightning-1070mhz-core-3072mb-gddr5-5600mhz-memory-mini-dp-x4-1x-dvi-i-1-dvi-d-single-
1070mhz out the box
£420

So my first question the difference between the normal sapphire and the sapphire oc, is it like cpu's where one is higher binned so the oc version will have a higher oc headroom?

Sorry if that is a stupid question but I don't see any other reason that they would sell an oc version with 25 extra mhz when you could easily oc that yourself in seconds.

Also the lightning I take it that's the best of the best with the highest oc headroom or is it just your luck of the draw at the end of the day.

Also want the quietest card out the 3.
With that in mind any advice? tongue.gif
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post #2 of 4
6/23/12 at 1:17am
Overclocking ability is just simply luck of the lottery. The reference card may well be the best overclocker of that group but you just wouldn't really know unless you bought all three, and even then if someone else bought all three they would get different results. It's pretty safe to say that you will at least get between 1100 MHz - 1200 MHz on the Core and 1575 MHz - 1875 MHz on the memory.

I have a reference MSI 7970 and I get 1150 MHz Core and 1775 MHz Memory at 1.175v (my card had a default voltage of 1.05v). I can push to 1175 MHz Core and 1875 MHz Memory but it requires 1.225v and the fps increase in heaven is only 1fps so not worth it.

Anyway, the quietest card of that group is the Sapphire 7970 OC.
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post #3 of 4
6/23/12 at 1:45am
Sapphire HD 7970 OC is the better choice. With Sapphire Trixx you should be able to get all these cards to 1100 - 1150 Mhz on stock voltage. Beyond that its voltage tweaking and a bit of luck wrt what kind of sample you get. Sapphire HD 7970 OC has dual BIOS . the 2nd BIOS comes with 1000 Mhz core and 1450 Mhz memory stock settings. The 2nd BIOS is tuned for aggressive overclocking.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1463&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

"The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 OC Edition ships with a raised core clock speed of 950MHz, and 1425MHz for the memory. Its Dual BIOS switch allows users to select the higher performance settings of 1GHz core and 1450MHz memory, making the fastest card in its class. This setting also uses a more aggressive fan profile and raises the limits for maximum overclocking."

Go for the Sapphire HD 7970 Dual X OC thumb.gif
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post #4 of 4
6/24/12 at 7:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by raghu78 View Post

Sapphire HD 7970 OC is the better choice. With Sapphire Trixx you should be able to get all these cards to 1100 - 1150 Mhz on stock voltage. Beyond that its voltage tweaking and a bit of luck wrt what kind of sample you get. Sapphire HD 7970 OC has dual BIOS . the 2nd BIOS comes with 1000 Mhz core and 1450 Mhz memory stock settings. The 2nd BIOS is tuned for aggressive overclocking.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1463&psn=&lid=1&leg=0
"The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 OC Edition ships with a raised core clock speed of 950MHz, and 1425MHz for the memory. Its Dual BIOS switch allows users to select the higher performance settings of 1GHz core and 1450MHz memory, making the fastest card in its class. This setting also uses a more aggressive fan profile and raises the limits for maximum overclocking."
Go for the Sapphire HD 7970 Dual X OC thumb.gif

This is the fan profile I use for my Sapphire OC Edition.
And still quietest fans in the case.
And I have 9 of them.

700

Later:D
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