[Darkhaze]

I bought an XFX 7970 dd core (tdfc) from tiger on dec. 27. It's voltage locked @ 1.175v, stock : 925mhz / 1375. The fans r loud because their minimum is 1600rpm. So I had them send me a replacement twice. Both came with black edition stock clocks 1000mhz/ 1425. 1st was super messed so nm (volted @ 1.050v? ), but this latest seems ok, volted @ 1.125v, and I now have access to the slider to up it to 1.175v. Here is my dilemma. I must send one back. Original idles at 29c, under 70c at load with 45% autofan, overclockable to 1050 mhz/ memory not much higher than stock. The Replacement idles at 38c (800rpm idle fan much quieter), under 80c at load 55%+ autofan, overclockable to 1100mhz, not much head room on memory again.

So which do I keep? The hotter quieter idle, louder load card for a 50mhz/ fps gain, or the louder cooler idle, quieter load card which seems to be a more reliable build for the 50mhz/ fps loss.

Basically lowest dip in BF3 ultra everything is 39 fps with the cooler card and 43fps with the hotter card. Is it really worth the heat? And is the cooler card really worth the noise when I'm not gaming (which is roughly half the time)

At least I got 5 free games for my trouble, including farcry and crysis 3... yay

 

[RX7-2nr]

You had them send you a replacement card because the fan was loud? You can set the fan speed at whatever you want in Afterburner. XFX cards tend to run hotter and louder because the fans have to spin faster. Their heatsinks are just not quite as good as others. Reading a few reviews would have shown you both of these things.

As for which card, just pick one. Keep the better overclocker I suppose.

 

[Darkhaze]

no man, I can drop the fan to 10% and the fans still run at 1600rpm, nothing gets them lower, xfx offered to send a replacement cooler for it. I have afterburner but use asus gpu tweak cuz it gives me the voltage slider, don't know y afterburner doesn't let me use it's v slider. And y is XFX suddenly making their core editions same speed as their BEs... fishy cuz they aren't as stable. U shoulda seen the first replacement, lasted 5 seconds in heaven and gaming took it to over 100c and 100%fan. and thats at what they set as stock.

P.S. considering stock clocks, the original is the better overclocker, even if the highest speed is lower lol.
925 -> 1050 is more than 1000->1100

 

[RX7-2nr]

You have to unlock the voltage slider and voltage monitoring in the Afterburners settings.

 

[Darkhaze]

give me some credit bro, I obviously did that, even edited all the config files and registry entries - back when i dreamt I could unlock the voltage.

 

[Strileckifunk]

The decision is really yours. While 50 MHz isn't going to make or break the performance of the card, as long as the noise doesn't bother you while playing, I would keep it.

 

[Darkhaze]

It does bother me a little, as does the heat and the questionable build. But then the idle fan noise of the original does too. I wonder if I should keep the hotter faster one just so XFX can give me a better card in future when it craps out like i think it might, question is will it take anything with it.... either choice will have unpleasant consequences.

 

[Darkhaze]

It think I will keep it, i was worried cuz this double dissipation ghost fan crap dumps hot air into the case, so my cpu might be heating up, but it doesn't seem to have much of an effect. Go Go HAF 932 I guess.