XFX R7970 Black Edition Review

Pre overclocked to 1GHz and complete with the Double Dissipation GHOST cooler, we expected great things from the XFX R7970 Black Edition – we weren’t disappointed…

Product on Review: XFX Black Edition R7970
Manufacturer and Sponsor: XFX
Street Price: £455.99

Being the fastest single core graphics card on the planet, the HD7970 is going to be hard to improve. Considering that the reference cooler already performs very well and the stock AMD card overclocks freely, XFX certainly have their work cut out. As we saw with the XFX R7770 though, a sprinkling of XFX magic goes a long way when you want the very best, the ultimate in overclocking ability. Hopefully we will see similar results with the XFX R7970 Black Edition because at £455.99 it is anything but cheap however, it is cheaper than some reference designs from other manufacturers so even with the added expense of a custom cooler and pre-overclocking the graphics card, XFX have managed to slip under the radar, beating the competition by a good £25 which is a great start for the R7970.

Most manufacturers have their ‘elite’ overclocked graphics card range, more often than not with a fancy title. XFX are no different and call there own overclocked examples by the title of ‘Black Edition’. Pre-overclocked cards are often scoffed at by the enthusiast community and sometimes rightly so because a premium is often charged for a what is in effect less than a 5 minute job if you have the basic knowledge of what overclocking a graphics card entails. The justification for inflated prices however becomes clear when the pre-overclocked card also comes with a custom cooler able to keep the pre-overclocked card’s temperatures under control and perhaps of greater interest to the avid overclocker aven higher clockspeeds. We’ve seen some very garish GPU coolers in the past and some very attractive ones. Some are little more than good looking lumps of metal while others push the boundaries of cooling technology. The Double Disipation cooler fitted to some XFX cards is a great looking cooler with it’s posh brushed aluminium shroud and as we have seen matches those good looks with excellent performance. Today we will be pushing the cooler to it’s limit as we test XFX’s flagship card the R7970 ‘Black Edition’

XFX select their Black Edition GPU’s by means of what they call GPU Edging. The selection process not only involves weeding out the average overclocking boards but also factors in the power requirements. Afterall, the lower power a GPU uses to gain similar overclocks to the competition usually means there is more overclocking headroom for the end user when that power is increased. The Duratec components used on the XFX range of GPU'[s should also ensure that this optional power addition by the end-user is monitored and controlled by the highest grade of components so you can overclock safe in the knowledge that the GPU should not die in a finale of sparks and smoke. Some famous sayings are very apt here. ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ yet also ‘Power is nothing without control’. XFX have certainly considered this when building the XFX R7970 Black Edition.

About XFX
XFX dares to go where the competition would like to, but can’t. That’s because, at XFX, we don’t just create great digital video components—we build all-out, mind-blowing, performance-crushing, competition-obliterating video cards and motherboards. And, not only are they amazing, you don’t have to live on dry noodles and peanut butter to afford them.

XFX is a division of PINE Technology Holdings Limited, a leading manufacturer and marketer of innovative solutions for the worldwide gaming technologies market. Founded in 1989, PINE designs, develops, manufactures and distributes high-performance video graphics technology and computer peripherals. The company’s dedicated research and development team are continually pushing the limits to meet the demands of the ever-growing and performance-driven community. Headquartered in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong SAR), PINE has more than 1,000 employees worldwide with 16 offices around the globe. PINE also maintains four state-of-the-art research and development facilities in the Asia Pacific region and two factories in Mainland China. To learn more about PINE, please visit www.pinegroup.com.

Specification

The HD7900 series features the new Tahiti core which is the successor to the Caymen core of the HD6900 family. The Caymen core was based on a 40nm manufacturing process so it is fair to say that perhaps the biggest improvement to the Tahiti core is the reduction to 28nm process. This has enabled AMD to cram 4.31 billion (4,312,711,873) transistors into the new Tahiti core as opposed to the 2.64 billion on the HD6970 Caymen XT.

Comprising of what AMD calls ‘Graphics Core Next (GCN)’ archetecture which is optimised for heterogeneous computing, the new Tahiti core has upto 32 CU’s (compute units) with dual geometry engines along with 8 back-ends comprising of 32 colour ROPs per clock and 128 Z/Stencil ROPs per clock. Each CU has a Vector unit and Scaler Co-Processor and can execute instructions from multiple kernels.

The VLIW4 SIMD has evolved to the GCN quad SIMD which equates to similar computational power yet grants better performance, threading and simplification. The GCN also has a new Cache hierarchy with 16KB instruction Cache and32KB Scaler Cache shared between 4 CU’s. The L2 Cache is accessible by each CU with it’s own separate process to ensure coherency. These changes increase the GFLOPs by 140%.

Tesselation on the Tahiti core is also enhanced by increased Vertex re-use off-core which theoretically at least, means the 7900 series has 4 times the throughput of the 69XX series. The are improved ansioscopic filtering algorithms too which come at no performance cost allegedly. These new algorithm improvement will allow the use of Forward Rendering with 1000’s of potential light sources and will also mean MSAA can be rendered easily.

Tahiti XT Schematic

Looking at the schematics above, we can identify the bulk of the GPU is taken up with the 32 CU’s. Above these are the geometry engines. To the left and right are the 8 Render back-ends, 4 each side. There’s 768KB of L2 cache along with 6x64bit dual channel memory controllers making a 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface capable of delivering up to 264GB/sec. All of technology coupled together is transferred through a fully compatible PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus interface. Have no fear though because the cards are backwards compatible with PCIe 2.0. Note that 256 Stream Processors are disabled for the Tahiti Pro Core. Whether this is at the hardware or simply a software level remains to be seen. If it is software then a BIOS flash may see the Pro’s becomming XT’s again?

Comparing the HD7970 against it’s closest competitor, the GTX580, the AMD card has 4x more processors twice as many texture units but less ROPs. No change with AMD clockspeeds being higher than the green team and with the HD7970 being clocked to a blistering 925MHz I worry about how much is left in the bank to allow us any worthwhile overclocking. As usual, we will investigate this later in the review in the overclocking section. A big change for the AMD card is the leap towards a 320-bit memory interface which AMD have traditionally played second fiddle to NVIDIA. The texture fill rate which has always been a strong point for AMD is increased to a mind boggling 118.4 billion/sec compared to the GTX580’s miserly 49.4 while the HD7970 trails slightly in the pixel fill rate stakes ever so slightly. AMD have fired a warning shot across NVIDIA’s bow too with a huge 3GB of GDDR5 which should put paid to any difficulties running this card at high resolutions with filters applied.

On paper then, it appears AMD have been squireling away to create a graphics card behemoth capable of besting NVIDIA’s flagship single core GPU. I have little doubt that it would be faster but AMD would do well to keep an eye on the horizon as traditionally, the pendulum swings from one manufacturer to the other in a very short time. For now though, AMD have manufactured a card that is by far the most powerful card on test, on paper at least. We have seen many times in the past though that specifications mean very little if the GPU runs like a 3 legged donkey, how this transpires today we will see later in the benchmarks tests…

XFX

The XFX R7970 takes matters one step further of course. Clockspeeds are enhanced by 75MHz to a stock 1GHz on the core while the memory also receives a welcome 50MHz boost to 1425MHz (5700 effective). While it’s great to have a faster card at stock compared to reference models, I suspect there is much more available from the R7970, a suspicion I will be investigating in our overclocking results section.

Let’s take a look at the cards features…

Features

‘X’ Features

Xpertise – Ultra Realistic 3D Gaming with Direct X 11 Technology

Xformance – Next Generation Performance. A Quantum leap in archetecture and processing power, double the bandwidth.

Xcelerate – Workstation grade performance accelerating your professional applications.

Xfactor – See the XFX difference with quality components giving greater durability.

Xperience – MAximise your gaming experience through multi-monitor and stereoscopic 3D.

GHOST Thermal Technology – maximizes airflow for exceptional venting through the card.

Double Dissipation Technology – XFX’s unique dual fan design allows air to cool everything including GPU, heatsinks, components and the PCB board.

Standard HD7970 features

[youtube=http://xfxforce.com/en-us/Home.aspx]

AMD CrossFire™ Technology
The AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 GPU supports AMD CrossFire™ Technology and provides excellent multi GPU scaling. With the introduction of the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series Graphics, AMD began delivering improved AMD CrossFire™ Technology scaling when using two GPUs. AMD is proud to continue to offer that amazing performance with its newest AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 series graphics products.

AMD Eyefinity Technology
AMD Eyefinity Technology provides advanced multiple monitor technology enabling an incredibly immersive graphic and computing experience with innovative display capabilities, supporting massive desktop workspaces and super-high resolution gaming environments. AMD Eyefinity technology with DisplayPort connectivity enables a single GPU to support up to six independent display outputs simultaneously, depending on the OEM implementation.
AMD Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, one of two cases must be satisfied:

1) Additional panels with native DisplayPort™ connectors are used;
2) Certified DisplayPort™ adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your cards

DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s) are used.
With the introduction and wide availability of DisplayPort™ to single-link DVI dongles, option 2 above is a low cost way to convert a set of already-owned monitors into an AMD Eyefinity technology ready display configuration.

Unlike a similar multi monitor gaming solution offered by NVIDIA, AMD Eyefinity technology does not require two graphics cards to work. Therefore, AMD offers a multi monitor gaming solution with potential for a lower setup cost. A single AMD Radeon™ 7950 GPUs can employ AMD Eyefinity technology and AMD CrossFire™ technology to provide an outstanding multi monitor gaming experience. The following chart shows the AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 graphics in a dual AMD CrossFire™ configuration versus the NVIDIA SLI GTX 580 in three monitor gaming scenario’s.

Improved Tessellation
The latest iteration of architecture in the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 GPU features a brand new Generation of Tesselator (Gen 9) in its Geometry Engine. This features optimizations such as; Increased vertex re-use, Off-chip buffering improvements and larger parameter caches. This helps Improve performance at all tessellation factors at up to 4x the throughput of AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics (Gen 8 ).

AMD HD3D Technology
AMD HD3D Technology is supported by an advanced and open ecosystem that, in conjunction with specific AMD hardware and software technologies, enables 3D display capabilities for many PC applications and experiences.

Your PC has evolved, offering unprecedented amount of games, photos and movies for you to play, watch, design, create, share and download in 3D. With the arrival of the latest in 3D technology you can now enjoy an enhanced visual experience on Stereo 3D-capable desktops and notebooks powered by AMD HD3D Technology.

HDMI 1.4a
More bandwith than standard HDMI allows full implementation of 60Hz Stereo 3D. Standard HDMI ports do not have adequate bandwidth for more than 3D 1080p at 24fps.

Ultra-high resolution (4k Panels)
– Current implementations currently use 4*DVI or 2*DP 1.1, which is expensive and unwieldy.
– AMD will move to a single-connector output for 4k via DP 1.2 HBR2 and HDMI 1.4a 3GHz mode.

AMD Quad Buffer SDK
– Native 3D support for Developers.
– functions with Dx9, 10 and 11
– Native support scheduled for Windows 8
Nearly 600 games support AMD’s implementation of 3D either natively or through middleware partners. Also support for many 3D displays already on the market including Samsung and LG’s proprietry implementation.

Video Codec Engine (VCE)
– H.264 HD Encoder
– Power efficient
– faster than realtime 1080p @ 60 FPS
– Variable Compression Quality
– Multiple Input Options:- (1) Frame Buffer, (2) GPU Display. (2) is useful for wireless displays.

AMD ZeroCore Power

When a discrete GPU is in a static screen state it works to minimize idle power by enabling a host of active power saving functions including (but not limited to); clock gating, power gating, memory compression, and a host of other features. However, GPUs with AMD’s exclusive ZeroCore Power technology can take energy savings to entirely new heights by completely powering down the core GPU while the rest of the system remains active.

Nearly all PCs can be configured to turn off their displays after a long period of inactivity. This is known as the long idle state; where the screen is blanked but the rest of the system remains in an active and working power state (ACPI G0/S0). As soon as the system goes into long idle state and applications are not actively changing the screen contents, the GPU enters the ZeroCore power state. In the ZeroCore power state, the GPU core (including the 3D engine / compute units, multimedia and audio engines, displays, memory interfaces, etc.) is completely powered down.

However, one cannot simply remove the GPU and its associated device context completely; particularly when it is the only GPU in the system as is the case in many enthusiast platforms. The operating system and SBIOS must still be aware that a GPU is still present in the system. For this reason, the ZeroCore Power state maintains a very small bus control block to ensure that GPU context is still visible to the operating system and SBIOS. The ZeroCore power state also manages the power sequencing of the GPU to ensure that the power up/down mechanism is self-contained and independent of the rest of the system.

The enablement of the ZeroCore Power feature is controlled by the driver. The driver monitors the display contents and allows the GPU to enter the ZeroCore Power in the condition that the GPU enters long idle and subsequent work requests are no longer being submitted to the engine. If any applications update the screen contents, ZeroCore Power technology can periodically wake the GPU to update the framebuffer contents and put the GPU back into the ZeroCore Power state. Furthermore, applications such as Windows 7 desktop gadgets are architected to minimize activity and save power in the long idle state. These applications are active during screen-on mode to display dynamic content such as weather, RSS feeds, stock symbols, system status, etc. but also have the intelligence to suspend any updates and activity when the system enters long idle. These applications will not wake the GPU from the ZeroCore Power state in long idle.

AMD ZeroCore Power technology delivers tremendous energy savings. Many PCs remain in the long idle state for a variety of use cases that are highly relevant to everyday consumers, enthusiasts and professionals. In ZeroCore Power mode, users can still enjoy non-graphics activities such as file serving/streaming, motherboard audio and music, and remote access while the GPU core is essentially powered off.

ZeroCore Power technology also scales with AMD CrossFire™ technology. With an AMD CrossFire platform, all non-primary GPUs are in the ZeroCore Power state when not in use. For AMD CrossFire workloads, the driver will engage the non-primary GPUs to deliver full performance on-demand. The primary GPU can also enter the ZeroCore Power state during long idle as well. This delivers scalable benefits for the enthusiast. First, it effectively removes the power increase for users of AMD CrossFire under idle and light (single GPU) workloads. Second, it removes the noise penalty multiGPU users have always had to endure since the GPU fans are off in ZeroCore Power mode.

Packaging & Accessories

Box Front

The package is presented in very similar garb to the whole XFX AMD range. The slimline box front is dominated by the ‘B E’ emblem signifying that this is a Black Edition Product and if you wasn’t sure of this then XFX also state the product title beneath along with a brief explanation of their Double Dissipation cooler.

Box Rear

Flipping the box around, we see XFX have gone to great lengths describing the ‘X’ features of the graphics card which are found on all of their Double Dissipation products including GHOST technology, Duratec components and of course AMD’s GCN architecture.

Box Inner

While the outer sleeve of the package may appear to be small, the product is fully equipped with a host of extras. The accessories are separated from the graphics card by a tray, itself containing a small compartment hiding some of the components while the remaining leaflets and instruction manuals are kept neatly to one side.

Accessories

XFX spare no expensive when it comes to instruction manuals, guides and product advertisement with a host of literature for you to peruse. Along with the paraphernalia are the driver CD, DVI to HDMI adaptor, Crossfire bridge and a very nice metal ‘Black Edition’ case badge.

XFX R7970 Black Edition

After removing the graphics card from it’s protective anti-static bag, we get to see it in all it’s glory. The card itself has no visible markings to signify that this is a ‘Black Edition’ card, looking near identical to the ‘Double Dissipation’ version with the same cooling design. XFX also have another variety in their 7970 line-up called the ‘Core’ which for all intents and purposes is a reference card with XFX branding.

Let’s take a closer look the the R7970 Black Edition…

Closer Look

Card Top

From a birds-eye perspective you would be hard pushed to distinguish whether this was an AMD or NVIDIA GPU. I have said it before but I do like the brushed aluminium shroud which gives off an air of quality to the overall product. The black contrasting centre and satin black fans contrast very well with the aluminium which overall, in my opinion at least has to be one of the best looking GPUs currently on the market.

Card Bottom

Looking at the rear we find an abundance of spring loaded screws holding the PCB to the Double Dissipation cooler. Interestingly, like the reference design, the PCIe power area has dual 8 pins solder points while the card is an 8pin+6pin design signifying that the card originally may have need dual 8pins but has had the power requirements cut back to a 6+8pin configuration. While the PCB is black, the screen printing process over the copper traces makes the PCB look more like very dark brown which is a shame but when installed in a case with anything other than white light you certainly would not be able to tell.

Card Profile

Looking at the card side on, the card again impresses aesthetically. The red aluminium insert with the product title (R7970) and GHOST markings looks great and will happily be shown off through a windowed case.

Twin Fans

Rather than using a high rpm single fan, XFX have ‘doubled’ the cooling power by having twin 90mm fans. This design is not a new concept but it does reduce noise compared the the full shroud of the reference models. The trade off is of course that being an open-air design, hot air is partially exhausted back into the PC enclosure.

PCIe Power

Like the reference designs, the Black Edition of the AMD HD7970 has a 250W maximum power requirement and to supply this power, along with PCI 3.0, the card has both 8pin and 6pin PCIe power ports. Also present is the dual BIOS switch allowing the card to receive BIOS updates with a safety back-up or indeed allowing the user to modify one BIOS while having the peace of mind that there is a back-up present should things go awry.

CrossfireX Capability

Twin Crossfire tabs are present allowing the user to add this card to a multiple GPU setup in CrossfireX configuration.

Let’s strip the card of its clothing to continue the R7970’s examination…

Closer Look Pt.2

Vapor Chamber

Like the reference design, the XFX R7970 uses a vapor chamber to cool the core. The aluminium finned array is sandwiched between the copper baseplate and the twin fans which draw air in from outside, through the heatsink and out of the GPU with the majority of hot air passing outside thanks to the longitudinal fins.

Cooler Contact

Contact with the core was excellent so there would be no need to replace the TIM which is all very good and well because doing so would mean breaking the warranty seals on the screws, voiding the warranty. The memory and VRM have sticky thermal interface tape to transmit heat and are placed on an aluminium mid-plate.

Naked R7970

The R7970 is very much a reference design having the VRM area closet to the PCIe power sockets. There are 12 256MB memory modules surrounding the main core, itself having a parial IHS.

Voltage Regulation

The HD7970 is a 5+1+1 phase design and uses Coiltronics ferrite core lo profile surface mount inductors (1007R3-R15), these along with an abundance of solid capacitors should ensure a smooth, stable power delivery – perfect for overclocking.

CHiL IC

The VRM discussed above is managed by the CHiL 8228G controller. This little device furnishes us with overclocking options allowing voltage and frequency changes. AMD have been there usual cautious selves though so for this review we will be going that extra mile to see just how far these cards can go.

3GB Memory

The memory chips hail from HYNIX with a product code of H5GQ2H24MFR R0C which is rated at 6GBps at 1.6v. Already clocked at 5200MHz we hope to improve on this.

Tahiti Core

Finally, we reach the beating heart of the XFX R7970 Black Edition – the Tahiti core. 28nm along with GCN architecture, the flagship AMD core has impressed us so far, not least because of it’s overclocking ability. This time around, the core is arrives pre-overclocked to 1GHz and so the overclocking headroom is usually diminished slightly however, as we will see later, this isn’t always the case…

Test Setup

With the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them.

Graphics cards on test:

XFX R7970 Black Edition

XFX R7770 Black Edition ‘S’
AMD HD7750
AMD HD7770
HIS HD7970 3GB GDDR5
XFX DD Radeon R7950 3072MB GDDR5
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7970 3072MB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX570 AMP! 1280MB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX570 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-448 Twin Frozr III 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-384 Twin Frozr III 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD6990 4GB GDDR5

For this review we will be using the very latest CAT 11.12 drivers.

Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4-M
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive – Hitachi SATA II 250GB
Samsung F3 1TB
Cooler – Corsair H100

Benchmarks
We have also updated our range of benchmarks to include the following games which will give the graphics cards a challenge and sort the wheat from the chaff. Each benchmark will be run at both stock and maximum overclock settings and utilise 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 resolutions along with AA at various levels (application dependent):

Battlefield 3
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Batman: Arkham City
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Let’s see how today’s test sample performed…

Overclocking, Temperature & Power Consumption Analysis

Being a Black Edition, the XFX R7970 arrives pre-overclocked to 1GHz on the core and an 1425MHz on the memory (5200MHz effective). I therefore had reservations on just how far this graphics card would overclock given that our previous best on a HD7970 was 1125MHz

Unfortunately, at the time of the review MSI’s afterburner utility along with AMD Overdrive did not offer the overclocking flexibility this card deserves as both sliders were easily maxxed out. We therefore delved a little deeper in the overclocking dark arts and attained the following:

The XFX R7970 reached an astonishing 1200MHz on the core and 1575 on the memory before encountering stability issues. Obviously at this speed additional voltage was required but it easily bettered a previous best overclock by 75MHz! As you will see, this makes the XFX R7970 Black Edition the fastest single GPU we have tested at Vortez thus far. An amazing achievement.

Power Consumption
To test for power consumption we do not use anything to technical, just a wall meter which measures the total system power draw minus the monitor.

With those huge overclocks it came as no surprise that the card consumed a fair amount of power. At stock speeds though the card performed well even though pre-overclocked.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we ran Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained.

As previously stated, power is nothing without control and thanks to the Double Dissipation cooler, the XFX graphics card ran very cool at both idle and load. Despite the massive overclock, the card didn’t break a sweat just nudging 80c which is well within the realms of safety and because of the good cooling, the fans did not need to spin up excessively which kept noise to a minimum.

Let’s move on to our suite of benchmarks…

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next instalment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.

Crysis 2

Crytek took an internet beating from its loyal fans due to the fact that they pandered to the console masses and dumbed down the graphics to DirectX 9. Fortunately, fans of the PC version of Crysis managed to force Cryteks hand and they have since developed a DX11 patch and have also enhanced the textures with added tesselation. It is for this reason that we have decided to include it in our suite of benchmarks.

To test the cards we used the Crysis 2 benchmark courtesy of Adrenaline with both the 1.9 patch, DX11 update and Hi-res texture pack. Settings were manually placed to Ultra, DX11 and tessellation enabled with the Central Park map being run 3 times per resolution benchmark test.

Crysis Warhead

Following the success of Crysis, the stand alone expansion “Warhead” was hotly anticipated to bring more game play, more weapons, improved visuals whilst maintaining better performance, the latter being what gamers wanted most. After all how many people upgraded their rigs just to play this game… In the game, you play as the upbeat Brit Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes, chasing down a Korean nuclear warhead. Throw in some ice shooting aliens and we’re bound to have a great game. It sure delivered.

Testing was done using Framebuffer’s Crysis Warhead benchmarking tool. The tests were configured to DirectX 10 at Enthusiast levels. Each test on the Ambush map was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

Metro 2033

Based on the novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Metro 2033, configuring the settings to High and making use of DirectX 11. The frontline scene was looped 3 times for each configuration. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players soaring into Arkham City, the new maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, this highly anticipated sequel introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.

The results below were obtained from the builtin benchmark utility from the game. All the settings were set to

DiRT 3

As players race to elevate their global standing, DiRT 3 is back delivering mud, sweat and gears world over: from the intense weather-beaten rally stages of Europe, Africa and the US, to executing performance driving showcases and career challenges where car control is pushed to spectacular limits.

The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to the maximum available and DirectX 11 was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Futuremark: 3DMark 2011

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. The benchmark was run in both Performance and Extreme presets.

Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Conclusion

As we have shown, the XFX R7970 is the fastest single core GPU we have tested to date. It even manages to better the awesome twin core AMD HD6990 which is a fantastic result. What XFX have created here is a graphics card that can handle anything you throw at it. Excellent performance as ‘standard’, amazing overclocking ability and superb cooling all wrapped up in a great package. Not only that but the XFX R7970 Black Edition is actually cheaper than a reference HD7970 at the time of writing. What more could you ask for?

At £450 the XFX card cannot be labelled as cheap but when you consider that other popular manufacturers are pricing these cards at £480 then the XFX R7970 Black Edition soon becomes a no brainer if you are looking for a top of the range graphics card unit capable of playing any game out there at the highest resolutions with all the trimmings.

If I was being picky (and I am) then I would have liked to have seen a couple of MOLEX-PCIe power adapters included with the package and perhaps a better PCB silk screening process on the card as the brown (admittedly dark) PCB does taint the aesthetics a little. Other than that I’m struggling to find anything to moan about.

There really is very little to fault with the graphics card we have reviewed today. The Double Dissipation cooling not only looks great but performs really well, capable of cooling the massive overclock we achieved with ease. Perhaps my one reservation with regards to performance is the power consumption. The R7970 is not a hungry card at stock speeds but due to the excessive amounts of voltage required for the mammoth overclock, power consumption soon rocketed. As I said earlier in the review – ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. If the environment is of little concern to you then don’t hold back on the overclocks because this card can take it by the bucket load. Just don’t go crying to me when Greenpeace start stoning your house in protest!

All things considered, the XFX R7970 Black Edition is going to take some beating. How this will be done I honestly cannot say because for all intents and purposes, this card is nigh on perfect. For this reason, I can see no other option than to give the XFX R7970 Black Edition our very highest accolade – the revered Platinum award.

Pros:

+ Silly fast overclocks
+ Class leading packaging
+ Excellent cooling performance and looks
+ Very Quiet

Cons:
– Warranty void when cooler removed