FRONTPAGE ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Graphics Card Review

FWIW, I'm still using this card as I type. I've gamed for hours overclocked in Eyefinity and it has never given me artifacts (unless I overclocked it too far, heh) or given me any troubles what-so-ever. IIRC, ASUS denied that there was a fault when that was published (which was seven months ago). Can you link to the things you're referencing? I'll bring them to ASUS' attention.

My stock 7970 DirectCU II will be in tomorrow. I'll be sure to check the contact area in question before installing it. I leave on a short trip to Yellowstone National Park for a long weekend come this Thursday, so I really won't be able to say much as I won't have much time to do any testing until I return.

I will be installing a EK waterblock when I return, but not before I do some benching to get a good reference to compare the waterblock benching to.

-Rodger

Got it in Wednesday and installed. On vacation now and will be posting more in my original thread titled "Hey, how do you unlock VDDC on the XFX 9770?", I suppose. Already cluttered up this thread more then I was thinking would happen.

Thanks for all the prodding back to AMD, I think it will be the best way to go. Hope this card is going to be at least a really good choice, even if not the best choice I could have made.

We'll see.

-Rodger

Typo there.

From *** ROG MBs. Should say from ASUS ROG MBs.

Glad you got your card marjamar, let us know how you like it.

As far as AMD/ASUS, I haven't prodded yet because I'm waiting on Humanoid1 to supply links to the issue he saw. When he does that, I'll bring them to ASUS' attention.

I had been going through a Lot and a Lot of pages and sites - got carried away in anticipation, am sure you know how it is...

I will try to put together something tonight or tomorrow - just getting energy / time up for that mission - will not be a quick thing to do and is best to make a fair unbiased crack at it if I am to put it forward

I have a few things to say that could help them improve their perception which I hope they do as I really like them as a company. My last motherboard and last 3 GFx cards were all Asus... latest being the 7950 Direct CUII TOP - once it arrives ^^

EarthDog said:

assuming the same res, you will NEED to upgrade your gpu before 2gb isn't enough (single monitor).

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You would be surprised what kind of stuff certain people are using. The issue with the RAM is, as soon as the RAM is overused, the performance will drop countless times, to a almost unplayable condition.

But a processor will simply slowly drop its performance when to weak but there wont be a instant performance drop, which is so crazy that it goes from 100% to almost 0% in a single hit.

I once used a 32 bit system and 3.25 GB RAM (32 bit limit when a 1 GB card is used). When i was dualboxing a game, the RAM was flooded, and at that point the PC almost stopped to work, it was over and impossible to run. RAM simply isnt noticed until its flooded, when they are flooded, its game over.

I was once playing WoW, at 2004 with a PC who got 512 MB RAM (at that time that was pretty normal). As soon as i entered the city the PC stopped to work for up to 5-10 seconds, and it was lagging terrible. The processors was totaly useless to solve the issues, until i decided to upgrade to 1 GB. As soon as that was done... the issues was finally gone. Nowadays such issue are less common because we usualy got huge amount of RAM, buts its still not impossible when it comes to GPU RAM. The impact is usualy lower (than system RAM) because when GPU RAM is flooded the PC is probably trying to use system RAM. But they are much slower, so the performance will drop a good margin, at least it may not stop working.

I understand Ivy... I tested it in BF3 and have seen testing done in other games. 2GB is plenty for now at 1920x1200 or less. More never hurts.

hokiealumnus>>
Have you heard anything about a release date for the 7970 DirectCU II TOP yet?
It's the pitts when you've finally made up your mind to get something but no body has it yet !

Well, I was told partners would have cards about a week after this review, which should have been last week of course. I have no idea why they haven't made it to the stores yet. Actually, the TOP has been "out" for a while AFAIK, but they're more highly binned so there are just much fewer of them available.

There is another ASUS 7970 that's even higher binned that is supposed to be coming out sometime in October. I'm still under NDA so I can't say anything else about it, but it's coming.

I was just wondering cause EGG has the HD7970-DC2-3GD5 but not the HD7970-DC2T-3GD5.
I did run across something about another ASUS 7970 that's suppose to have the Ghz Edition core in it and some more ROG goodies in it for LN2 but it wasn't going to be released until after the first of the year, too long to wait .

Let's just say NDA's don't typically last months.

Been playing with the DCUII for a few hours on and off. It's a fine card by all respects. I have ran it with Afterburner 2.2.4 settings to MAX and it works well until you get into gaming. Right now I'm working the overclock out using Dirt Showdown as the testbed. Seems pretty stable with core clock at 1050 and Vore Voltage at Max. Normal temps are at 39C and max temps have hit 59C. I'm in ambient 74F.

-Rodger

I guess I have to ask here... How do you get full control of this card?

I'm going to be installing full custom water loop shortly and I would like to be able to up the vcore and clocks. I have tried msi Afterburner and GPU Tweak and both limit overclocking. I can't get ROG Connect working with ROGConnectPlus to allow GPU Tweakit to function. RC Tweakit doesn't see GPU Tweakit's Server on the host PC.

All of the versions are the latest out. I know GPU Tweakit is suppose to work to allow higher clocks, or so I was impressed to believe. Anyone figured this out yet?

-Rodger

What do you mean 'limits overclocking'?

EarthDog said:

What do you mean 'limits overclocking'?

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The highest settings go to in msi Afterburner is 1300mV on Vcore. Both CPUID Hardware Monitor and msi Kombustor only shows a max voltage of 1.17v. under 100% load. If I can't get vcore voltage higher, I won't be upping clocks past 1050/1575 which is as high as I can go and still remain stable right now.

-Rodger

I have the GPU Tweak version that allows up to 1.4v. I'll try and find a way to upload it for you. Won't happen right away, hopefully by tomorrow.

hokiealumnus said:

I have the GPU Tweak version that allows up to 1.4v. I'll try and find a way to upload it for you. Won't happen right away, hopefully by tomorrow.

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Thanks. Did you try to access GPU TweakIt from RC TweakIt yet? I have used RC TweakIt for almost 2 years now and have found it the best way to adjust on the fly. I would love to have access to the GPU though this software. It's suppose to work this way with my Crosshair V Formula-Z, but it cannot access the GPU TweakIT Server on the PC.

-Rodger

No, sorry; I haven't tried that.

hokiealumnus said:

I have the GPU Tweak version that allows up to 1.4v. I'll try and find a way to upload it for you. Won't happen right away, hopefully by tomorrow.

Click to expand...

Can you post the version number ?