FRONTPAGE ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Graphics Card Review

hokiealumnus · Oct 10, 2012

marjamar said:
I use to race 1/12th scale electric R/C cars about 20 years back. The best batteries I could find didn't even come close to those the sponsored drivers had. About a year into the sport, I started getting good at it and was approached by a team driver to maybe join up with their team. I thought about it and asked him why I should, and he handed my a fresh pack of Ni-cads and said this is some of the reason.

I charged those batteries and went on the next event. 8 minutes later, I won the race and my car was just as fast as it was at the beginning of the race.

The point here is, if you have 100's, 1000's, 10,000's of cards to pick the best ones from, who do you suppose gets some of the very best cards???

Don't fault hokie, he's only doing what he's suppose to do -- Show of ASUS's stuff. He does it quite well BTW.

-Rodger

FWIW, I actually asked them about that in a recent conversation, because getting pre-binned hardware is a pretty big concern of mine. Frankly, I think it's crap if companies do that. I was told that ASUS prides itself on sending off-the-line hardware to reviewers, no binning involved. There definitely IS binning by their engineers that go and set benchmarking records (i.e. Andre & Shamino @ ASUS, TiN & k|ngp|n @ EVGA), but for sending to little ol' me, they say they don't do it. What reviewers get is reportedly representative of the crapshoot that is buying one off the shelf.

I can also say, in no uncertain terms, Intel did NOT bin the 3960X they sent. It is a craaaaaapy clocker for extreme benchmarking, with a horrid IMC to boot. Not relative to Joe Average's chip, but relative to people that bin two or three, it's pretty bad.

marjamar · Oct 11, 2012

Oh, I don't disbelieve you at all. There was a difference between Team Trinity and Team Delta as I had friends and 1 brother on those teams. I also am part owner in a online hobby shop and kit manufacturer. We send out kits to various reviewers from time to time and have often been asked for more then we would normally provide for a review. It's all part of the game. The difference is the players. Some play by their own rules (not always a bad thing BTW) and some like to follow rules set for them. Then of course there are those who make up the rules along the way -- Those you need to keep and eye on, if you know what I mean.

-Rodger

heplayer · Oct 11, 2012

At least I could get 1231MHZ-1676MHZ in 3DMark11, I know that not all cards will get the same OC, and I need to habituate to the use of MSI AB and GPU Tweak at the same time, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but for now I agree with this extra 300MHZ against the reference card.
I appreciate your help.

Zaim · Feb 25, 2013

Great review. I'm thinking of buying a Asus DCII 7970 TOP but I'm concerned about the voltage control.

Can you confirm if I use GPU Tweak 2.2.1.4 I'll be able to control the voltage? and what's the max it goes to?

hokiealumnus · Feb 25, 2013

On my card, only 2.2.1.4 controls voltage up to 1.4V. You can get less with other versions, but that specific version is good for 1.4V. The download link is a few posts ago: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7315010&postcount=82 :thup:

EDIT - As a side note, no 7970 I've ever used can handle 1.4V on air. They start artifacting anywhere from 1.33V to 1.35V. Unless you freeze it, you won't need 1.4V to max out the card.

Zaim · Feb 25, 2013

hokiealumnus said:
On my card, only 2.2.1.4 controls voltage up to 1.4V. You can get less with other versions, but that specific version is good for 1.4V. The download link is a few posts ago: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7315010&postcount=82

EDIT - As a side note, no 7970 I've ever used can handle 1.4V on air. They start artifacting anywhere from 1.33V to 1.35V. Unless you freeze it, you won't need 1.4V to max out the card.

Ah cheers mate, I was told that even the TOP version is voltage locked so I wanted to make sure, so even the latest version on the Asus website should allow some voltage control ? e.g. upto 1.3?

Thanks.

hokiealumnus · Feb 25, 2013

I believe so, yes. However, tbh, since I was given this version, I never bothered trying the updated version on the site.

Zaim · Feb 25, 2013

hokiealumnus said:
I believe so, yes. However, tbh, since I was given this version, I never bothered trying the updated version on the site.

Ah right, sorry last question, can you control/monitor the voltage in MSI Afterburner ?

hokiealumnus · Feb 25, 2013

No, ASUS uses a proprietary voltage controller, not the generic CHiL controller. AB will not have the ability to adjust the voltage.

Zaim · Feb 25, 2013

hokiealumnus said:
No, ASUS uses a proprietary voltage controller, not the generic CHiL controller. AB will not have the ability to adjust the voltage.

Oh right, i thought you might be able at least monitor the voltage.

Thanks for your help.

EarthDog · Feb 25, 2013

You may be able to? I thought, and could be wrong, that monitoring and adjusting the voltages are handled by different chips. Its that way on mobo's at least. Just not sure in this case though. You can try DL and checking.

hokiealumnus · Feb 25, 2013

I think AB should monitor the voltage ok; it just won't adjust it.

Bobnova · Feb 25, 2013

The Digi+ series is all made for Asus by CHiL. Odds are that chip is a 8228 with a new shiny label, roughly speaking. The pinout looks to be the same, based on the pictures of the area. Whether they changed the active i2c registers to make it only respond to Asus software or not I don't know.

hokiealumnus · Feb 25, 2013

I figured it was a re-brand, but whatever they did to it makes it work only with ASUS' software.

Bobnova · Feb 25, 2013

Punks. They had to intentionally do that (well, request that CHiL do that for them), too.

Boulard83 · Feb 25, 2013

I had DCII cards in the past and they all worked with MSI AB. Is the 7970 Vreg that different ? The last 570 DCII i had was running of a rebranded CHil (IIRC) controller wich worked with MSI AB.

Bobnova · Feb 25, 2013

It depends on the specific rebrand and whether they changed the i2c registers and whether AB has been told to look in said registers.

briansun1 · Feb 25, 2013

do you get to keep the hard ware or do you have to send it back?

hokiealumnus · Feb 25, 2013

Depends on the hardware. This card I've still got; most are kept. The ARES II had to be sent back.

briansun1 · Feb 25, 2013

ok so what do you do with all thoughs cards?

FRONTPAGE ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Graphics Card Review

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