XFX FX-797A-TDBC Pro Reviews

To get one of the highest end AMD video cards available in the XFX Double D HD 7970 GHz Edition you will have to spend $424.99 after rebates. This can be looked at as good or bad depending on which video card you are comparing it to. When comparing it to the GeForce GTX 680 this is a good deal. It can provide performance equal to a stock GeForce GTX 680 with the help of overclocking for $30 dollars less. However when comparing it to a high-end GeForce GTX 670 it does not seem like it is as good of a deal. Time and time again the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 670 was close in performance to the stock XFX Double D HD 7970 GHz Edition. After overclocking each video card the performance difference was minimal and provided no change in gameplay experience. The issue here is that the XFX Double D HD 7970 GHz Edition is $30 dollars more expensive than the GeForce GTX 670, but does not boast the same performance advantage that the GeForce GTX 680 does over the XFX Double D HD 7970 GHz Edition. Basically, you can get the same gameplay experience, identical overclocking potential, and similar temperatures for $30 dollars less by going with a customized GeForce GTX 670. XFX built a great video card with the XFX Double D HD 7970 GHz Edition. It stays cool and provides excellent performance in all video games. If you are in the market for a cool and easily overclockable Radeon HD 7970 based video card, pay attention to the XFX Double D HD 7970 GHz Edition. If you want to save some cash, an overclocked GeForce GTX 670 is also an excellent alternative.

In every game in this evaluation, the XFX R7970 Black Edition outshone its competition. In three of four games, it was a sound stomping. This is the kind of high-end single-GPU video card we get excited about. XFX has taken a brand new GPU and built a custom video card with custom cooling in short order. By giving the GPU a respectable factory overclock, an elegant and effective cooling device, and high-end power management components, XFX has created a welcome contender among a field of reference clones. At $599 the XFX R7970 holds a price premium of $50 over the already high price of $549 for the Radeon HD 7970. For that $50 you get a custom PCB, and custom cooling which may or may not result in high levels of overclocking. It is hard to say if it is a good overclock or not at this point in time because the only comparison we have is to the reference video card. As we evaluate more Radeon HD 7970's we will see what our average overclocking results turn out to be. Right now, it seems like $50 is too much for the level of overclocking we achieved. If overclocking is not your cup of tea, and you simply wish to run this video card out-of-the-box as is, then the 1GHz factory overclock is a decent boost to performance with no sweat off your back.

XFX knows it is on to a winner with the Radeon HD 7970 GPU. Excellent underlying design and gobs of performance make it the best choice for the enthusiast who's not encumbered with budget constraints, and we'll have to wait until NVIDIA releases its next-gen part, Kepler, at the very least, before AMD's premier GPU is shunted down the pecking order. And while the reference card is perfectly serviceable, XFX also understands that differentiation is key in garnering interest and sales. One of the first out of the gate with a custom-cooled offering, XFX's HD 7970 Double Dissipation Edition provides incremental improvements over the AMD-supplied model.

The HD 7970 has proven itself to be one of the post popular graphics cards in the post holiday buying season and with good reason. It is efficient, soundly beats NVIDIA’s incumbent flagship and While availability is still touch and go, AMD’s board partners have stepped up to the plate with some unique designs and as usual XFX wants to lead the pack. Their Black Edition Double Dissipation does what all other custom cards should do: improve upon nearly every aspect of the reference design. Last week, we looked at the HD 7950 version of this card and came away reasonably impressed with its performance, overclocking abilities and heatsink design. The HD 7970 Black Edition DD meanwhile takes all of its sibling’s high points and turns them up to eleven. By increasing both the memory and core frequencies, XFX has been able to push framerates to within spitting distance of the previous generation’s most power graphics card; the HD 6990. This is a worthy achievement in and of itself but with a bit of massaging, the Black Edition easily hit the 1.15GHz mark, resulting in mind blowing performance for a single GPU product.

Having just looked at a reference card for the hard launch of the HD 7970, it's interesting to see a non-reference cooling solution on a card with boosted clock speeds so soon – in fact, ready to go at launch. With its higher clock speeds and better cooling, the card was able to be pushed that much further when overclocked. I was able to push the core clock to 1177 MHz and the GDDR5 memory clock to 1652 MHz. Both are pretty substantial bumps over the reference clocks and the CCC clock speed limits. Using the latest Beta Afterburner software and bumping up core voltage, as well as the Power Tune voltage, the card just felt like it needed more voltage to go faster. Even so, the higher base clock speeds on the XFX HD 7970 Black Edition equates to an increase in the already stellar performance of the HD 7970 – everything else on top of that is just gravy. This HD 7970 Black Edition, featuring "Double Dissipation" cooling, from XFX is a step forward, as it uses XFX's X Factor technology and GPU Edging process to make sure that this Black Edition card can deliver better-than-stock gaming performance. Just what are all of these X factors? They are a series of technologies and features that drive reliability and performance –things like XFX's Duratec Professional Grade components, including a 2oz copper layer in the PCB for lower impedance, higher power efficiency, and better cooling.

The XFX Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition has all the earmarks of a winner: superb performance, relatively low power consumption, and better than average noise levels. It’s pricey, at $599, but no more so than other cards in its class. If you crave the fastest single-GPU card in the world, it’s here—and it includes the twin bonuses of easy multi-monitor support and high efficiency.

I’ve got to say that this has been an amazing launch from AMD and they need it since their last launch of the FX processors was such a letdown. NVidia had set the bar rather high with their top performing GTX 580 and 590 graphics cards and for AMD to turn around and release a card that performs so closely to the 590 is amazing. Not only does it perform so closely but it does so at a much lower price point.

Being the first mover in any market has its advantages, and this is especially true for XFX’s Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition Double Dissipation. While there’s nothing here we haven’t seen in the past on other video cards – a custom cooler and a moderate factory overclock – for the time being XFX is the only vendor offering either of those. Not surprisingly the Black Edition Double Dissipation appears to have sold out over at Newegg before our NDA even expired.