Gigabyte HD7970 OC Review

Introduction

The last generation of Radeon graphics cards was most definitely a hot noisy bunch. One of the biggest changes with the Tahiti GPUs has been how relatively cool and quiet the HD7970s have been. However, being cool and quiet in reference terms is one thing, but we all know that even the best reference coolers can be bettered with something a bit more robust in the heatsink department.

The other big quality that the HD7970 has is overclocking. Even basic cards can be pushed into 1200MHz and beyond. They overclock as easily as almost anything we've come across so it's no great surprise that we're getting some cards coming out from the manufacturers with decent overclocks 'out of the box'

First up in the big overclock/third-party-cooler line is Gigabyte with the HD7970 OC, replete with their Windforce cooler we last saw on a GTX560Ti 448.

Technical Specifications

The big number you can't help but swoon at is the 1000MHz default clock speed. If you're one of those people who don't like overclocking your £500 purchase then this will obviously be something that should push the Gigabyte high up your list.