ASUS 7970 DirectCU II available now

bill_d said:
well if Amazon ever ships my two i ordered on the 5th and 10th, and i have got no updates as to when :mad:

but they will get EK waterblocks after a 30 to 60 days test, that should cool the VRMs off
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Why wouldn't you just buy reference then water cool?
 
TehQuick said:
doubt it. Two of these require 6 slots all for themselves, with 2 slots empty between them
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Someone just told me it should fit... can you help me officially confirm/infirm that ?
I verified the lenght and it's allright, but I wouldn't know how to check for the space between the cards... I was told it would fit and leave one pcie slot.. ?
 
hardforummarc said:
Damn, that might sound ridiculous, but I have no idea where to look for... I'd need you help for this one if you can
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in that case i suggest learning more about the mobo. download the manual, see the layout and what kind of slots it has.
 
Just a heads up, if you want to use the ASUS GPU Tweak with this card, make sure not to get the latest (and worse than RC11) 12.2 drivers from AMDs website. They have compatibility issues with tweak utilities and overall have horrible game performance (Saints row went from 30FPS in sunny areas to maxed vsync 60fps with RC11).
 
Shurakai said:
Just a heads up, if you want to use the ASUS GPU Tweak with this card, make sure not to get the latest (and worse than RC11) 12.2 drivers from AMDs website. They have compatibility issues with tweak utilities and overall have horrible game performance (Saints row went from 30FPS in sunny areas to maxed vsync 60fps with RC11).
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it beginning to look like 12.3 will be out before mine ship anyways :(
 
TehQuick said:
well, it might be better to have a large solid piece of metal which absorbs heat on one side (i.e. from the PCB) and dissipates on the other through the large surface area.
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Your are right but I am talking about the back plate which doesn't have any contact to the hot parts. In the image below, you can see the rectangular hole above the "RE" which is exactly over the back of the VRM modules. That hole, my card doesn't have. Whether that's a big drawback i don't know but at least it's for sure now that there are different DC2T cards out there. Maybe ASUS does have actually some problems with their manufacturing/design (it was the first 7970 with custom PCB) and more revisions are coming.

ASUS-7970HD-DC2T-back-with-hole.png
 
Yeah, I thought the same about the thermal strip. I also thought about removing the backplate altogether and to add some supporting structure between the bottom of the computer case and the cooler. Since one of the functions of the backplate is to counter the stress on the PCB caused by the downward pull of the heavy cooler.

Maybe ASUS noticed the high VRM temperatures in their first revision and decided to cut a hole into the backplate, lol. Which could also explain the scarcity of the card.
 
My card has the rectangle cutout and my HAF 932 has a 120MM fan lined up to blow air straight over it, still hit 100C under load.

HWiNFO32 shows me two VRM temp's. GPU VRM Temp 1 and 2. Right now at rest one is 72C and the other 26C.
 
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Shurakai said:
Silly Asus, save the laser cutting and just add a .50c thermal strip :p
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In my opinion the heat is only radiating from the VGA card's other side where VRMs are located.
Cooling the backplate and/or PCB will not affect VRM temps.
 
Dear P4rD0nM3 (or any other ASUS IV Extreme owner),

Have you tried the VGA HotWire with 7970 DCUII card?
Are there any advantages using this method for OC instead of GPU Tweaker/MSI Afterburner?
 
Well, ASUS must felt the need to add the cutout even if it doesn't seem to help much. And sure, most of the heat is created on the top side. There the VRM modules actually have a heatsink (albeit a small one) but they are underneath the main heatsink, whose fins are also quite densely packed (the Arctic Excelero Xtreme for example has bigger, wider spaced fins) so that probably not much air gets through to them. And at the back end of the card, the cards big metal frame blocks almost all air flow.

HWiNFO32 shows me two VRM temp's. GPU VRM Temp 1 and 2. Right now at rest one is 72C and the other 26C.
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The higher one is probably for the GPU VRM modules and the other one might be for the memory related power circuits.
 
Radi8tor said:
In my opinion the heat is only radiating from the VGA card's other side where VRMs are located.
Cooling the backplate and/or PCB will not affect VRM temps.
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Very true, I recognised the error of my above comment when I took the backplate off a few moments ago, I didn't read well enough and didn't realise my version doesn't even have any VRM on the back, silly me :p
 
The VRM are connected to the back of the PCB so some heat is dissipated there but by far not as much as on the other side.
 
No back back ;).
The VRM are placed on the front (GPU/heatsink side) of the PCB, but there are parts of them which come out on the back of the PCB too, see here:
asus-hd7950-dc2t-3gd5.jpg
 
BluePaint said:
... there are parts of them which come out on the back of the PCB too ...
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Sorry but I think that no parts are come out of the PCB on the back side. It is soldered from the front side. :rolleyes:
The card which is displayed on the linked image is 7950 DCUII (but this is not an issue).
 
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Can't wait for the EK block. I want mine in plexi.

Btw my backplate has the VRM cutouts
 
tonspike said:
What is the heat like on that setup?
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Sorry, don't know - it's not my setup. I was just trying to find visual proof that two of these beasts can be put in crossfire without resorting to an EATX board.
 
Ordered one last night from here: http://www.pcnation.com/web/details.asp?item=LL7476 when it was instock, now listed as "in the warehouse". $609 w/free 3 day fedex. Already have an order at amazon for $579-5%(chase freedom)-4%(amazon referal from friends blog) but that's only got an estimated ship date of march 6th-13th... Would like all 3 of my monitors back as I'm stuck running with only 2.

Decisions, decisions.

edit: See they've dropped the price to $592.16, the plot thickens(!)...
 
Well, so much for ASUS quality. 1300/1600 can't be stabilized with even 1.3v. 71.6 ASIC quality :(
 
That's funny. Maximum overclock is always a lottery and a 1300Mhz stable overclock with 1.3v is nowhere guaranteed. Also, 1.3v for 71.6 ASIC quality also doesn't seem to be that much voltage. But if you go even higher with the voltage the ASUS cooler won't do since the 7970s are quite sensitive to temperature. Next step up would be a Accelero Extreme or similar air cooler with more dissipation area and then water and then liquid sth. :D
 
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Shurakai said:
Well, so much for ASUS quality. 1300/1600 can't be stabilized with even 1.3v. 71.6 ASIC quality :(
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How high did you get stable? If you got anywhere near 1300, that's already impressive in its own.
So far I haven't been able to stabilize at 1200 MHz, at least not when stress testing with BF3 and Metro 2033 with SSAA. It's fine in 3dmark11 Advanced and any other game I throw at it, but those 2 games listed tax the heck out of any GPU.
 
Shurakai said:
Well, so much for ASUS quality. 1300/1600 can't be stabilized with even 1.3v. 71.6 ASIC quality :(
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There is no connection between ASIC quality and OC capability. You have to remember this.
ASIC quality is only affects Extreme-OC (LN2 or dice).

AMD's Dave Baumann said:
Actually, it does the opposite! We scale the voltage based on leakage, so the higher leakage parts use lower voltage and the lower leakage parts use a higher voltage - what this is does narrow the entire TDP range of the product.
Everything is qualified at worst case anyway; all the TDP calcs and the fan settings are completed on the worst case for the product range.
 
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