ASUS 7970 DirectCU II available now

It's a bust for me. Selling the card and getting me a reference one with a nice Komodo block.
 
I got one from NewEgg. Here is the summary
a) it is the model without cutouts for VRM
b) the VRM as reported by Asus' own GPU tweak application is 108C under load (SWTOR) (thank you QwaarJet for C vs F correction)
c) although the VRM temp seems high, the card is stable (no lockouts, or reboots)
d) GPU temp never goes above 72C
e) I have 3x1080p in eyefinity and a fourth 30 inch 2560x1600 (using dual link DVI). The dual link DVI appears to create some very fine artifacts for blue/grey colors. These look like the noise on a photo with high iso. I will try to replace the DVI cable soon and see if that makes a difference (although it used to work just fine with this cable on my 6950). It was reported before by another user that dual link DVI might have issues. If cable is not the problem, I will try the dreaded DP2DVI-DL adapter.

Overall, mildly happy (no crash, good performance, but high VRM temp and dual link DVI noise).
 
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have you manually adjusted your fan speeds? 72C seems kinda warm. Mine never leaves the 50's.
 
Just got mine from newegg... Its running smooth in CFX with a sapphire 7970 ref card both are OCd to the highest settings in CCC and I haven't seen any issues. I run 5 monitors (5400x1920 resolution) from that card and the only thing I've noticed is mouse corruption on one screen (once). Running BF3 I get average 50fps on High, and 60fps on Medium. Overall I'm quite happy with it. Wish it was 5 Display ports instead to avoid the tearing on the 2 side monitors, but hopefully soon that mysterious hub will appear and our worries will disappear... :D
 
Just got mine from newegg... Its running smooth in CFX with a sapphire 7970 ref card both are OCd to the highest settings in CCC and I haven't seen any issues. I run 5 monitors (5400x1920 resolution) from that card and the only thing I've noticed is mouse corruption on one screen (once). Running BF3 I get average 50fps on High, and 60fps on Medium. Overall I'm quite happy with it. Wish it was 5 Display ports instead to avoid the tearing on the 2 side monitors, but hopefully soon that mysterious hub will appear and our worries will disappear... :D

I have a question for you.

I've currently got a Sapphire 7970 reference model and have the Asus DCUII on the way. I will also be running 5 screens in Eyefinity 5x1 landscape mode. How do you have the monitors connected? Are they all connected to the Asus? Are there any special requirements for setting this up?

I'm debating if I should keep my original 7970 or sell it. The main game I play (iRacing) doesn't have a specific Crossfire profile, so I'm not sure how much improvement I will see anyways.
 
I got one from NewEgg. Here is the summary
a) it is the model without cutouts for VRM
b) the VRM as reported by Asus' own GPU tweak application is 108C under load (SWTOR) (thank you QwaarJet for C vs F correction)
c) although the VRM temp seems high, the card is stable (no lockouts, or reboots)
d) GPU temp never goes above 72C
e) I have 3x1080p in eyefinity and a fourth 30 inch 2560x1600 (using dual link DVI). The dual link DVI appears to create some very fine artifacts for blue/grey colors. These look like the noise on a photo with high iso. I will try to replace the DVI cable soon and see if that makes a difference (although it used to work just fine with this cable on my 6950). It was reported before by another user that dual link DVI might have issues. If cable is not the problem, I will try the dreaded DP2DVI-DL adapter.

Overall, mildly happy (no crash, good performance, but high VRM temp and dual link DVI noise).

k. I got a new DVI cable and I still get the same "grain noise" over the dual link DVI connection. I have changed to use an active DP2DVI-DL adapter (the accell variety) and I have no issue that way.

To summarize, in my case, dual link DVI introduces "grain noise". If you want 2560x1600, you need a DP to DVI active adapter. This was the same remark of another user of this forum. So much for me bashing MSI Lignthing on not having dual link DVI...
 
k. I got a new DVI cable and I still get the same "grain noise" over the dual link DVI connection. I have changed to use an active DP2DVI-DL adapter (the accell variety) and I have no issue that way.

To summarize, in my case, dual link DVI introduces "grain noise". If you want 2560x1600, you need a DP to DVI active adapter. This was the same remark of another user of this forum. So much for me bashing MSI Lignthing on not having dual link DVI...

yes something is just a little off with the dl-dvi i had to buy
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815158198
 
k. I got a new DVI cable and I still get the same "grain noise" over the dual link DVI connection. I have changed to use an active DP2DVI-DL adapter (the accell variety) and I have no issue that way.

To summarize, in my case, dual link DVI introduces "grain noise". If you want 2560x1600, you need a DP to DVI active adapter. This was the same remark of another user of this forum. So much for me bashing MSI Lignthing on not having dual link DVI...

I got the same thing with my DVI too HDMI dongles I was using

The way I fixed it was using the DVI too HDMI dongle that came with the videocard in the box, otherwise it wouldn't display properly, and like you said you got some grain noise from it

For some reason the 7970 series -HATES- old DVI dongles, you need new ones for the 7970 series or you get distortion. I found this out through some various forums, why I searched the box and tried the DVI dongle that came with it vs the five I have in my room
 
Silly question perhaps, but did you try a different cable?
I only run 2560x1440 and have no issues. Could be a bandwidth limitation that's being approached...
 
Silly question perhaps, but did you try a different cable?
I only run 2560x1440 and have no issues. Could be a bandwidth limitation that's being approached...

yes i tried two different cables that worked fine with a 4890 and 6970
and i tried both of my Asus DCUII cards one at a time and bouh together
it could be something set wrong in the cards bios for that bios switch position that cuts the bandwidth just a little
i tried at 1080 on the dl-dvi port to and it was fine

it is just a little noise or artifacting but more than enough to be annoying
 
Silly question perhaps, but did you try a different cable?
I only run 2560x1440 and have no issues. Could be a bandwidth limitation that's being approached...

Same here, I run 2560x1440 and have no issue with the DL-DVI connection.
 
Same here, I run 2560x1440 and have no issue with the DL-DVI connection.

well my theory is your screen has a scaler and the older 30" screens do not

The color behavior can’t be changed in-monitor because there’s no scaler. The standard (cost-effective) scalers that are used in monitors do not have the bandwidth to process 2560x1600 pixels 60 times a second and with some exceptions, all 30-inchers in the market live life without scalers. HP’s LP3065 was no exception to this rule.

Hence, no in-monitor color management. But, all graphics cards have scalers.

The ZR30w is for the commercial/professional market and as such is meant for attachment to desktops and workstations where there is always a scaler present.
http://jonpeddie.com/reviews/comments/hp-zr30w-review
 
Hmm... My S27A850D seems to have a scaler too I read, but it might not be needed at resolutions <2560x1600 I guess...
 
I have a question for you.

I've currently got a Sapphire 7970 reference model and have the Asus DCUII on the way. I will also be running 5 screens in Eyefinity 5x1 landscape mode. How do you have the monitors connected? Are they all connected to the Asus? Are there any special requirements for setting this up?

I'm debating if I should keep my original 7970 or sell it. The main game I play (iRacing) doesn't have a specific Crossfire profile, so I'm not sure how much improvement I will see anyways.
.

Yes I have it all connected to the Asus. 3 on DP using active adapters to dvi... and 2 into the dvi. Nothing special is required other than active adapters if you don't have displayport monitors. At this point you might as well keep your other 7970 unless you want to take a hit. Plus you may try new games in the future. I know even dirt 3 over 5 monitors really hits those cards hard... can't even play on ultra ... Med/high works...
 
Well, just got the MSI 7970 Lightning. I already have an Asus 7970 DCII.
I got the MSI because of the few things I was unhappy with Asus
a) the dual link DVI on Asus is producing grain noise artifacts on 2560x1600. So I had to get an DP to DL-DVI adapter (Accell)
b) the VRM temp are a bit high (108C for my VRM, 72C for GPU, 28C ambient temp)

so, since I have to use an adapter for my 30" monitor, I figured that I might as well go with MSI.
Maybe I got a dud, but my MSI has the following issues
a) the Accell DP to DL-DVI adapter does not work. When I activate the monitor, all my monitors will flash continuously.
b) it is considerably louder than the Asus card (not measured, just perception). The fans spin more faster, both in idle and load modes.
c) the GPU does get to 78C and the VRM temps are not exposed.
d) the GPU usage seems more "sporadic" on MSI than on Asuse.e.g. Playing SWTOR, whereas Asus is usually at 97-98% GPU usage, MSI jumps from 88% to 100% GPU usage (quite a ragged graph).

Thus, the MSI is going back to newgg. I am an Asus believer again :).

My configuration
3 x Samsung S27A950 120Hz (1920x1080) for Eyefinity (yes, HD3D eyefinity works also)
1 x LG W3000H 30" monitor (2560x1600)
(Asus Rampage IV extreme, I7 3930K, 32Gb mem)
 
IMHO, there is something wrong with the Asus DCT2 design.

With stock air cooler, 1025/1400 was crashing in 3 seconds. LOL!

Installed a 60$ EK unviversal waterblock on it, some thermal pads on the back side directly on the VRMs, and now at stock voltage I can do 1175/1600 without any problems. Just ran Furmark 30 minutes and 3D Mark 11 10X in a row, played BF3 2 hours, and everything is rock-stable.

Temp is 33 celsius MAX on my chip at stock voltage 1175/1600 after 30 minutes of Furmark.

Asus. There is something wrong with your air cooler design. :(

The ''mammoth tank'' is working much better! :)

6877553752_5f03fd97ff_b.jpg
 
soldered a 10k vr to the pll solder point on my 7970-dc2t wound it up to 950mv from 887mv but there was no benefit at all just like upping the gpu v from 1180mv to 1300mv doesnt help and putting the gpu on water dropping its temps to 30c didnt help
the card is still stuck at a max stableish clock speed of 1200mhz

this being the first gpu i have ever owned that doesnt respond well to water\v is kinda disappointing although i have had a run of cpu's that didnt respond to water\v at 1177mhz ~1150mv it makes a fairly efficient air cooled card and drivers are edging it closer to the performance my gtx480 sli provided but with less than a third of the power use and no multi gpu problems
 
This is more of a theoretical question than a practical exercise:

I wonder if there is a limit on how many monitors (on which resolution) can you run on the card. Similar with how a single link DVI is limited to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz, or how you have to disable a DP port to run DL-DVI.

If there is no limitation, then the card should be able to run
4 DP - 4 x 1080p monitors @120Hz (that need DL-DVI when used with DVI)
2 SL-DVI - 2 x monitors on 1920X1200@60Hz (max for SL-DVI)

Thus, the card would be pushing the equivalent of 4*2+2=10 single link DVIs.

Or is there a limitation where it cannot push more than the equivalent of 6 single link DVIs (the advertised "6 monitors"), which means that if you are running DL-DVI resolutions (like 1080p @120 Hz), you can use only 3 monitors.

Anybody has some thoughts on this ?
 
I haven't found anyone who has had any success with iRacing and any of the Crossfire profiles.

I'll do some messing around with it later, hopefully will be getting my DCII in today or tomorrow.
 
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1020682

Again, all you saying the VRM's are reporting 100C+, that is wrong

ASUS themselves said the VRM reporting temperatures was wrong, and they and one other website I know of has taken thermal images showing that the VRM temperatures doesn't even exceed 60C under load, like here http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7962/cidimage002jpg01cd004d.jpg

The VRM temperatures are fine, the last two pages I've seen people again complaining about 108c etc VRM temperatures, but those are wrong cause like I said far far far before in this thread that Asus uses non-standard VRM's, which have non-standard sensors, so they report wrong given that every GPU monitoring program is written for standard VRM's, not Asus's custom ones
 
Yeah the VRM issue seems to have been cleared up.

I think I'm going to order the EK DirectCU block right now. I guess i'll just be the first in line when it comes out very soon
 
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I don't get a single crash with my card, even at 1125/1575 with stock voltages and three hours of Metro 2033
 
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1020682

Again, all you saying the VRM's are reporting 100C+, that is wrong

ASUS themselves said the VRM reporting temperatures was wrong, and they and one other website I know of has taken thermal images showing that the VRM temperatures doesn't even exceed 60C under load, like here http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7962/cidimage002jpg01cd004d.jpg

The VRM temperatures are fine, the last two pages I've seen people again complaining about 108c etc VRM temperatures, but those are wrong cause like I said far far far before in this thread that Asus uses non-standard VRM's, which have non-standard sensors, so they report wrong given that every GPU monitoring program is written for standard VRM's, not Asus's custom ones

The post from Asus might be right, but consider that a lot of users purchase the cars made by a manufacturer: Asus, then they download the monitoring software from the manufacturer page : Asus' own GPU Tweak and that monitoring software reports high temperature... What is their conclusion ? - that the card's VRMs are hot. Also, if the temperature is reported wrong by the sensor, what good is that sensor ? seems useless to me to add a sensor that will never report the right temperature ... The VRMs are rates to 130C, so it is possible to have VRM temps of 100+ and have no crashes... Also, the indicated image is measuring the temperatures of the back plate , not directly on the VRMs...
 
The post from Asus might be right, but consider that a lot of users purchase the cars made by a manufacturer: Asus, then they download the monitoring software from the manufacturer page : Asus' own GPU Tweak and that monitoring software reports high temperature... What is their conclusion ? - that the card's VRMs are hot. Also, if the temperature is reported wrong by the sensor, what good is that sensor ? seems useless to me to add a sensor that will never report the right temperature ... The VRMs are rates to 130C, so it is possible to have VRM temps of 100+ and have no crashes... Also, the indicated image is measuring the temperatures of the back plate , not directly on the VRMs...

Because their GPU Tweak program is only written for a specific type of VRM reading, not specialized one

And yes, they should write a specialized GPU VRM reading program for their VRM's it that's the case, but they didn't

And no they don't get anywhere near 108c, I played Metro 2033 for two hours, touched the back of the plate near the VRM's, and it was warm, but not hot
 
Are places still having difficulty stocking this?

Seems so. Someone suggested Asus may have pulled them until they figure out why there's such a high failure rate.

Too bad, because for the few hours mine worked it was fantastic. I RMA'd it and got a MSI Lightning 7970, which isn't as good the Asus in my opinion. Terrible out of the box experience. The Lightning came with the core voltage set to 1.187v (!) which caused the fans to crank to max on any game. Can you say dustbuster? Once I set the core voltage back to a sane level and set a less aggressive fan profile manually it was ok. But seriously? Come on MSI. Now I have to try to RMA it and argue with Newegg over dropping the restocking fee since it's not clearly broken but, in my opinion, not how it should be.

So, my experience has been Asus 0/1. MSI 0/1. Ready to call it quits on AMD this round.
 
I don't think Asus pulled them off the shelves, I think we were just seeing a small taste of cards that were having problems, most likely was user error, somebody else here was having tons of problems till they realized it was their fault and the cards worked correctly then

As for the stock issues, 7970's everywhere are sold out completely, its not just this flavor of card that's sold out
 
I don't think Asus pulled them off the shelves, I think we were just seeing a small taste of cards that were having problems, most likely was user error, somebody else here was having tons of problems till they realized it was their fault and the cards worked correctly then

As for the stock issues, 7970's everywhere are sold out completely, its not just this flavor of card that's sold out

Many reports of DOA and rapid mortality on this card, much more so than all other 7970's both here in this forum, other forums, and reviews on Newegg and Amazon. Just read the reviews on Newegg and Amazon vs the other 7970's and it'll be pretty clear something ain't right with far too large a percentage of this card.

As for the second point, stock issues on 7970 sold out everywhere completely, where have you been for the last 4 weeks? Most 7970's have been in stock continuously for a while now, except for the DCUII which has gone missing from Newegg and Amazon.

Proof in point:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cription=7970&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20
 
I haven't found anyone who has had any success with iRacing and any of the Crossfire profiles.

I'll do some messing around with it later, hopefully will be getting my DCII in today or tomorrow.

I've tried all the existing profile and found that 'Assassin's creed revelation' is the less worst :rolleyes:

Another one not bad but lot of micro stutters is: COD7BO

If you can, try them and give me your feedback.

Thanks.
 
Many reports of DOA and rapid mortality on this card, much more so than all other 7970's both here in this forum, other forums, and reviews on Newegg and Amazon. Just read the reviews on Newegg and Amazon vs the other 7970's and it'll be pretty clear something ain't right with far too large a percentage of this card.

As for the second point, stock issues on 7970 sold out everywhere completely, where have you been for the last 4 weeks? Most 7970's have been in stock continuously for a while now, except for the DCUII which has gone missing from Newegg and Amazon.

Proof in point:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cription=7970&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

I'll second this. Even the 7950 DCII is available.
 
The EK blocks are up on FrozenCPU. I just bought one since it's a little cheaper compared to buying directly from EK
 
Anyone buy the DCII block from ek yet? I'm having trouble installing it with the stock backplate. It fits fine without it but the screws seem they aren't deep enough with the backplate
 
Ive read most of this thread and decided to join. My first 7970 TOP i received 3/16, and after setting it up at stock. I ran a few stress test and it failed within a few seconds. I was a littel confused so i loaded BF3 and i could not run it low settings. I knew this was right because my 6970 runs ultra/high settings. i was one of the people afraid of the VRM temps bc ive never seen a card get that hot. According to the info provided by software. Then i read several threads where people where talking about a bad batch, something about heat sinks not setting properly. However, other reports where the card is awesome but shows high VRm temps/normal. I called ASUS and they said it was a bad card. RMA was done through newegg.

I received my new one 4/13, i played BF3 maxed out for a couple of hours over the weekend. So im sure the first one was bad. The one i have now does not have the VRM slot in the back plate. does this mean i have a older version? Another idea, is if i cut a hole(in the backplate where the VRM slot would normally be) and mount a small fan to blow Air directly on the VRM. will this hurt the current airflow.
 
Ive read most of this thread and decided to join. My first 7970 TOP i received 3/16, and after setting it up at stock. I ran a few stress test and it failed within a few seconds. I was a littel confused so i loaded BF3 and i could not run it low settings. I knew this was right because my 6970 runs ultra/high settings. i was one of the people afraid of the VRM temps bc ive never seen a card get that hot. According to the info provided by software. Then i read several threads where people where talking about a bad batch, something about heat sinks not setting properly. However, other reports where the card is awesome but shows high VRm temps/normal. I called ASUS and they said it was a bad card. RMA was done through newegg.

I received my new one 4/13, i played BF3 maxed out for a couple of hours over the weekend. So im sure the first one was bad. The one i have now does not have the VRM slot in the back plate. does this mean i have a older version? Another idea, is if i cut a hole(in the backplate where the VRM slot would normally be) and mount a small fan to blow Air directly on the VRM. will this hurt the current airflow.

There have been reports of bad batches of DC2 Asus cards...i'd be extremely wary of them..
 
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