ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
55,719
ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II Video Card Review - Today we have the ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II strapped to our test bench for your reading pleasure. We will compare it to the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 to determine whether the custom VRMs and DirectCU II cooling solution are the droids you are looking for in your next graphics card purchase.
 
Kyle, Love Hardocp reviews. When will you include frame latencies as part of your tests as many think this is as important as fps numbers when evaluating performance, particularly with multi GPU solutions?
 
trajan2448 said:
Kyle, Love Hardocp reviews. When will you include frame latencies as part of your tests as many think this is as important as fps numbers when evaluating performance, particularly with multi GPU solutions?
Click to expand...

You will not see this added to every review simply because of the fact that it is too resource intensive to add to our current work load and get reviews out. That said, we have commented on stutter and how it has impacted our REAL WORLD GAMEPLAY in our normal reviews for years.
 
In the conclusion you guys state something about Asus having stock and invetory issues. Does this include all the Asus cards? I'm having great difficulty finding any 7970's by Asus available.. especially the matrix.
 
Can someone correct me if I am doing this wrong.
I read apples to apples and notice that reference cards generally perform better, so I am wondering what is that point of buying cards like CU II or other premium cards if they are falling short performance wise. I can see that cooling might be an issue and people would want to have that, but MSI has cards with 3 fans on them...
 
Your conclusion gives me hope that I'll be able to find the 7970 Matrix someday in the near future.
 
Verass said:
Can someone correct me if I am doing this wrong.
I read apples to apples and notice that reference cards generally perform better, so I am wondering what is that point of buying cards like CU II or other premium cards if they are falling short performance wise. I can see that cooling might be an issue and people would want to have that, but MSI has cards with 3 fans on them...
Click to expand...

Easily overclockable

I've had a Direct CU II 7970 for almost a year, I've had it at 1125/1575mhz since launch and no voltage tweaks, runs perfectly, love it.
 
just to add, they've had this DVI dual link problem for a while.

I sold a perfectly good 7970 DCII to a member here on the forums and he had issues with DVI and his Catleap monitor. It worked on his smaller 1080P monitors fine, but not with the Catleap @ 1440P. Worked perfectly find on my U3011, but I had only used DP. I bought it back from him, sold it to another member, he didn't have a single problem. Strange strange. Hopefully Asus fixes this issue before they ramp up production again as I really want a Matrix.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1713241
 
jwl24 said:
In the conclusion you guys state something about Asus having stock and invetory issues. Does this include all the Asus cards? I'm having great difficulty finding any 7970's by Asus available.. especially the matrix.
Click to expand...

Most 7970's from ASUS are affected by this, however, ASUS assures us both are active SKUs and inventory should be filling back in within a week and a half. If you are having difficulty finding cards now, check back in a couple weeks and you should see stock again. ASUS also tells us they have shipments planned for the next few months at least, with these cards. There was a bump in the road, as is obvious, but things should hopefully get better with inventory filling back up, we shall see.
 
Brent_Justice said:
Most 7970's from ASUS are affected by this, however, ASUS assures us both are active SKUs and inventory should be filling back in within a week and a half. If you are having difficulty finding cards now, check back in a couple weeks and you should see stock again. ASUS also tells us they have shipments planned for the next few months at least, with these cards. There was a bump in the road, as is obvious, but things should hopefully get better with inventory filling back up, we shall see.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.
 
I had 7970 DCII with similar issues on 1440p CrossOver monitor. I tried different DL-DVI cables. Some worked better and some worse but I couldn't get rid of the issue totally. So I had to return the card with refund as at that time there was no known fix and other users reported similar issues. Running Sapphire 7950 Flex now without issues.
 
Kyle: I've been using this card for a good 6-8 months now and did a *huge* amount of research to figure out how to tweak the voltage of this card via software. Asus kept telling me it should be possible, while the info I found online always mentioned that it was only possible to do this by hard-wiring the card to certain Asus motherboards.

I finally happened upon a review on overclockers.com seen here: http://www.overclockers.com/asus-hd7970-directu-ii-top-graphics-card-review

I noticed they were able to tweak the voltage with a version of Gpu tweak that I was not able to find anywhere else online: version 2.2.1.4. I downloaded it via the link they provided here: http://www.overclockers.com/wp-content/uploads2/2012/10/GPUTweakVer2214.zip

I have confirmed with gpu-z that the voltage is indeed tweakable via this specific version of gpu-tweak. I've been running my card at 1200/1600 @ 1200mV without issue.

Just thought it was worth mentioning since it really adds value to this already great card! ( I got it on sale for 350CAD a while back)

Here is a pic of my version of gpu tweak with the card at default:
 
Last edited:
Great read as always. I've always been impressed by the DC models from Asus. They seem to always make a great cooling solution (other issues outstanding). However until they get this DL-DVI issue resolved I won't be thinking twice about upgrading to one.


PS: On the page 9 I think you have a typo where you state:
"... ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II showed it drew 5W more than the Radeon ... "
Assuming the graph is correct this should be "5W less".
 
@David Schroth
Look Dell 3007 + 7970 dc2
ylL6ygt.jpg
 
trajan2448 said:
Kyle, Love Hardocp reviews. When will you include frame latencies as part of your tests as many think this is as important as fps numbers when evaluating performance, particularly with multi GPU solutions?
Click to expand...

Why would they do this? They don't benchmarks cards here they play games with them. So if a game is smooth to play at a certain resolution and settings then does it matter if the frame latencies are all over the place.

This site measures playability, frame latencies are only usefull to those sites that use canned benchmarks.
 
ma()forces said:
@David Schroth
Look Dell 3007 + 7970 dc2
[SNIP]http://i.imgur.com/ylL6ygt.jpg[/IMG]
Click to expand...

How is it connected to the card? Are you using the DL-DVI or displayport with an active DL adapter? Or are you connected to card 1 in that box? I assume you are running at 2560x1600?

I did not have issues taking screen shots of the desktop or in game - no artifacts, however there were green dot like artifacts on all rendered surfaces that was difficult (read: impossible) to properly catch on camera.
 
On the second page, you refer to using v314.70 beta drivers for the NVIDIA graphics cards at the bottom of the page (but v314.70 WHQLs in the Video Card Configuration graphic; is that a typo and you meant v314.07, which are WHQL certified, or are you using an as yet unreleased driver, one that fixes the freezing issues with Tomb Raider?
 
Daz1967 said:
On the second page, you refer to using v314.70 beta drivers for the NVIDIA graphics cards at the bottom of the page (but v314.70 WHQLs in the Video Card Configuration graphic; is that a typo and you meant v314.07, which are WHQL certified, or are you using an as yet unreleased driver, one that fixes the freezing issues with Tomb Raider?
Click to expand...

It's a typo - the 314.07 WHQL drivers were used.
 
Thanks David. I thought as much but I thought I'd ask as I'm waiting for new drivers from NVIDIA to fix the constant freezing I'm getting with Tomb Raider.
 
Nice thorough review as always.
Odd that the Dell 3007 doesn't like the GPU......as widely used as these monitors are, you'd think ASUS would be all over it.

To repeat though, the monitor is fine with this card as long as you use a Display Port connection, right?:D
 
magoo said:
To repeat though, the monitor is fine with this card as long as you use a Display Port connection, right?:D
Click to expand...

In theory, yes. The monitor does NOT have a DP connection on it, so it would have to be used through an active DP -> DL-DVI adapter. However, I don't have one in my stash of parts to be able to confirm it.
 
David_Schroth said:
How is it connected to the card? Are you using the DL-DVI or displayport with an active DL adapter? Or are you connected to card 1 in that box? I assume you are running at 2560x1600?

I did not have issues taking screen shots of the desktop or in game - no artifacts, however there were green dot like artifacts on all rendered surfaces that was difficult (read: impossible) to properly catch on camera.
Click to expand...

It's connected by DL-DVI running at 2560x1600 but a couple of months ago I had to change cable (old eaten by a dog)
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3371341

no problems;)
 
"The ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II drew 385W of total system wattage from the wall under full load, which came in under the both the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and GeForce GTX 680"

Doesn't the GTX680 have a lower power draw?:D

Would someone be so kind as to explain what the Matrix offers over this DirectCU II version?
Apparently the Matrix has a 20-phase power design whereas the DirectCU II has "only" 12. But does this actually translate to higher overclocks? And does it really help to reduce the chances of coil whine?
The Matrix also has a few buttons on its PCB, but I doubt it is of much use. I can use the software to control voltage, can't I?
 
young boy said:
"The ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II drew 385W of total system wattage from the wall under full load, which came in under the both the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and GeForce GTX 680"

Doesn't the GTX680 have a lower power draw?:D

Would someone be so kind as to explain what the Matrix offers over this DirectCU II version?
Apparently the Matrix has a 20-phase power design whereas the DirectCU II has "only" 12. But does this actually translate to higher overclocks? And does it really help to reduce the chances of coil whine?
The Matrix also has a few buttons on its PCB, but I doubt it is of much use. I can use the software to control voltage, can't I?
Click to expand...

I'll have to defer to Brent on more specific advantages as he did the Matrix review, but in short, this card is a non-GHz edition that essentially has stock 7970 clocks. The Matrix comes in overclocked above and beyond the reference GHz edition speeds (1100/6.6Ghz). For the price premium, you get the guaranteed factory overclock as well as a binned GPU that should give you even more runway space to go up. There's no certainty that every DirectCU II will hit 1160 (or even 1060)..
 
I am curious, did you notice the same artifacting with Matrix edition? Guru3D mentioned something about that in their Matrix review.

I would like to buy one, but am very worried, since I had the same issue with previous generation of AMD DCIIs. I bought Asus 6950 DCII. A lot of green artifacts with DL-DVI with Hazro 30W 2650x1600. Changed to ASUS 6970 DCII, the same problem. Then ASUS 570 DCII, no problems. To me it seems its related to ASUS custom display configuration and the design being copied from the past generation. Hard to believe they can fix it easily if its being going on like 2+ years.
 
David_Schroth said:
...The Matrix comes in overclocked...
Click to expand...

Ah I see. Thanks! ;)
So the question I should instead be asking is, how much FPS improvement can I expect from the increase in oc?
Also, what is the maximum voltage allowed on the Matrix (without any hard mods)? The DirectCUII is 1182mV if I'm not mistaken.

(H)ardOCP managed these overclocks, but I cannot compare the test results because the game version and visual settings are not the same in both reviews.

Matrix - GPU core: 1310mhz, memory: 7Ghz.
DirectCUII - GPU core: 1160mhz, memory: 6.3Ghz.
 
Last edited:
reaper12 said:
Why would they do this? They don't benchmarks cards here they play games with them. So if a game is smooth to play at a certain resolution and settings then does it matter if the frame latencies are all over the place.

This site measures playability, frame latencies are only usefull to those sites that use canned benchmarks.
Click to expand...

It always comes off as sensitive and insecure when the cult mentality kicks into insecurity mode and goes on the defensive. There is absolutely nothing wrong nor should there be any shame in discussing methodology. The best science comes from those that are willing to do so and that don't reject the ideas and approaches of others just because they didn't think of it first. None of us is perfect nor is any of us the BEST at EVERYTHING. Let's have some humility.
 
young boy said:
Ah I see. Thanks! ;)
So the question I should instead be asking is, how much FPS improvement can I expect from the increase in oc?
Also, what is the maximum voltage allowed on the Matrix (without any hard mods)? The DirectCUII is 1182mV if I'm not mistaken.

(H)ardOCP managed these overclocks, but I cannot compare the test results because the game version and visual settings are not the same in both reviews.

Matrix - GPU core: 1310mhz, memory: 7Ghz.
DirectCUII - GPU core: 1160mhz, memory: 6.3Ghz.
Click to expand...

I'd have to go back and read Brent's article on the Matrix to see what the maximum voltage was, but I did see that Asus already had the DirectCU II dialed in at 1175 mV by default, so there really wasn't much headroom to increase it.

As far as FPS increases, if you go back through the reviews, look at the Apple to Apples section for each game where the cards are run at the same settings which will give you a true comparison of the boost. In the case of the DirectCU II, the increase was about 20-25% across the board for each game. Simply looking at the math, the percent increase on the Matrix should be lower.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top