XFX HD 7970 Black Edition Double Dissipation 3 GB Review

Testing:

Power consumption of the system will be measured at both idle and loaded states, taking into account the peak voltage of the system with each video card installed. I will use Unigine's Heaven Benchmark version 2.5 to put a load onto the GPU using the settings below. A 15 minute load test will be used to heat up the GPU, with the highest measured temperature recorded as the result. The idle results will be measured after 15 minutes of inactivity on the system. With dual GPU setups, the two core temperatures will be averaged.

Settings

• Unigine 2.5 Heaven Benchmark
• 1920x1200 Resolution
• 8x AA
• 15 minute load test
• 15 minute idle test
• Measurement is in watts

Lower = Better

The XFX HD 7970 seems to be more efficient at idle than the reference design at idle stock and overclocked. The fans spool down when in the Zero Core power state, dropping power consumption in relation to the reference design. Under load, the XFX HD 7970 Black Edition delivers power consumption numbers close to those of the reference card and higher when overclocked and overvolted as expected.