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Powercolor 7970 LCS Review

Started by Bosco, Mar 11 2012 06:56 PM

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#1 Bosco

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 06:56 PM

Mr cookeman takes the water cooled 7970 from Powercolor for a spin:

http://www.overclock...lor_lcs_hd7970/

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#2 MJCRO

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 07:36 PM

Awesome review, it's just crazy how little power the card uses at load and the OC ability is amazing! Posted Image

#3 Waco

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 07:45 PM

Does the card actually use more power or is that the difference between the H100 pump and fans and your custom pump and fans?

Either way - that's one sexy card!
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#4 ccokeman

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 08:06 PM

Does the card actually use more power or is that the difference between the H100 pump and fans and your custom pump and fans?

Either way - that's one sexy card!

The difference in cooling alone.

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#5 Waco

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 08:07 PM

Nice!
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#6 El_Capitan

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 08:17 PM

A shame I got my MSI reference 7970 for half the price + $115 for the waterblock. $799 and it can't overclock higher than mine? C'mon Powercolor!
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#7 ccokeman

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 08:50 PM

A shame I got my MSI reference 7970 for half the price + $115 for the waterblock. $799 and it can't overclock higher than mine? C'mon Powercolor!


Every GPU is different just like CPU's. Some have better margins and clock higher than others and it is really just the luck of the draw.

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#8 ClayMeow

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 08:51 PM

A shame I got my MSI reference 7970 for half the price + $115 for the waterblock. $799 and it can't overclock higher than mine? C'mon Powercolor!


Agreed....the premium is way too high, IMO. Under normal circumstances, you can get at 7970 for roughly $550 and the exact same waterblock PowerColor uses for $100-125. So you're basically paying a $100+ premium just to have it pre-installed. I don't care if it's the highest performing single-GPU card out of the box, it's still overpriced.

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#9 El_Capitan

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 09:04 PM

Every GPU is different just like CPU's. Some have better margins and clock higher than others and it is really just the luck of the draw.

Yeah, I know it's luck of the draw, but you would think they'd at least cherry pick the good ones for something at the $800 price point.
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#10 d6bmg

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 11:24 PM

Its nice to see more cards are coming out with waterblocks.
But the bad is the price.

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#11 d6bmg

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Posted 11 March 2012 - 11:25 PM

A shame I got my MSI reference 7970 for half the price + $115 for the waterblock. $799 and it can't overclock higher than mine? C'mon Powercolor!


~650-670 would have been a good price. Paying extra ~150 only to get max overclock out of a card sounds like a waste to me.
Just my 2 cents.

Edited by d6bmg, 11 March 2012 - 11:26 PM.

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#12 ccokeman

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Posted 12 March 2012 - 03:58 AM

~650-670 would have been a good price. Paying extra ~150 only to get max overclock out of a card sounds like a waste to me.
Just my 2 cents.


Factory overclocked cards go for $600+$145 Water block=$745 +No install issues+WARRANTY and it just about works out right.

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