The best single GPU graphics card?
Layout
Now the ASUS HD 7970 Matrix Platinum is a triple-slot solution, so if you’re planning to do a 3-way or 4-way CrossFire setup, choose your motherboard carefully.
So we have a perforated metal plate on the back, with small heatsinks attached directly onto the flash memory as well as the keeping the VRM and FC cool. The HD 7970 core itself is directly connected to a copper base from which 5 heatpipes flow out into the aluminum fins of the heatsink. This is then topped off by two 10cm fans with a plastic cover to make things look awesome.
Now it’s possible to have a complete 6 monitor Eyefinity setup with the ASUS HD 7970 Matrix Platinum, but you have to switch (on the card) from dual-link to a single-link DVI connection.
The ASUS Matrix logo on top runs a cool blue to cyan when idling and under little load, going to purple and then red when under full load. ASUS recommends 650W PSU for the HD 7970 Matrix Platinum, taking two 8-pin power connectors to get the juice it needs.
Here you will see a big fan switch that puts the fan to 100% usage when depressed, overriding the automatic control. This pushes the car to well over 3000RPM, resulting in a considerable amount of noise. The positive and negative buttons change the core voltage manually, while the Safe Mode is basically a BIOS reset which turns all settings to factory defaults.
Notice on the edge where you have wire connectors, including soldering points on the top where the HD 7970 Matrix Platinum can be literally hotwired to ASUS’ ROG motherboards for direct overclocking. Great for LN2 cooling enthusiasts, or world record breakers.
Overclocking
Overclocking the ASUS HD 7970 Matrix Platinum was a lot of fun. Given the already high clock speeds I didn’t expect much headroom; I mean the Tahiti core can only go so high. Still, I managed to get a successful overclock of 1248MHz on the Core clock and 7036MHz on the Memory clock speeds with voltages set at 1.35mV and 1.622mV respectively.
Stock vs maximum voltage range.
Stable overclock settings.
Anything higher and I started getting severe artifacts regardless of voltage increase. I’m sure with LN2 cooling you can easily surpass this limitation as voltage controls can go quiet high on the HD 7970 Matrix Platinum.
