• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

AMD Radeon HD 7970 Reference Board Design Detailed, Single Slot Capable - Finally!

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,201 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
AMD Radeon HD 7970 launch is just around the corner. Ahead of its launch, AMD conducted its usual press briefing. DonanimHaber has access to some of the slides shown in that meeting. Earlier this day, we brought you perhaps the most important of them all, specifications. Let's take a look at the reference board design itself. AMD is sticking to the black+red colour scheme, and has come up with a swanky new cooling assembly design. The design, unlike those of higher-end Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards, is surprisingly curvy and features dashes of red plastic making up its contours, surrounded by tougher black ABS.

A welcome change here from the previous generations, is that the card is truly single-slot capable, when say, a single-slot full-coverage water block is used. High-end cards from previous generation HD 5000 and HD 6000 have a dual DVI connector cluster that extends into two expansion slots, which many enthusiasts found to be annoying, especially when setting up benches with four single-GPU graphics cards in scenarios where PCI-Express slot spacing isn't kind. Moving on to display connectivity, the card has one DVI, one HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPort connectors, all arranged in the confines of a single expansion slot. The space of the second slot is dedicated to a hot-air exhaust of the cooling assembly. All board partners are required to ship HDMI-to-DVI dongles, and active mini-DP dongles.



The cooler uses a full-coverage vapor-chamber plate to collect heat from all major components on the obverse side of the card, and convey it to the aluminum fin channel array attached to it. These components include the 4.3 billion transistor Tahiti GPU, 12 GDDR5 memory chips, and MOSFETs found across the various V-reg areas of the card. The aluminum fin channel array is ventilated by a blower. AMD claims to have improved the blower design from previous generations to have higher air-flow and improved acoustics.

Like with the HD 6900 series, the HD 7900 series reference boards feature two sets of BIOS, located in two separate EEPROM chips that can be toggled using a small switch on the top of the card (next to the CFBI connectors). The 1st EEPROM is "unprotected", it packs reference speeds, but you can flash it with your own modified BIOS. The second EEPROM is "protected" from flashes, and packs failsafe reference speeds. It's your insurance against BIOS flashing screw-ups, and cuts down the cumbersome process of BIOS recovery using a second display card, or the rocket-science of "blind-flashing".

Lastly, AMD talks about overclocking headroom. The HD 7970 looks to have default core speed of "a little over 900 MHz", could be 925 MHz for all we know, looking at that last slide. AMD says that overclocking to 1 GHz core is well within reach using the reference cooler, "and beyond".

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
1,827 (0.36/day)
Location
London
System Name Jaspe
Processor Ryzen 1500X
Motherboard Asus ROG Strix X370-F Gaming
Cooling Stock
Memory 16Gb Corsair 3000mhz
Video Card(s) EVGA GTS 450
Storage Crucial M500
Display(s) Philips 1080 24'
Case NZXT
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Enermax 425W
Software Windows 10 Pro
the card has one DVI, one HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPort connectors, all arranged in the confines of a single expansion slot

Why it took so long for this? Was it that hard? Just leave the top slot for the cooling.
 

bear jesus

New Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Messages
1,534 (0.31/day)
Location
Britland
System Name Gaming temp// HTPC
Processor AMD A6 5400k // A4 5300
Motherboard ASRock FM2A75 PRO4// ASRock FM2A55M-DGS
Cooling Xigmatek HDT-D1284 // stock phenom II HSF
Memory 4GB 1600mhz corsair vengeance // 4GB 1600mhz corsair vengeance low profile
Storage 64gb sandisk pulse SSD and 500gb HDD // 500gb HDD
Display(s) acer 22" 1680x1050
Power Supply Seasonic G-450 // Corsair CXM 430W
All board partners are required to ship HDMI-to-DVI dongles, and active mini-DP dongles.

My first thought when seeing the display outputs was would i need anything extra to run eyefinity with my 3 DVI monitors, this i think is a great move that should have been done with the 58xx and 69xx cards but better late than never.

I love the cooler design and full slot vent but i am very curious about the change of the acoustics of the fan as with a vapor chamber heatsink and higher than normal fan speeds my 6970 runs relatively cool but the sound is right on the edge of annoying yet a slight change in volume or frequency may make it a lot more comfortable.

I hope the improved acoustics will be covered in the TPU review and explain if it is just a reduction in noise level or if there is any change in frequency.
 
Joined
Mar 6, 2008
Messages
2,753 (0.47/day)
Location
Minnesota
Not that we had any doubts but computerbase has slides that confirm DX11.1 and PCIE 3.0.
 
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
4,113 (0.71/day)
Location
Iowa, USA
System Name THE CUBE 2.0
Processor Intel i5 13600k
Motherboard MSI MPG Z690 EDGE DDR4
Cooling Phanteks PH-TC14PE BK 2x T30-120 Fan mod mount
Memory G.Skill TridentZ 3200 MT/s C15 32GB 2x16GB
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Aorus 1080 Ti 11GB OC: Core 2GHz, Mem 5.7GHz
Storage WD SN770 250GB / 3x WD SN850X 2TB / Toshiba X300 4TB / 2x RAID1 Toshiba P300 3TB
Display(s) Samsung 49" Odyssey OLED G95SC 240Hz 5120 x 1440
Case "THE CUBE" Custom built, pure Red Alder wood
Audio Device(s) Beyerdynamic DT 880
Power Supply Corsair RM1000X
Mouse Logitech G700
Keyboard Logitech G910
Software Windows 11 Pro
Just take my money already!!

Who wants 2x 4850 very nice great shape :D

 
Joined
Apr 30, 2008
Messages
4,875 (0.84/day)
Location
Multidimensional
System Name Boomer Master Race
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2Ghz - 5Ghz CPU
Motherboard MSI B650I Edge Wifi ITX Motherboard
Cooling CM 280mm AIO + 2x 120mm Slim fans
Memory G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 32GB 6000MHz
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 4060 8GB (Temporary Until Next Gen)
Storage Kingston KC3000 M.2 1TB + 2TB HDD
Display(s) Asus TUF 24Inch 165Hz || AOC 24Inch 180Hz
Case Cooler Master NR200P Max TG ITX Case
Audio Device(s) Built In Realtek Digital Audio HD
Power Supply CoolerMaster V850 SFX Gold 850W PSU
Mouse Logitech G203 Lightsync
Keyboard Atrix RGB Slim Keyboard
VR HMD ( ◔ ʖ̯ ◔ )
Software Windows 10 Home 64bit
Benchmark Scores Don't do them anymore.
Please show backplate @_@
 
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
68 (0.01/day)
Location
indonesia
System Name ireng
Processor core i5 3570K
Motherboard MSI z77 Mpower
Cooling corsair h60
Memory corsair vengeance 8gb
Video Card(s) msi GTX650 ti boost
Storage 6tb seagate
Display(s) LG 2284F 1680x1050
Case corsair Graphite 600T
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply coolermaster 600W
Software windows 7 64
i cant wait for wizzard review:rockout:
i hope this the right path for amd, :rolleyes:
 
Joined
Jul 19, 2008
Messages
1,180 (0.21/day)
Location
Australia
Processor Intel i7 4790K
Motherboard Asus Z97 Deluxe
Cooling Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120
Memory Corsair Dominator 1866Mhz 4X4GB
Video Card(s) Asus R290X
Storage Samsung 850 Pro SSD 256GB/Samsung 840 Evo SSD 1TB
Display(s) Samsung S23A950D
Case Corsair 850D
Audio Device(s) Onboard Realtek
Power Supply Corsair AX850
Mouse Logitech G502
Keyboard Logitech G710+
Software Windows 10 x64
I wonder if the reference fan is actually quiet enough or wait for non-reference?.

THe 5870 reference fan was pretty much silent at game load, the 6970 reference was pretty much noisy at game load. With a cooler running GPU and new gen vapour chamber this might be silent too under game load.....hopefully.
 
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Messages
1,877 (0.32/day)
Location
Cobourg,Ontario
System Name RyZen FX
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
Motherboard Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite AX V2
Cooling DeepCool AK400 Zero Dark Plus
Memory Corsair CMK32GX4M2E3200C16 X2 32gig dual channel
Video Card(s) ASUS RX 7700XT TUF OC
Storage x2 Lexar SSD NM710 2TB 2XSeagate 1Terrabyte 1x Seagate 2 Terrabyte
Display(s) 40 Inch Samsung HDTV (monitor)
Case HAF-X:)
Audio Device(s) AMD/HDMI to Onkyo HT-R508 Receiver
Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G2 Power Supply
Software Windows 10 Pro X64
:roll::D look At the PCB It`s Black yes All black ...you know ounce you go black ..you don`t go back....:nutkick:
 
Joined
Nov 9, 2008
Messages
2,318 (0.41/day)
Location
Texas
System Name Mr. Reliable
Processor Ryzen R9 5950x
Motherboard MSI Meg X570s Ace Max
Cooling D5 Pump, Singularity Top/Res, 2x360mm EK P rads, EK Magnitude/Alphacool Blocks
Memory 32Gb (4x8Gb) Corsair Dominator Platinum 3600Mhz @ 16/19/20/36 1.35v
Video Card(s) MSI 3080ti with Alphacool Block
Storage 2 x Corsair Force MP400 1TB Nvme; 2 x T-Force Cardea Z340; 2 x Mushkin Reactor 1TB
Display(s) Acer 32" Z321QU 2560x1440; LG 34GP83A-B 34" 3440x1440
Case Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic XL; Synology DS218j w/ 2 x 2TB WD Red
Audio Device(s) SteelSeries Arctis Pro+
Power Supply EVGA SuperNova 850G3
Mouse Razer Basilisk V2
Keyboard Das Keyboard 6; Razer Orbweaver Chroma
Software Windows 10 Pro
My first thought when seeing the display outputs was would i need anything extra to run eyefinity with my 3 DVI monitors, this i think is a great move that should have been done with the 58xx and 69xx cards but better late than never.

I think this is a great move too, but I do wonder how much additional cost it will bring to the card. Most of these adapters run about $25, and including two could bring the cost up some, which sucks for anyone running a single monitor that will never use the adapters.
 
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
9,899 (1.78/day)
Location
Essex, England
System Name My pc
Processor Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard Asus Rog b450-f
Cooling Cooler master 120mm aio
Memory 16gb ddr4 3200mhz
Video Card(s) MSI Ventus 3x 3070
Storage 2tb intel nvme and 2tb generic ssd
Display(s) Generic dell 1080p overclocked to 75hz
Case Phanteks enthoo
Power Supply 650w of borderline fire hazard
Mouse Some wierd Chinese vertical mouse
Keyboard Generic mechanical keyboard
Software Windows ten
I think this is a great move too, but I do wonder how much additional cost it will bring to the card. Most of these adapters run about $25, and including two could bring the cost up some, which sucks for anyone running a single monitor that will never use the adapters.

That's how much they charge people for them, they probably only cost $1 to make so they'll probably just charge for the cost of item + shipping ( if we're lucky) or just add $5 to the cost of the card so they still make some profit.
 

cadaveca

My name is Dave
Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
17,232 (2.63/day)
I wonder if the reference fan is actually quiet enough or wait for non-reference?.

THe 5870 reference fan was pretty much silent at game load, the 6970 reference was pretty much noisy at game load. With a cooler running GPU and new gen vapour chamber this might be silent too under game load.....hopefully.

I have had 5 reference 5870's. Not one of them was quiet. If you got a quiet one, you got lucky.

My reference 6950 is dead quiet. My non-reference 6950 is a little whiner.:laugh:
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
3,145 (0.69/day)
Processor 8700k Intel
Motherboard z370 MSI Godlike Gaming
Cooling Triple Aquacomputer AMS Copper 840 with D5
Memory TridentZ RGB G.Skill C16 3600MHz
Video Card(s) GTX 1080 Ti
Storage Crucial MX SSDs
Display(s) Dell U3011 2560x1600 + Dell 2408WFP 1200x1920 (Portrait)
Case Core P5 Thermaltake
Audio Device(s) Essence STX
Power Supply AX 1500i
Mouse Logitech
Keyboard Corsair
Software Win10
I have had 5 reference 5870's. Not one of them was quiet. If you got a quiet one, you got lucky.

My reference 6950 is dead quiet. My non-reference 6950 is a little whiner.:laugh:

I just hope they aren't noisy as my 6990s are :laugh: (i know i know dual gpu etc :p)
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2010
Messages
868 (0.17/day)
Location
Toronto, ON. Canada
System Name Gamers PC
Processor AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE @ 3.80 GHz
Motherboard MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3
Cooling Corsair H50 Cooler
Memory Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1333
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5
Storage 2 x WD Caviar Green 1TB SATA300 w/64MB Buffer (RAID 0)
Display(s) Samsung 2494SW 1080p 24" WS LCD HD
Case CM HAF 932 Full Tower Case
Audio Device(s) Creative SB X-FI TITANIUM -PCIE x 1
Power Supply Corsair TX Series CMPSU-650TX (650W)
Software Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
LMFHO to above post.
This looks like a AMD launch dream. Something they need real bad.
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
11,642 (1.73/day)
System Name Compy 386
Processor 7800X3D
Motherboard Asus
Cooling Air for now.....
Memory 64 GB DDR5 6400Mhz
Video Card(s) 7900XTX 310 Merc
Storage Samsung 990 2TB, 2 SP 2TB SSDs and over 10TB spinning
Display(s) 56" Samsung 4K HDR
Audio Device(s) ATI HDMI
Mouse Logitech MX518
Keyboard Razer
Software A lot.
Benchmark Scores Its fast. Enough.
Please tell me my water block will fit.
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
Messages
5,369 (1.08/day)
I am very sorry but this aint a leak and pointing fingers towards DH is pointless, every website that is planning\reviewing those graphics cards get the sliders.
Im really getting tired of file-holders supposedly leaking sliders
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
3,145 (0.69/day)
Processor 8700k Intel
Motherboard z370 MSI Godlike Gaming
Cooling Triple Aquacomputer AMS Copper 840 with D5
Memory TridentZ RGB G.Skill C16 3600MHz
Video Card(s) GTX 1080 Ti
Storage Crucial MX SSDs
Display(s) Dell U3011 2560x1600 + Dell 2408WFP 1200x1920 (Portrait)
Case Core P5 Thermaltake
Audio Device(s) Essence STX
Power Supply AX 1500i
Mouse Logitech
Keyboard Corsair
Software Win10
Please tell me my water block will fit.

It won't fit if it is a full cover waterblock, you can just take a look at the Vram chips difference
 
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
Messages
2,318 (0.35/day)
System Name MONEY PIT
Processor i7-3770K @ 4800 1.20v batch #3231B415 Delided
Motherboard ASrock Z77 OC Formula w onboard waterblocks
Cooling Apogee HD, MCP655,rad MCR320-XP,Micro Rev2 res
Memory G,skill Trident X F3-2400C10D-16GTX
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX 980 Ti Classified with EK nickel/acetal waterblock installed
Storage 2x120gig Wildfire raid0 2x120gig VERTEX3 raid0
Display(s) 3/ Samsung2343bwx + 65in LG 4K
Case NZXT Phantom White w/red
Audio Device(s) ReCon3d fatal1ty pro, Logitech z906 THX
Power Supply corsair AX860i
Mouse Rat7
Software 64bit ++++ win 10
:toast:just might be time for an upgrade:D
 

Wile E

Power User
Joined
Oct 1, 2006
Messages
24,318 (3.81/day)
System Name The ClusterF**k
Processor 980X @ 4Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 BIOS F12
Cooling MCR-320, DDC-1 pump w/Bitspower res top (1/2" fittings), Koolance CPU-360
Memory 3x2GB Mushkin Redlines 1600Mhz 6-8-6-24 1T
Video Card(s) Evga GTX 580
Storage Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB, 2xSeagate 320GB RAID0; 2xSeagate 3TB; 2xSamsung 2TB; Samsung 1.5TB
Display(s) HP LP2475w 24" 1920x1200 IPS
Case Technofront Bench Station
Audio Device(s) Auzentech X-Fi Forte into Onkyo SR606 and Polk TSi200's + RM6750
Power Supply ENERMAX Galaxy EVO EGX1250EWT 1250W
Software Win7 Ultimate N x64, OSX 10.8.4
I will again consider AMD cards for my next upgrade. No single slot was a deal breaker for me.
 
Joined
Nov 17, 2010
Messages
166 (0.03/day)
System Name Render Box
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 1700x
Motherboard ASUS Crosshair VI Hero
Cooling Corsair H100i v2
Memory 32 Gigs Trident Z@2400 cl15
Video Card(s) Dual XFX RX 480 8gig
Storage 2x1TB Seagate Barracuda,2TB Seagate Barracuda, 250g Seagate Barracuda, 240g HyperX Predator M.2
Display(s) ACER 23.5, HP LE1911 x2
Case Modded Raidmax Agusta
Audio Device(s) Realtek 12 Series HD Audio
Power Supply Corsair CX750M
Mouse Logitech G602
Keyboard CM Storm
Software Windows 10 x64
Win

AMD will WIN. all im gonna say
 
Joined
May 16, 2011
Messages
1,430 (0.30/day)
Location
A frozen turdberg.
System Name Runs Smooth
Processor FX 8350
Motherboard Crosshair V Formula Z
Cooling Corsair H110 with AeroCool Shark 140mm fans
Memory 16GB G-skill Trident X 1866 Cl. 8
Video Card(s) HIS 7970 IceQ X² GHZ Edition
Storage OCZ Vector 256GB SSD & 1Tb piece of crap
Display(s) acer H243H
Case NZXT Phantom 820 matte black
Audio Device(s) Nada
Power Supply NZXT Hale90 V2 850 watt
Software Windows 7 Pro
Benchmark Scores Lesbians are hot!!!
AMD will WIN. all im gonna say

I thought that about Bulldozer and the lesson that I learned from it is that fanboyism is futile at best.
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2008
Messages
3,924 (0.66/day)
System Name Main / Home Media Serever
Processor Intel i5 2500k @ 4.75ghz / AMD AM3 5200+ x2
Motherboard ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Performance / Biostar 790GX
Cooling Xigmatek Dark Knight / XIGMATEK Apache
Memory 12gb of G.Skill Value Series DDR3 / 4x 1gb DDR2
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon 6870 1gb / Asus Radeon 5450 512mb
Storage 2x Samsung 830 64gb SSD Raid 0 & 750gb WD Blue HDD / OCZ Vertex II 80GB & 10TB of HDD Space
Display(s) 2x Acer 24" LED / Samsung 50" LED
Case Xigmatek Asgard II / APEX PC-389-C
Power Supply Rosewill 750w / Antec EArthwatts 380w
Software Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1 / Ubuntu 14.04
Definitely thinking about getting a 7950. Would be a nice upgrade over my 6870.
 
Top