INTRODUCTION
As we’ve seen AMD and Nvidia bounce back and forth with their product launches, the Radeon 7970 isn’t exactly a new model. In fact, it’s the eldest of the current models in the Radeon lineup, and when it originally launched, there was little competition from Nvidia for gamers to look toward. That started to change when Nvidia’s GTX 680 launched, as it proved to be a very capable card; in fact, the 680 managed to handily upstage the 7970 in most regards, and certainly in gaming prowess.
However, as we’ve seen several times before, the clash of the graphics card company titans doesn’t sit idle for long, and in an effort to retain market share, we’ve seen some price drops by AMD here and there, but the glaring performance difference between the competing flagship cards remained. That is, until just recently, when board partners were freed to launch custom 7970 cards, complete with improved PCB and power designs, pushing high overclocks, and topped off by fancy heatsinks. We love a good battle, especially when the consumer benefits from improved technology and features. And that’s exactly what we’re looking at today, in the form of the HIS 7970 X.

Not only does this HIS 7970 X come with a Turbo overclock among the highest on the market, it also sports the company’s latest IceQ X2 custom cooler. And if history is any indication, we expect very big things from this card, as HIS typically produces some very cool-running Radeon cards. The 7970 X also has a couple surprises in store for those wanting Eyefinity gaming out of the box, up to Eyefinity 6 in fact.
It’s a very special premium graphics card, but the question is: Can the HIS 7970 X beat the GTX 680? Let’s find out.