Sapphire 7970 Vapor-X
Overview
Hardware: Video CardsWHAT WE LIKED:
Great performance, factory overclock, outstanding temperatures, low noise, strong overclocking, EZ OC buttonWHAT WE DISLIKED:
Overpriced compared to GTX 670Discuss in the Forum
Specifications and Setup
Before we get to the test setup, here’s a screenshot of what the Sapphire 7970 Vapor-X looks like in terms of details, showing the particulars of the 28nm Tahiti core, along with the clock speeds, memory bus, and the pixel/shader fillrates.
Our test system is designed to approximate at least what a typical gaming enthusiast might use (or similar level). In order to consistently compare against other graphics cards and avoid any bottlenecks, we use a multi-threaded quad core CPU to take advantage of any games that may benefit from the additional cores.
Below is our test system configuration:
- Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K
- Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z
- Memory: 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X
- Power Supply: OCZ ZX 1250W
- Disk: Crucial C300 256GB SSD
- Cooling: Noctua D-14
- Case: Lian Li PC-T60
- Graphics: Various
Our testing suite runs the gamut of synthetics and gaming engines that will help provide a more complete picture of a graphics card’s capabilities. A few of these game titles are slightly older, but they feature popular and/or demanding engines so we’ve included them to help show how a card can handle those situations.The testing included the following software:
- 3DMark 11
- Sniper Elite V2
- Battlefield 3
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Crysis 2
- DiRT 3
- Metro 2033
- Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2
- Lost Planet 2
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat
- FRAPS
- GPU-Z
Settings were left at the installed defaults for all drivers, with the exception of Vertical Sync (v-sync) which was disabled for all tests. Gaming tests were run at 1680×1050 and 1920×1200.
