EK 7970 waterblock WTF

[DTI]

Originally Posted by dustin1706

Yeah, sorry man, but you did get a non-ref card and a ref block. Manufacturers don't always list whether or not it is a reference pcb in the card specs.

For AMD, a reference PCB will sometimes have the AMD logo visible just above the pcie pins, and typically will have a single fan at the far end of the card. Reference cards will also have the same number and layout of outputs. From the pics on XFX, newegg, and NCIX it is obviously a non-ref card. However on shop.amd.com and pcpartpicker there is a picture of this card with a reference pcb. I am assuming that it was originally reference, then XFX changed the pcb but kept the same model number.

This is not an uncommon problem for water cooling, so I always make sure I get a reference card or one that someone already makes a full cover block for. This isn't necessarily EKs fault as I'm sure XFX probably didn't announce the change.

Not sure when/where you bought the card and block or whether you can return them, but no one makes a block that will fit your card.

EK has this 5870 comparison on their site.

When I purchased this XFX 7970 card I was told by ncix it was a reference card.
and there is no full block anywhere for this card that just sucks
I don't think I can send this back to Frozen CPU with the modification that I have already done
maybe if I spent a bit more time in reading than just jumping in with the power tools,, oh that don't fit no problem,
out comes the die grinder

[KylSp]

XFX revisions strikes again! It is a reference card to them, but they usually silently change the 'reference' version from like 1 to 1.1 or other nonsense. Now you know why XFX is a joke of a vendor, many have stopped buying their cards for exactly this reason.

[Masteroderus]

I feel awful for you man! What a nightmare!

Always always check from now on that there are people out there that have put waterblock A on video card B and had it work 100%.

[DTI]

What is the best 7970 reference card out there in ghz edition
that will fit this water block

[jibz]

If it's a reference card then physically they are all the same, and can be flashed to a ghz edition bios as that's purely software.

In otherwords, all 7970 reference are the same. Ghz or not.

[dustin1706]

Originally Posted by jibz

If it's a reference card then physically they are all the same, and can be flashed to a ghz edition bios as that's purely software.

In otherwords, all 7970 reference are the same. Ghz or not.

^ This. IE: I had an xfx and an HIS 5870 and I flashed them both over to the Asus bios which had a higher limit on the voltage and clocks.

Just get whichever has the best bundle and/or warranty.

[canada2005]

Same thing happened to me with the xfx 6970's. Bought a brand new rev 1 with the dual bios switch then decided to crossfire 2 months later.

The new one was a rev 1.1 that had no bios switch and a different pcb design. I wanted to go and throw the damn card out b/c I already had a rev 1 waterblock waiting for it.

[IRQ Conflict]

Yup! Sapphire was/is guilty of the same practice. Happened to me when I CF'd two X1950 Pros. The latter card came with a lower clocked BIOS and some minor PCB changes. Didn't effect my ability to CF but it was a pain since it (the BIOS) slowed my original card down. Flashing the new card with the other cards BIOS introduced instabilities so that was not an option.

What pissed me off is that they started using inferior (lower binned GPU's and ram) parts without letting people know. Nice eh? I'm a die hard single card or even dual GPU on a single card user now. I won't bother with SLI/CF in the future. Too much of a gamble. I learned my lesson early.

It's fine I guess if you purchase the two at the same time but God help you if you plan this as an upgrade path.

[Hooded]

The best way to tell if a card is a reference card is to check the cards version # if it's not v1.0 then it's not reference.
AMD PCB's change far too often imho. The nVidia cards do this much less.
I too have an extra 6970 reference block kicking around from an error I made purchasing a for a v1.2 card. I keep it to remind me to triple check what I'm ordering.

[DTI]

Just want to say thanks for the information in what to look for

If I went with just a gpu block do you think its really that necessary to install ram sinks