VTX3D HD7990 Review (w/ GTX690 & 6GB HD7970 Toxic CF)

To overclock today we are using Catalyst Control Center. Overclocking initially was problematic.

On the I/O plate of the VTX3D HD7990 is a red button. This is a dual button BIOS switch, with both core speeds configured to a turbo of 925mhz. You can however only overclock this card with the button pressed inwards.

Another obstacle had to be removed. AMD's ULPS needs disabled – this is the way that AMD reduce power demand from the second card in Crossfire, although it causes issues for overclocking, causing a BSOD with the VTX3D HD7990. Open REGEDIT, search for ‘enableULPS' and change the registry value from 1 to 0.

To confirm ULPS is off you can check the second card readings in GPUz. If GPUz shows ULPS is still active then it hasn't worked.

It is important to note that you need to overclock both HD7970 GPU's in Catalyst Control Center to the same speeds and apply the changes.

We managed to push both GPU cores to 1,050mhz, from 925mhz which translates to a 13.5% increase. The GDDR5 memory could be overclocked from 1,375mhz to 1,500mhz, translating to a 9% increase. Every sample will be slightly different although this takes each of the GPU cores to the latest HD7970 ‘GHZ' AMD Edition standard.

The high overclock helps generate another 1,100 points, from 15,113 to 16,244. A healthy increase.

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