VTX3D Radeon HD7970 X Edition Review

VTX3D have struggled in recent months to target the companies who we would consider to be the ‘big AMD partners'. Those being Sapphire and XFX.

The VTX3D Radeon HD7970 X Edition certainly redresses a few concerns we have had in the past and this is actually a surprisingly capable card which can play at the top level.

First impressions of the card are positive. It certainly isn't as exquisitely designed as the XFX R7970 Double Dissipation which features a beautifully crafted metal cooler with subdued colour scheme. VTX3D have opted for a plastic ‘in your face' bright red cooler. We wouldn't say it was ugly, but they aren't going to be winning awards for presentation. Appearances would indicate that Fisher Price might have had a hand in the cooler design.

Looking at the cooler from the inside presents a much stronger situation for VTX3D. They are using a substantial copper three heatpipe design which covers the full width of the PCB. Our testing actually shows that this cooler does a better job than the XFX R7970 Double Dissipation, which surprised us so much we had to retest it multiple times. In fairness, the XFX card is slightly quieter so the balance of noise v cooling performance is tweaked differently between the cards.

The VTX3D HD7970 X Edition is supplied in a highly overclocked stated with the core speed cranked from 925 mhz to 1,050mhz. This 14% overclock has a rather dramatic impact on the frame rate performance, allowing the VTX3D card to push past the reference GTX580 by a significant margin. Not only that, but when overclocked manually to 1,160mhz it matches the performance of the GTX590 in 3DMark 11.

VTX3D know that they need to compete on price to attract sales, and we made a quick scan around etail stores before publication. A reference clocked Asus HD7970 retails for £499.99. A Gigabyte HD7970 retails for £479.99. A Powercolor HD7970 retails for £439.99. These are all reference cooled cards, supplied at the default clock speeds.

An overclocked, custom cooled version of the HD7970 would normally retail in excess of any of these prices, but VTX3D are aiming to target the performance enthusiast by offering the card via DABS for around £439.99 inc vat.

Should you buy this card? Well we have highlighted the excellent cooler, high level of overclock performance and additional headroom you could expect with manual overclocking. The only problem is that ‘VTX3D' are not yet considered as one of the premium grade AMD partners and some people may still opt for a more recognisable brand name such as Sapphire.

We have no problem recommending this card as one of the fastest graphics cards you can currently buy, and it is certainly priced to sell.

Pros:

• Very competitively priced.
• Good cooling system.
• high level of overclock out of the box.

Cons:

• cooler isn't going to win any style awards.

Kitguru says: VTX3D are still an unknown name to many people but this is a really good card design.

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