Stefan Mileschin

The overall combined numbers of 1235MHz on the GPU core and 1730MHz on the GDDR5 memory offered the highest marks on both clock speeds combined. To reach the maximum clock speeds, I used MSI's Afterburner Utility with unofficial overclocking enabled so the clock speeds could be adjusted past the limits in the Catalyst Control Center. Since the PowerColor LCS HD 7970 is liquid-cooled, I cranked the voltage up to 1300mv and let it rip. Any lower and the clock speeds would suffer. The higher voltage and frequency only impacted the load temperatures by 2 ºC, coming in at 44 ºC, validating PowerColor's claim to less than a 50 ºC load temperature. By overclocking, there were significant gains to be had in performance in all the games tested, making it a worthwhile endeavor. The clock speed gain over the class leading 1050MHz was 185MHz, or +18%, on the Tahiti core, and 305MHz, or just over +21%, on the GDDR5 memory. This led to improvements in gaming at 5760x1080 of close to 20%; again, well worth the effort. This card was meant to be overclocked and it does quite well.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...or_lcs_hd7970/