Introduction

HD 7970 Market Segment Analysis GeForce

GTX 660 Radeon

HD 7870 GeForce

GTX 580 GeForce

GTX 660 Ti Radeon

HD 7950 GeForce

GTX 670 Radeon

HD 7970 HD 7970

GHz Ed. ASUS HD

7970 Matrix GeForce

GTX 680 Radeon

HD 6990 GeForce

GTX 590 GeForce

GTX 690 Shader Units 960 1280 512 1344 1792 1344 2048 2048 2048 1536 2x 1536 2x 512 2x 1536 ROPs 24 32 48 24 32 32 32 32 32 32 2x 32 2x 48 2x 32 Graphics Processor GK106 Pitcairn GF110 GK104 Tahiti GK104 Tahiti Tahiti Tahiti GK104 2x Cayman 2x GF110 2x GK104 Transistors 2540M 2800M 3000M 3500M 4310M 3500M 4310M 4310M 4310M 3500M 2x 2640M 2x 3000M 2x 3500M Memory Size 2048 MB 2048 MB 1536 MB 2048 MB 3072 MB 2048 MB 3072 MB 3072 MB 3072 MB 2048 MB 2x 2048 MB 2x 1536 MB 2x 2048 MB Memory Bus Width 192 bit 256 bit 384 bit 192 bit 384 bit 256 bit 384 bit 384 bit 384 bit 256 bit 2x 256 bit 2x 384 bit 2x 256 bit Core Clock 980 MHz+ 1000 MHz 772 MHz 915 MHz+ 800 MHz 915 MHz+ 925 MHz 1050 MHz 1100 MHz 1006 MHz+ 830 MHz 607 MHz 915 MHz+ Memory Clock 1502 MHz 1200 MHz 1002 MHz 1502 MHz 1250 MHz 1502 MHz 1375 MHz 1500 MHz 1650 MHz 1502 MHz 1250 MHz 855 MHz 1502 MHz Price $230 $240 $430 $300 $300 $380 $390 $420 $480 $480 $700 $750 $1000

AMD's HD 7970 and its more powerful brother HD 7970 GHz Edition have been on the market for a while now. MSI has also launched their HD 7970 Lightning in June. Now ASUS has released the HD 7970 Matrix - a card that will directly compete with MSI's HD 7970 Lightning.ASUS has increased clock speeds to 1100 MHz. That is 50 MHz more than the GHz Edition and higher than any other HD 7970 card, including the MSI Lightning. Memory clock is, with 1650 MHz, also higher than any other AMD card.The card comes with a powerful triple slot cooling solution and adds many features for hardcore overclockers like support for VGA Hotwire, voltage control, and three buttons for direct GPU voltage control. We also find voltage measuring points and a Turbo-fan button to set fan speed to 100% on the card.Price-wise, the HD 7970 Matrix comes at $480, which is quite a price increase given AMD's recent price drops for the HD 7970.