AMD know how to make gpus . they make great card , and every now and then , nail it and make a absolute perfect card . they succeed with the 5850 and it be brother 5870 and they succeed again with the 7970 . the 5850 have MASSIVE OC headroom with a start stock core clock at 725 and people easily reach core clock of 900 and above the 1 ghz mark . with the 7970 , the oc headroom may not be as large , but be still there . a start core clock of 925 and a easy oc up to 1125\/1575 be just a lower oc . I have a 7970 reference card by Sapphire , and I love it . it do run extremely hot , at around 85 degree c at 1175\/1575 . I have to set the fan at around 65 % at that temperature and the sound and heat be just too annoying for gaming for more than 10 minute . I consider buy a aftermarket cooler for around $ 80 which be review to be excellent , although a tad on the larger side , and extremely tedious to install . I own a Antec 900 case , so combination of put in another $ 80 with $ 579 original 7970 price , amount of work require and the smaller case size put I off buy the cooler . I return my reference card and switch to this one . the Sapphire Dual-X card be absolutely amazing . although the gtx 680 be review to be slightly better than the 7970 in a few category , it be important to remember that the 7970 have a larger advantage in higher resolution . this be not to say that the 7970 be bad at 1920 x 1080 . the performance of this card be ridiculous even when overclock to around 1125\/1575 , which be the max in CCC , and can reach that clock at stock voltage . however , if you would wish to oc it higher , use other program such as msus afterburner and trixx easily suffice . another amazing feature this card offer be its dual bio . it have two bio setting , one for a normal every day use and one suitable for a more aggressive oc profile . for all ocer it be recommend to switch to bio 2 , which be a simple as flip a switch on the top of the card when install but not power on , and provide so much more comfort in know if you brick one bio -lrb- extremely unlikely -rrb- you can just pop to the other one . my main original problem with the reference 7970 be the fact that it be very loud and hot . run this card at 1200\/1600 at 1.3 volt with a modest fan profile that I have only see run at 55 % , the card reach a maximum of 50 degree c and idle at around 28 deg c. this be a fantastic improvement , and the fan be nearly silent as well . the only time I hear the fan run over the case fan and operation volume be when I be torture the card in Heaven , Kombustor , 3D Mark Vantage , and other benchmarking program . this card blow the reference design out of the water , but I may have receive a card that have random kink in it . while it be not a dud and can oc a little bit , I be unable to oc it more than 1200\/1600 at 1.3 volt compare to other owner of the same card , cpu and mobo that I have talk to . yes , I know that there be many variable in ocing gpus but I think 1.3 volt be rather high for a more average clock speed . I have read multiple review of people achieve 1200\/1600 on voltage around 1.22 , and my voltage of 1.3 seem like overkill . run the card at 1200\/1600 be still satisfactory and still deserving of a 5-star rating . overall , this purchase be absolutely worth every penny . when compare to the gtx 680 at around $ 500 , with performance that rival if not outperform the gtx 680 , and for a good $ 30 cheaper , this card be a absolute must buy for computer enthusiast and gamer alike .