If you thought MSI made too much song and dance about the product design of its R7970 Lightning, particularly the GPU Reactor module, think again. When augmented with liquid nitrogen cooling, the card has the electrical muscle required to sustain 1.7V, and facilitate a staggering 1800 MHz core clock speed, with 1925 MHz memory (7.70 GHz GDDR5 effective), churning out a gargantuan memory bandwidth of close to 370 GB/s, all thanks to the genius of Swedish proverclocker Elmor.

This R7970 Lightning on 'roid-rage was stable enough to bag a 3DMark 11 (performance preset) score of P15035 points. The rest of the test-bed consisted of an Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition six-core chip clocked at 5207 MHz, with 4 GB (4x 1 GB) DDR3 memory clocked at 2314 MHz, and MSI Big Bang XPower II motherboard, to seat it all. Perhaps this is an indication that AMD Radeon HD 7900 can work wonders on potent non-reference designs, such as MSI's R7970 Lightning.

Closely trailing the launch of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680, and keeping up with its own streak of launching a new graphics card line each month since January, AMD will unveil its Radeon HD 7990 graphics card in April, or so it's reported. INPAI reports the clock-speed and chip-configuration of the upcoming dual-GPU monstrosity. The Radeon HD 7990 packs two 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs as a "Crossfire on a stick" solution. The Tahiti chips will be clocked at 850 MHz (core), and 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz effective) memory.

The chip-configuration of each of the two Tahiti chips will be the same as that on the Radeon HD 7970, with 2048 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 3 GB of memory, each. The total memory on the card will hence be 6 GB. With the Radeon HD 7970 refusing to budge from its US $549 price-point, it's quite natural that the Radeon HD 7990 will be priced very high. It is gunning to retain the performance crown that's currently disputed between the Radeon HD 6990 and GeForce GTX 590.

AMD today reached a major milestone in the graphics industry with worldwide availability of its full line of next generation AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPUs in less than three months. Starting in December, AMD launched the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series, followed in February by the AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series and completed today with availability of the AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series graphics cards.

"Bringing the first 28nm graphics cards to market in December spurred us to continue pushing the boundaries, product after product, culminating with today's product availability," said Zvika Greenstein, director of product management, GPU Division, AMD. "Look at our feature set: Graphics Core Next, AMD Eyefinity 2.0, AMD PowerTune, AMD ZeroCore Power technologies and of course our GHz Edition graphics cards - it is without doubt that AMD stands alone in the graphics industry."

For skeptics who refuse to believe randomly-sourced bar-graphs of the GeForce GTX 680 that are starved of pictures, here is the first set of benchmarks run by a third-party (neither NVIDIA nor one of its AIC partners). This [p]reviewer from HKEPC has pictures to back his benchmarks. The GeForce GTX 680 was pitted against a Radeon HD 7970, and a previous-generation GeForce GTX 580. The test-bed consisted of an extreme-cooled Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor (running at stock frequency), ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard, 8 GB (4x 2 GB) GeIL EVO 2 DDR3-2200 MHz quad-channel memory, Corsair AX1200W PSU, and Windows 7 x64.

Benchmarks included 3DMark 11 (performance preset), Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Lost Planet 2, and Unigine Heaven (version not mentioned, could be 1). All tests were run at a constant resolution of 1920x1080, with 8x MSAA on some tests (mentioned in the graphs).More graphs follow.

HIS today launched two new graphics cards models based on the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU, the HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² (model: H797QM3G2M), and HIS HD IceQ X² Turbo (model: H797QMT3G2M). The two differ by clock speeds, with the former sticking to AMD reference clock speeds of 925 MHz (core) with 5.50 GHz (memory eff.), while the latter is overclocked out of the box, with 1050 MHz (core) and 5.60 GHz (memory eff.).

Both models use HIS' newest IceQ X² cooling solution, which uses a three 6 mm and two 8 mm nickel-plated copper heat pipes to convey heat drawn directly from the GPU die, to a dense aluminum fin array, which is ventilated by two quiet high-airflow fans. Both cards use blue-colored AMD reference-design PCBs to gel with the IceQ theme. HIS did not give out pricing or availability information.

Leading international graphics card and mainboard maker MSI today announced the release of the MSI R7970 Lightning, the new heir to the throne of Lightning graphics cards. Equipped with AMD's 28 nm Radeon HD 7970 GPU, the MSI R7970 Lightning features an all-new Unlocked Digital Power Architecture that incorporates an Unlocked BIOS, Digital PWM Controller, and Enhanced Power Design to boost overclocking potential to new heights and make overclocking easier than ever.

In an industry first, the proprietary "GPU Reactor" power supply module reduces power supply noise and also boosts overclocking stability as well. To keep this beast cool, the MSI R7970 Lightning utilizes the latest Twin Frozr IV Thermal Design equipped with Dust Removal Technology. The dual 10 cm fans with Propeller Blade Technology generate massive airflow for fast heat dissipation while remaining whisper silent. The two form-in-one heat sinks improve cooling for memory and the power supply module as well ensure structural integrity.

SAPPHIRE Technology has just release a new factory overclocked version of its high end graphics card based on the highly acclaimed graphics GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture from AMD.

The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 OC Edition features SAPPHIRE's new dual-extractor technology - Dual-X - a highly efficient multi-heatpipe cooler with dual fans providing quiet and very cool operation during normal operating conditions, and superb cooling performance even under extreme load. The HD 7970 from AMD is the most powerful single chip GPU ever built - it has a new internal structure with 32 compute units and a total of 2048 Stream processors. The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 OC Edition ships with a raised core clock speed of 950MHz, and 1425MHz for the memory. Its Dual BIOS switch allows users to select the higher performance settings of 1GHz core and 1450MHz memory, making the fastest card in its class. This setting also uses a more aggressive fan profile and raises the limits for maximum overclocking.

HIS is working on a new custom-design Radeon HD 7970 graphics card, based on its newest cooling innovation, the HIS HD 7970 IceQ X². This is the first cooling solution in the IceQ family to feature two fans. It is designed to be competitive with several other AIB-designed twin-fan cooling solutions out there, MSI TwinFrozr III, PowerColor PCS+, and Sapphire Dual-Fan, to name a few. The cooler is designed to keep the card within the dimensions of two expansion slots, while increasing the height just a little.

The design consists of an aluminum fin array, to which heat is fed by three 6 mm and two 8 mm nickel-plated copper heat pipes, some of which make direct contact with the GPU die. The fin array is then ventilated by two large 112 mm fans that feature high-airflow blades. The design results in 17 °C cooler, and 15 dB quieter operation than AMD reference cooler. The card makes use of a 6-phase PWM power design. Other details are awaited.

GPU vendors tend to give out their own performance figures of the products they're launching, compared to competitors' products. In one such comparison, allegedly of the GeForce GTX 680, doing rounds on the internet, NVIDIA's new GPU was evaluated by its makers be be over 40% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 in some tests. Keeping Radeon HD 7970 as a baseline, NVIDIA presented its performance figures for the GeForce GTX 680's leads over it, and Radeon HD 7950's trails under it. Results of as many as 15 tests were presented, from 7 games/benchmarks. All benchmarks were run with and without AA. The one test that caught the eye is Battlefield 3 with "4xAA". Experts we spoke to think NVIDIA could be using FXAA algorithm. In any case, NVIDIA looks to be confident of taking back the fastest-GPU crown from AMD.

Here are some key bits of information concerning the upcoming GeForce GTX 680, a performance single-GPU graphics card based on the 28 nm GK104 GPU by NVIDIA. The information, at face value, is credible, because we're hearing that a large contingent of the media that finds interest in the GPU industry, is attending the Game Developers Conference, where it could interact with NVIDIA, on the sidelines. The source, however, is citing people it spoke to at CeBIT.

First, and most interesting: with some models of the GeForce 600, NVIDIA will introduce a load-based clock speed-boost feature (think: Intel Turbo Boost), which steps up clock speeds of the graphics card when subjected to heavy loads. If there's a particularly stressing 3D scene for the GPU to render, it overclocks itself, and sees the scene through. This ensures higher minimum and average frame-rates.

PowerColor's still-unreleased Radeon HD 7970 Vortex II graphics card has finally taken shape at CeBIT, it was pictured dismantled, and without a GPU in January. We are now learning about the clock speed this card will ship with, 1100 MHz core (compared to 925 MHz AMD reference), and an unknown (but higher than reference) memory clock speed. The Vortex II cooler allows users some control over the air-flow of the two fans on this card's cooling assembly, which could impact cooling performance and noise. The cooler uses a large heatsink to which heat is fed by four 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes.

A report by 3DCenter.org, which takes into account the specifications of NVIDIA's GK104 GPU, based on clock-speed and specs. leak estimated its shader compute power to be 17% higher than that of AMD's Tahiti in its Radeon HD 7970 avatar (4.46 TFLOPs single-precision floating point). Based on the said specifications, the report also hypothesized things such as memory bandwidth, ROP performance, and texture performance; and compared it to those of the Radeon HD 7970 and Radeon HD 7950.

The fact that Sapphire has been working on a Radeon HD 7970 graphics card with an obscene 6 GB of memory has been known since the end of 2011. The said card, the Sapphire Toxic HD 7970 6GB, has already taken shape, and was spotted running at CeBIT. Such as it is, AMD utilizes 2 Gbit GDDR5 memory chips in numbers of 12 to achieve 3 GB of memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface, on its HD 7970. Higher density GDDR5 chips are not available, at least not in bulk. So the only way Sapphire is doing 6 GB is by piggy-backing two 2 Gbit chips across 32-bit wide paths, each. As a result, these cards have memory chips on both sides of the PCB, obverse and reverse, and require a metal back-plate to keep the chips on the reverse side cool. The only reason we see consumers needing 6 GB of video memory today, is multi-monitor gaming. Even there, the impact of the increase to 6 GB memory (from 3 GB) is debatable.

If you've seen the first pictures of MSI's Radeon HD 7970 Lightning graphics cards, you may have noticed an unusual-looking round cutout on its backplate, right behind the GPU. We are learning that this cutout, and the tiny headers on the exposed PCB are actually a socket for what MSI is referring to as a "GPU Reactor" (I can imagine Iron Man fans prepping their flame throwers right about now).

The "GPU Reactor" is a round add-on device that sits on this socket. It is essentially an add-on PCB that holds a battery of tantalum capacitors, which further conditions power for the GPU. Apart from capacitors, there are a few blue LEDs and a round, transparent window that make it light up. To what extant this gadget helps with maintaining stable OCs remains to be seen, but on the "flip-side", it could pose spacing issues with other add-on cards located right above HD 7970 Lightning cards that are outfitted with one of these.

CeBIT 2012 is kicking off tomorrow but already the show floor is buzzing with cameras taking pictures of the hardware on display. One such camera, handled by the lab501 team, spotted at MSI's booth the R7970 Lightning, a highly-customized Radeon HD 7970 targeting enthusiasts and overclockers.

Seen below, the incoming Tahiti-based card makes use of Military Class III components (Hi-c CAP, SFC, Solid CAPs) and has an oversized PCB, 14+2-phase digital power, a Twin Frozr IV dual-fan heatsink, a backplate, and something called a GPU Reactor. The R7970 Lightning also features 2048 Shader Units, a 384-bit memory interface, 3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, Eyefinity 6 support, plus two DVI and four mini DisplayPort outputs. The card's clocks, price tag and release date have yet to be revealed but should be exposed soon.

XSPC is finally ready with a full-coverage water block for AMD Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950 graphics cards (AMD reference PCB). The block is design to keep the card within the size specs. of a single expansion slot, while providing liquid cooling to all hot components on the obverse side of the PCB, including the GPU, the 12 GDDR5 memory chips, and the VRM. Measuring 220 x 142 x 9 mm (18 mm at ports), the main portion of the block is milled out of a block of copper, while the portion over the VRM is milled out of aluminum.

The portion of the block that's over the GPU is ridged, making copper micro-fins, that increase dissipation of heat to the coolant. The top is made of CNC-cut stainless steel. The block is ready for CrossFire setups with four G1/4" ports, two G1/4" plugs are included. Listed on the company's online store (currently out of stock), the XSPC Razor 7970 is priced at £82.67 (US $131).

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today releases the first and only liquid cooling solution in the market: the PowerColor LCS HD7970. Partnered with award-winning cooling manufacture EKwaterblocks, the PowerColor LCS HD7970 enhances the overclocking headroom and has factory OC setting at 1150 MHz core and 5.7 Gbps memory, delivering extraordinary thermal performance for optimum system stability in a superb OC setting.

The PowerColor LCS HD7970 dissipates the heat from the nickel coated copper base which fully covers the key components, enhancing anti-oxidizing ability and allowing GPU temperature under 50°C even under full load. Moreover, with acetal surface of water block design, preventing moisture damage to ensure the longer life cycle.

Teased by its maker earlier this month, the PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 LCS (Liquid Cooling System) Edition graphics card has found its way onto Overclockers UK's website where it can be found on pre-order priced at £599.99 (~ $951 / ~ 718 Euro).

PowerColor's new, Tahiti-powered card comes equipped with a single-slot EK Nickel Acetal waterblock and features a core clock of 1050 MHz (up from the stock 925 MHz), 2048 Stream Processors, a 384-bit memory interface, 3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM set to 5700 MHz (5500 MHz stock), PCI-Express 3.0, DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 4.2 support, CrossFireX and Eyefinity capabilities, and four display outputs - one dual-link DVI, one HDMI and two mini DisplayPorts.

The Radeon HD 7970 LCS is backed by a two-year warranty and should start shipping before the end of this month.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostic utility. GPU-Z briefs you on the graphics hardware installed in the system, and lets you monitor clock speeds, voltages, temperatures, fan-speeds, and other information in real-time. The new version adds full-support for AMD's Radeon HD 7700 series "Cape Verde" GPUs (HD 7770 and HD 7750) that are bound for launch a little later this month. The new version also has an updated ASIC Quality calculation formula that makes reading on NVIDIA GPUs more reliable.

Other important updates include voltage monitoring support for Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950; support for some rare GeForce GT 520 variants that are based on GF108, GeForce GTX 555 (OEM), GeForce 305M, and GeForce 610M; and more reliable memory size reading for AMD Radeon graphics cards with large memory sizes. Sensors now refresh in the background by default (and not just when the Sensors tab is in the foreground). The board ID is now displayed along with the BIOS version string.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.9 | TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.9 ASUS ROG-Themed

The complete change-log detailing even more updates follows.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today added a new HD7970 graphics solution with dual cooling fan design: the PowerColor HD7970. Equipped with PowerColor exclusive cooling solution, the latest HD7970 lowers down 10% temperature through 92 mm ultra big fan and unique SSU-shape heat pipe design; while dissipates the excessive heat efficiently, it delivers low noisy level up to 15% quieter than reference version, providing no-compromise cooling effect with silent gaming environment.

The PowerColor HD7970 has core clock at 925 MHz and memory clock at 1375 MHz; with compatible with PCI Express 3.0, enabling unprecedented gaming performance by doubling the bandwidth per lane of previous generation. With 3GB GDDR5 onboard memory, the latest HD7970 allows the highest bandwidth for demanding DirectX 11.1 gaming title, delivering the astonishing image quality up to six displays by utilizing AMD Eyefinity technology.

Once Company of The Year by Forbes, NVIDIA is now having a hard time convincing 111-year old investment firm Sterne Agee that it is as much of a company to look out for. The firm downgraded NVIDIA from its coveted "Catalyst Driven Idea List," claiming that NVIDIA lacks the kind of innovation looking into the foreseeable future, to remain in that list. Says Sterne Agee:

"We had put NVDA on our Catalyst Driven Idea list on January 3 ahead of anticipated catalysts at CES and Mobile World Congress (MWC). While there were some catalysts at CES with the quad-core Tegra 3 integrating Touch on its Ninja 5th core, CES also saw a Win8 Tablet prototype running an NVDA Tegra. While we believe there could be more catalysts with MWC February 27, we believe NVDA shares are fairly valued here. MWC catalysts could include Tegra 3 handsets with Icera baseband and some 7-10 tablets running Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Sterne Agee's commentary continues.

A leading brand of graphics card maker - VTX3D, today introduces the most well-known X series of VTX3D, HD7970/HD7950 X Edition. The X series is designed to deliver extraordinary performance with factory overclocked setting and unique cooling design.

VTX3D HD7970/HD7950 X Edition incorporates the latest PCI-E Gen 3 to get the maximum performance from your GPU. Both fitted with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory connected via a new high speed 384 bit memory interface. VTX3D HD7970/HD7950 X Edition is clocked at 1050 MHz and 880 MHz respectively, also together with 1425 MHz and 1250 MHz for each memory, fulfilling those who thirst for extreme performance. The HD7970/HD7950 X Edition also features ultra cooling design. With two 92 mm ultra big fan and SSU-shape heat pipe design, this efficient cooling solution maximizes the speed of heat dissipation, but minimizes the noisy level, creating most pleasing environment for gaming.

Japanese built-to-order gaming PC maker Ark PC unveiled an AMD-powered variant of its Tathlum Gaming PC desktop (model: CY-AF8A99A-C2). The machine is built into a Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced chassis, and is accompanied by a 23-inch full-HD monitor. In the driver's seat is AMD FX-8150 processor, seated on an ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX motherboard, with 8 GB dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory, and AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB graphics. The processor is cooled by a Zalman CNPS9900MAX Red. Other components of interest include a Hitachi DeskStar 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s hard drive, onboard HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet. A SilverStone ST75F-SST-P 750W 80 Plus Silver PSU powers it all. Windows 7 Home Premium x64 is the OS of choice. The Tanthum CY-AF8A99A-C2 is priced at 167,800 JPY (US $2,175).

As if two custom Radeon HD 7970s (the Vortex and LCS models) aren't enough, PowerColor has today revealed another HD 7970 card that goes beyond AMD's reference design. Seen below, this third custom Radeon HD 7970, likely part of the PCS Series, comes equipped with a dual-slot cooler boasting two fans and (at least) three copper heatpipes, and features 2048 Stream Processors, a 384-bit memory interface, 3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, CrossFireX support, and five display outputs (dual DVI, dual mini DisplayPort, one HDMI).

PowerColor hasn't said anything about the card's clocks or price tag but hopefully those will be revealed later this month.

Ushering the finest and most capable graphics card based on new AMD "Tahiti" 28nm GPUs, the ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP uses a factory-overclocked core and 3 GB of GDDR5. It is cooled by the exclusive DirectCU II, a dual fan thermal design with six copper heatpipes and a large dissipation area that leads to the lowest temperatures and quietest operation of any HD 7970 card.

ASUS DIGI+ VRM 12-phase digital power delivery comes to graphics cards improved with Super Alloy Power components, while overclockers are bound to appreciate the inclusion of exclusive VGA Hotwire hardware overvolting and GPU Tweak software tuning. The new cards further support adapter-free AMD Eyefinity 6.