xfx 5970's difference (Volt Tool?)

[Kal-EL]

Anybody know what the difference between the 700 dollar and the regularly prices xfx 5970 GPU's are?

I know the Black Edition has a promis of 30% more overclocking headroom with the voltage tool but does this mean the vanila cards don't have the voltera chip?

Anybody with more info?

[Chuchnit]

All cards right now should be the reference design; aka with volterra chip. I think what XFX is doing is sort of "promising" the potential since they can't exceed the 300w tdp limit of whatever industry standard it is called. PCI-E 2.0 spec I think. Therefore you SHOULDN'T see any cards with a large factory overclock in the 5970's. Only 6w to play with before hitting the limit.

[punx223]

theres ways around taht john.... not to mention many are looking a dual 8 pins as a possability, plus pulling a lil extra juice from the slot never killed anyone..... except maybe a board :Pt

[Kal-EL]

Well that's what I figured but with the $100 price hike for voltage tuning capabilities, I had to wonder.

[Chuchnit]

theres ways around taht john.... not to mention many are looking a dual 8 pins as a possability, plus pulling a lil extra juice from the slot never killed anyone..... except maybe a board :Pt

I had read somewhere about possible 2x8-pin versions coming out. Still, I thought the spec is related to PCI-E 2.0 guidelines (slot) rather then connectors. If that was the case it seems ATI would have just matched the clocks of the 5870's and call it a day.

[Kal-EL]

Well, it seems it doesn't matter cuz they make just 1000 units a day and 2 meet production specs.