If you had bought an i7-2600k and an HD 7970 Ghz Edition back in the day you'd have spent quite a bit of money but got a lot of mileage out of the hardware over the years.

i actually had the SAPPHIRE Toxic Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 6GB. Its still a beast. It could hit 1280MHz-1300MHz on the GPU and the memory went up to 1700MHz-1800MHz+. There's also the Regular Vapor Chamber (Vapor-X cooler) 3GB/6GB versions out there.

Thank you for making this Timmy, I was actually wondering about this topic myself.

I still use my 7950 sometimes and it has died and come back with the oven. still strong.

My friend bought his 7950 ghz edition in early 2013 for 180€ new due to a pricing issue and that thing has been through it all. It's seen sandy bridge, multiple fx systems, a couple pentiums and is now chilling with an i5. It's done the mining, rendering, creative tasks, gaming, compute and whatnot. Seen 17 owners of which I was 3. Yet it's still going and soon going in build number 11. It's still crazy to me that that same card has come back to me after getting it from him when he upgraded his system and me selling it twice. The last time being to a stranger. Call me surprised when I got a computer in for upgrades and I saw the same 7950 that had nyoom engraved on it come back to me :p.

00:50 in and doesn't that XFX fan side look remarkably similar to the founders RTX cards.

Man did those XFX cards look good. They kind of dropped the ball this last generation.

OMG literally perfect timing. HUB Steve's secondhand roundup kept having this one "surprisingly" making the cut when Kepler cards wouldn't even compare.

I really loved that card. Had it for a long time in my old rig until I blew it up with OC. It was running so well until that day. I am still impressed on what this old beast could handle :). Thanks for that throwback Timmy!!

That was fantastic music Timmy Joe! More music like that and we will get along just fine. Great video!

woow thats amazing! I wish to see how good it is with 8 years old games. It would be very interesting to see! I love the retro PC behind U :)

Thanks Timmy Joe. Enjoying the content. Work in a local hospital in NY and your videos help me get through the horror that is our state right now.

Timmy, i love the benchmark music!

7970's were monster cards, even the blower versions. after 2 years i replaced the thermal paste with AS5 and dropped temps 20c over stock paste, and 40c over the dried up stock paste.

Got one of these back in the days and i loved it! Sad story about: the card died in 2016 😞

Greets from Germany!! I like ur style so much to review PC Systems... One of my fav...

This was interesting, great test!!

7970 is such a legendary card!!!! Unlike the awful rubbish that Kepler was, really a fine wine that 7970 is!

Throwback, I remember I buyed 2 of them 2013 for 220€. Had them for a long run. Awesome video as always. Keep it up!

Damn, Timmy, you're keeping it going! I knew right away this was about the 7970 - still have my sapphire hd 7970 sitting around in storage. Easily the greatest card I've ever owned relative to the time period.

This is like: still using a Voodoo 2 in 2006 and playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion or NFS Carbon with that card. OMG!!

Yo that music during the montage was boss, very funky I dig, I dig.

Man, this thing is impressive. I sat here the whole time thinking, "this is an eight year old card?!?"

Those "terrible benchmarks" got me into this channel! That and Newb Plebs segment hahaha

I do enjoy how you calling a single hertz a 'hurt' always gives me a chuckle.

Have the same card & cooler with the 7970ghz version. Oc'ed like a beast too. Still in use in my server (and also my 3rd back up gaming rig). 1200mhz core & 1600mhz mem held up quite well.

Muy buena explicación. Me encanta el contenido de tu canal!. Saludos a la familia. Saludos desde Tandil Buenos Aires Argentina.

I small detail to the benchmark graphs, I was watching this on my phone and personally I think the numbers could be a little bit bigger. Other than that, great video!

I'm so glad I got this card, it's been brilliant for nearly everything I've thrown at it, it's running in a retro system for overkill XP gaming, but also has a drive with Win7 and Linux Mint for more modern stuff. If it wasn't for the driver limit for HDMI capped to 1080p then it would be the perfect choice for nearly every game from the last 20 years. I got my first Displayport cable just so it could go to 1440p @144hz and I'm well chuffed with it.

so much energy in this video

My old sapphire 7850 is still going strong in a rig with an fx 8350, keeps my niece happy anyway.

Wow Timmy, Your desktop is just like mine, modern new computer sittin next to an old 486dx2 haha

It’s crazy these cards still bring better money than an RX580 8g! I’ve never owned a 7970 but it seems people still believe it’s a great performer. The Sapphire version with 6g of vram on eBay can fetch $200 or more right now!

I used a pair of 7970's from 2012 to 2015, when one of them failed. I ran them both at 1200MHz on water, with a very slight voltage bump. They never reached 50C under full load. Both were pre-Gigahertz edition cards. One a Gigabyte OC model factory clocked at 1000MHz, the other a Sapphire OC model factory clocked to either 950MHz or 1000MHz (BIOS switch). They were rock solid at those speeds until the failure. Don't even know which one failed. Still attached together on their water blocks. I have all the bits to convert back to air cooling somewhere, which I expect I'll do at some point to get another spare working card.

Good video again. Wheres the music from you played during the games.

Perfect timing, I am considering buying this GPU and trying to figure out how it preforms and you drop a video on it exactly when I am looking to buy one. What great timing

Tim, I used a HD 7950 in Eyefinity back in the day for iRacing Sims as it ran 3x22" displays in 5760 x 1080p on my x58 with i7-930 .. I moved on to the 290x for EyeFinity with iRacing and both cards pulled very high frame rates best I remember as why they have the massive memory bus was just for Eyefinity (surround gaming ) I still have all the hardware (R9 - 280 and 290x ), just not 3 displays to fire it back up for iRacing .

waitching this on my 7970ghz , still play everything i play lol have it for over 7 years now

I'd like to see if there's any difference in the 6GB version

Quit playing with the video cards your going to break them LMAO 😂☠️ love your videos great job

Hey Timmy Joe, I like your taste in music 👌👌👌 freaking awesome. Do you play any musical instrument?

I used to have this card! It was amazing bro!

I bought this exact model in 2012 to pair with an 8320. Served me very well until 2017 when I got my 1080. Gave it to a friend last year and he plays ark on it with an old i7 2600

Ran an i5 3570k and xfx 7850 until just last month. They were going strong but showing their age and struggling in some titles but that was, for the most part, the lack if vRAM as it only had 2GB.

I had two of this exact card Such a beast card, loved it

I feel the 980ti is another GPU that has had legs! It’s nice to see hardware stay somewhat relevant over the long haul

I had this exact card shown in the video, one of the fans wasn't working when I bought it used about 2 years ago so I threw a arctic accelero ii on it and its been in my fathers pc ever since.

Love the Radeon HD 7000 series. I won an r9 270x (aka 7870 ) off of twitter way back in the day and it still does alright 1080p low or 900p high. I'll never get rid of this little work horse.

I had 3x XFX Black Edition 7970's with EK Water blocks in Tri-Fire. All three OC'ed to 1200mhz on the GPU (they would go higher, but power usage got silly) but I can't remember what the GDDR5 was clocked to, I just recall it was on the higher side compared to average OC's, and all three were launch day cards. Max temps on the cards rarely went over 45c. Mine were slightly different than the one you have there and could fit in a single slot with an adapter. I ran a 3770K at 5.0Ghz in an Asus P8Z77 WS with 32GB of PC1600. 32GB of RAM was overkill but hey it was only $120 back then hehe... I still have one of the three, unfortunately it's no longer functional, but I'm going to try baking it one day to see if it comes back to life just for fun. The last comparison I saw the 7970 did blow the GTX 680 out of the water. It even beats the 780 Ti in some titles, I think it was Hardware Unboxed that had it in one of their reviews.

I have two of these cards I crossfired them back when I was upgrading them to an rx580 and gpu prices were a bit to much for me. I used them for Resident Evil 2 the extra card help offset the memory issue that came with the settings but I was able to get it to an 80 fps mark with minor drops here and there. I want to do this again as I'm transitioning parts again and want to replicate my setup from that time again.

The 384 bit bus is helping even more than the 3gb memory buffer

I have that exact card in the system I am using to type this right now. Still runs like a champ

I've had an R9 280 until recently. (traded it in and some cash for a 1060) Let me tell you that it was a beast. It was the Powercolor model and, despite having a +140MHz core and +200MHz memory overclocks AND using up like 200 watts, it didnt runt that hot (max temp was 80c on a VERY hot day). Biggest downside is the required power supply. Mine required a 6pin and an 8pin connector. Other than that, a great card for simpler games (League, CS GO and others like that)

I had a 7950 since 2013, and then upgraded to a 280x my friend wanted to get rid off right around when the 1060 came out, great cards, amazing to see how they can still be somewhat relevant when their nvidia counterparts are pretty much forgotten

Wow how nostalgic! That's the first GPU I bought new and it went through a lot of mods through out it's life time, until I killed it... First better cooler, normal air overclocks, then BIOS mods and after that volt molds... I think I got like around 1230MHz on the core, but it bust it self. I never tried to find out why, I guess something went wrong with the mod and too much voltage went through or VRM gave up despite watercooling. Don't remember the Vcore, but I think it was past 1,3V.

OMG!! Love this tune , tis such a 80's proon sound on it, it just miss out on the chakka chakka guitar riff .LMAO

13:59 Timmy you HAVE to make this a thing, overlay stuff over that old CRT! :)

During the game play montage I was just waiting for Ron Jeremy to step out in a hanging open Silk robe.

Seeing that everyone had one, I currently have one that works. Bought it in a desktop that was an all AMD build from the FX years for 100 dollars. Sold the internals and kept the case(scorpion themed case from Thermaltake I believe) and the 7970. It is an Asus 7970 Matrix Platinum edition. The design of the card definitely is a sight to see.

Yea my R9 280x Asus is very similar. it can still run em, This will probably be the last year as you said... but be careful there man your ganna break another gpu fan lol! Take care man, love the content keep it up!

I bought one when they launched.. built my gaming PC around that card. Great memories and a great..if hot and noisy card. It got better with age, and great to.see it is still going well.

I have about 10 HD 7950, 7970, and 2 R9 280x left from mining and gaming, excellent cards, and with the 4.3.20 drivers play RE2/3 well. But the last game I played close to maxed out @1080p was FO4 on an MSI R9 280x with I7 3820 @4.8ghz.

i have a XFX HD 6790 as a spare GPU when upgrading in between gpus i got a powrcolor 5700xt cause i didn't want to wait for big navi but once its drops next year lol i'll grab it. so far 65C is as hot as it has gotten and i'm amazed i got it for $350 $378 after tax i'm going to AIO cool it with a G12 bracket soon :) do you recommend a dual fan 120 in the rear or a 240 up top.

The very first PC I built had a 7970. Sold it to my buddy a couple years later and he still uses to this day without any issues.

Yo I had the same xfx double D card in rig long long ago. Timmy ! I repairs my plasma TV. I did a wideo on it hehe. Stay safe brosef

I had the 4850 X2 back in the day man that card was huge. Then I went to the 7850. Now at a GTX 1060. Cant wait until the new stuff comes out later this year, time for a new RIG!

I have a 290 laying around and i was shocked how good it did last year when i tested it

I bought a 7770 Ghost XFX card back in 2014-2015 brand new & I never got a signal out of it. Still have it

My current rig I built in 2012. I made a custom aluminium case with 6 x 120mm fans in front of the motherboard. AMD FX 8120 with a Phanteks 14mm Twin CPU cooler and a Gigabyte 7970 GHz 6 GB. The CPU ran stable at 4.8 Ghz and the 7970 overclocked to 1250+. Still a beast. Currently building a new system converting a Coolermaser H500P Mesh case into a twin 200mm fan push pull. (2mm difference in height and length) Just gotta drill out a couple of rivets and reconfigure the case so the motherboard outputs come out the top and have the twin fans at the rear. PCI-E cable to move the Graphics card out of the CPU airfow. And to top it off becasue the original H500P sucked you can buy a replacement mesh panel to cover the rear fans. Should be a relatively easy mod for silent air cooled gaming.

what was that audio thing with the 2020 where it was the same 20 repeated twice? lmao

Oh the memories! I had a really well binned XFX 7950 was a bit higher than a stock 7970 dam it was good!

Picked up this exact model last week here in the UK with 2yr warranty for £49.95 including postage ! Awesome cheap gpu

Couldn't agree more here, I bought myself a 7950 in 2013 (non-ghz unfortunately) lasted me through high school and even University, I picked up a second one second hand when the crypto craze was huge and gpu prices seemed they would never come down, the crossfire was alright, a small boost in some games, enough that I could bump the settings just a bit with the same framerate. Played almost anything I wanted, crossfire or single, even 1440 in some less demanding games! (I get about 75 fps in Overwatch on medium settings). Unfortunately mine is one of those not-even-5-mhz-above-stock ones though. Now that I'm finally done University and got a good paying job I ordered a 5700xt to retire the 7950, but it was a great card, I'm hoping the 5700xt is just as good!

actualy the first badge of 680's had 4 gb of memory i still have one in use in my old rig

I am still using the Asus Direct CU2 7970 at the moment and have no problem playing the latest triple A games on high and Ultra high at 1080p.

I'm still using my 7950 with an AMD 1055t 6 core processor which is even older. I'm only just in the process of upgrading the CPU but I'm still hitting 120 fps on Overwatch set to low settings(1080p)

Can't imagine anyone still holding onto a 7970 in a serious way with an Rx 480 being like $90.

I have a 280x, the MSI Gaming G edition, the only problem with it today and newest AAA games is the 3GB VRAM, so textures always must go on lowest settings, and sometimes thats not enough. And its a shame because the card seems fast enough for almost everything else.

Those performance are with the high end CPU and RAM so its okay - in the best case for budget build that its gonna be in, and most of the games are CPU instancive

Had this card a while back same model, ran insanely hot no matter what!

I have three 7970 Lightnings, still some of my favourite cards to bench!

i still have two in crossfire on my rig. Served me well. Almost time to upgrade though

My cousin had one, man was it nice. We would all take turns playing Mass Effect and Borderlands over and over and over... Still looks surprisingly modern in 2020 as well, nice!

I've got the Asus Matrix version. Lovely card runs at 1175 and more importantly, the logo changes colour as the temps to up. That's probably worth an extra five frames a second.

I bought 2 of them on release and kept using Crossfire until i gave it to my daughter 2 years ago. she has a xeon 2650 v2 system still with these cards in crossfire running flawlessly. I f=did have to replace one fan on the top card. I took a fan out of a dead GTX 980 and still working great. I only OC up to 1150 on each card and never OC ram at the time. Now they are both run at stock again in crossfire in my daughter's build. she is now 6.

I had the R9-280X for years and we still have it in my girlfriend's PC, it still does alright as you can see (it's a rebadged 7970). Love that card. She can still play anything @ medium-high settings.

Hope I'll be able to say the same with my RTX card. Kinda beating myself up for splurging when I honestly don't notice much difference between quality settings outside of screenshots

If you can find a 6gb version of the 280x and do a video on it that would be awesome! I've had a hard time finding those and I'd really like to see if there is any benefit that a larger framebuffer gives it

TIMMY JOE MY DUDE!!!!

I had two of the XFX R9 280s (rebranded HD7950) in crossfire and they were pretty good back in the day. I’m not surprised that a 7970 still plays AAA games, if it had more VRAM it might be even better.

i still got a few of these cards, they are the gigabyte windforce 3 fan models

You should do an extreme watercooled 4930k gtx titan build and see how the best 2013 had to offer stands up today. Do extremely fast ram, and an old pcie ssd. Maybe a 840 evo or pro if you have one.

Ran 2 XFX 7950s in crossfire. Back in the day. Same cooler. Still have them. Beast of a card at the time.

I mean, it's no surprise given that the fastest current gen "standard" console's GPU is only equivalent to a desktop HD 7870 (the PS4)...

my graphics card in my main machine is actually the hd 7950, and my cpu is the fx 6300. It was a good duo for a few years, but i need an upgrade soon...

hey Timmy are you from Canada?

I only get like 3000 something score in timespy for the gpu part with a evga GTX Titan 6gb in 2020 but it still plays modern warfare with no problems

Love this intro

I definitely get benchmarking with a CPU that won't bottle neck the gpu. But I'd also like to see the performance with a cpu that would be closer to what you'd pair this with

I have a old amd hd6990 in a old pc in storage. How would that card work in a budget pc with asus rog b450 chipset and amd ryzen 5 3600x? Im gonna buy budget parts on black friday. Thinking about getting the gtx 1660 super graphic card. But if the old 6990 work i can buy a better card than 1660 next paycheck instead.