neoguyver1
New member
About VTX3D
VTX3D is a new expected brand since 2009. Backed up by a talented & experienced team with services available across continents, VTX3D is ready to offer the most competitive and qualified products with perfect after-services to meet all customers' needs and expectations.
VTX3D is a subsidiary of TUL who also own Powercolor & Club3D. The range of models share similarities, the pcb's are near identical but the differences from what i can see are the finish to the coolers which under the hood are almost the same.
What's in the box included with the card are a 6-pin to 8-pin power adapter, one mini DisplayPort to standard DisplayPort adapter, a CrossFireX bridge, a CD with drivers, and an installation guide.
The 6970 I bought is the second revision VTX3D have brought to the fore instead of the reference design sporting red shroud and a dual fan design.
This model clocks are set to 880 core and 1375 memory, VTX have a higher clocked version branded the "X-Edition" which has 940 core and 1425 much like the Powercolor PCS+. It also sports the dual BIOS switch.
VTX3D 6970 880. From what i see there is a design difference on the pcb to aid the higher clocks.
940 X-Edition for comparison
NOTE: I tried flashing to the 940 BIOS and it did not display but windows did load up I take it the highlighted 6+1 phase design is the reason for that, you will see the difference below on the 880mhz version.
According to AMD the card requires a 150W 8 pin & 75W 6 pin power adapter and a quality minimum 550W PSU, personally I recommend 650-750 especially if you are overclocking the nutz off it and your system.
It's not just the clocks that are different the lower clocked version has 3 copper heat pipes instead of 4 and has no heat sinks on the VRM's aside from that identical physically.
TEST SYTEM
Operating System: MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Xeon W3520 @3.66GHz Bloomfield 45nm Technology
RAM: Corsair XMS3 1333 CL8 6.0GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 1643MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-EXTREME (Socket 1366)
Here are benchmark scores:
3DMark 06 all tests @default : 24589
3DMark 11 P score: P5126
3DMark Vantage: P22771
Unigine Heaven: 986 (1900X1200)
I tried using the double BIOS to flash it with the PCS+ 940 but it would not display, funnily enough ATIFLASH via a USB drive did not work and using WINFLASH did.
To reset the BIOS booted with the backup No.2 and opened Winflash i switched the BIOS back to 1 and re-flashed it with a backup of the original I had made.
It rebooted just fine and I decided to up the clocks to the X-Edition level of 940/1425 and tried vantage again resulting with a score of 23480.
I managed to break two of the screws which hold the cooler on which are very weak imo so i replaced them with better ones and the plastic washers with metal ones and used a fresh heatpaste.
I used a screw extractor bit to remove them, a pain in the monkeys!!
I also had some spare copper ram heat sinks and put them on the VRM's.
As regard how hot it gets minus one lovely shiny copper pipe I ran Furmark 1.9.1 & Kombuster after modifying
Idle: 29-31
Furmark Max: 73
Kombuster Max: 57
CONCLUSION:
Originally the card was cooling very badly reason for me messing with the it in the first place. I can't believe the screws broke!! After fitting the metal washers and IMO better screws the card cooled better and is way way quieter also the lack of VRM heatsinks is dissapointing easily fixed but this is a top end card so they should be on there!
Also before I fitted the VRM heatsinks it would crash with Furmark every time and after fitting it managed to keep on trucking without a hitch.
The cooler has not the same finish as the Powercolor either which has the black mesh on black and I think the 4th heat pipe would have been nice and you will need a well ventilated case as the warm air is dispersed out the sides of the card as opposed out the back of the case. Overall I like the look of the red cooler transparent almost ruby like appearance (blah! blah!) it is apt for the red ATI team, ahem!! AMD which is green but so is NVIDIA ooer! (identity crisis! go red AMD !)
I have only played modern warfare 2 and it looks superb on a 1920x1080 display all settings maxed out. This model also supports 4-way eyefinity.
I bought this as an open box item for £191.16 as an open box item on eBay from a trusted seller with a 12month warranty so I can't gripe too much, I might fit an Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme plus down the line as I know the Twin Turbos are a very good product and work directly from the pcb of the graphics card.. The 6970 overall is a good performer and I am happy to have one in my rig.
Hope you like my little review of this not so often seen brand.
If i was to win a prize for this it would be a aftermarket cooling solution LMAO
Please rate I need a beer after this thumbs up to screw extractor.
Cheers Guys!
VTX3D is a new expected brand since 2009. Backed up by a talented & experienced team with services available across continents, VTX3D is ready to offer the most competitive and qualified products with perfect after-services to meet all customers' needs and expectations.
VTX3D is a subsidiary of TUL who also own Powercolor & Club3D. The range of models share similarities, the pcb's are near identical but the differences from what i can see are the finish to the coolers which under the hood are almost the same.
What's in the box included with the card are a 6-pin to 8-pin power adapter, one mini DisplayPort to standard DisplayPort adapter, a CrossFireX bridge, a CD with drivers, and an installation guide.
The 6970 I bought is the second revision VTX3D have brought to the fore instead of the reference design sporting red shroud and a dual fan design.
This model clocks are set to 880 core and 1375 memory, VTX have a higher clocked version branded the "X-Edition" which has 940 core and 1425 much like the Powercolor PCS+. It also sports the dual BIOS switch.
VTX3D 6970 880. From what i see there is a design difference on the pcb to aid the higher clocks.
940 X-Edition for comparison
NOTE: I tried flashing to the 940 BIOS and it did not display but windows did load up I take it the highlighted 6+1 phase design is the reason for that, you will see the difference below on the 880mhz version.
According to AMD the card requires a 150W 8 pin & 75W 6 pin power adapter and a quality minimum 550W PSU, personally I recommend 650-750 especially if you are overclocking the nutz off it and your system.
It's not just the clocks that are different the lower clocked version has 3 copper heat pipes instead of 4 and has no heat sinks on the VRM's aside from that identical physically.
TEST SYTEM
Operating System: MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Xeon W3520 @3.66GHz Bloomfield 45nm Technology
RAM: Corsair XMS3 1333 CL8 6.0GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 1643MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-EXTREME (Socket 1366)
Here are benchmark scores:
3DMark 06 all tests @default : 24589
3DMark 11 P score: P5126
3DMark Vantage: P22771
Unigine Heaven: 986 (1900X1200)
I tried using the double BIOS to flash it with the PCS+ 940 but it would not display, funnily enough ATIFLASH via a USB drive did not work and using WINFLASH did.
To reset the BIOS booted with the backup No.2 and opened Winflash i switched the BIOS back to 1 and re-flashed it with a backup of the original I had made.
It rebooted just fine and I decided to up the clocks to the X-Edition level of 940/1425 and tried vantage again resulting with a score of 23480.
I managed to break two of the screws which hold the cooler on which are very weak imo so i replaced them with better ones and the plastic washers with metal ones and used a fresh heatpaste.
I used a screw extractor bit to remove them, a pain in the monkeys!!
I also had some spare copper ram heat sinks and put them on the VRM's.
As regard how hot it gets minus one lovely shiny copper pipe I ran Furmark 1.9.1 & Kombuster after modifying
Idle: 29-31
Furmark Max: 73
Kombuster Max: 57
CONCLUSION:
Originally the card was cooling very badly reason for me messing with the it in the first place. I can't believe the screws broke!! After fitting the metal washers and IMO better screws the card cooled better and is way way quieter also the lack of VRM heatsinks is dissapointing easily fixed but this is a top end card so they should be on there!
Also before I fitted the VRM heatsinks it would crash with Furmark every time and after fitting it managed to keep on trucking without a hitch.
The cooler has not the same finish as the Powercolor either which has the black mesh on black and I think the 4th heat pipe would have been nice and you will need a well ventilated case as the warm air is dispersed out the sides of the card as opposed out the back of the case. Overall I like the look of the red cooler transparent almost ruby like appearance (blah! blah!) it is apt for the red ATI team, ahem!! AMD which is green but so is NVIDIA ooer! (identity crisis! go red AMD !)
I have only played modern warfare 2 and it looks superb on a 1920x1080 display all settings maxed out. This model also supports 4-way eyefinity.
I bought this as an open box item for £191.16 as an open box item on eBay from a trusted seller with a 12month warranty so I can't gripe too much, I might fit an Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme plus down the line as I know the Twin Turbos are a very good product and work directly from the pcb of the graphics card.. The 6970 overall is a good performer and I am happy to have one in my rig.
Hope you like my little review of this not so often seen brand.
If i was to win a prize for this it would be a aftermarket cooling solution LMAO
Cheers Guys!
So I decided to flash the bios and I tried
