I managed to find the maximum overclocks on these cards, it turned out to be 1175 / 1600 / VDDC 1.3125 (using VBE7 bios editor) Not so happy with the extra powerconsumption though... !
Full load (total system excl monitor): 810 - 824W average / 840W maximum, measured at the wall, during "Unigine Valley" extreme settings benchmarking @ 2560 x 1600 / 60Hz.
With clocks at 1100 / 1575 / VDDC 1.181 it is: 580 ~ 620W average, 665 W maximum.
The performance in Crysis 3 DX11 Ultra 2560x1600 was already excellent: between 50 ~ 70 fps; the 1175 / 1600 overclock gained me 5 fps avg at the cost of about 200 Watts. 5 fps i don't even need, and i play it with Vsync enabled anyway.
In Metro Last Light the gain is even less: only 1½ fps...
So after these benchmarks i reduced the overclock again to the card's' sweet spot: 1100 / 1575 (with a hint more volts than default 1.170) @ 1.181 VDDC and they're efficient cards again. Plenty power for all games at max settings @ 2560x1600.
Anyway. Time for benchmarks!
Catalyst 13.10 Beta.
* Intel i7 2700K @ 4.8 Ghz * Zalman CPNS9900-A LED * Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z [bios 1004] * 16 GB Corsair Dominator GT CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 * Sapphire HD7970 crossfire * Dell U3010 @ 2560 x 1600 [DVI-D] * Corsair AX 1200W * WDC WD1002FAEX (x 3) * Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro [PCI-E] * Optiarc AD 5240S * Steelseries 7G * Razer Imperator 2012 * Steelseries SX * Coolermaster Stacker STC T01 * Logitech Z-5500 * Sennheiser HD598 * Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 *
3DMark 2013 @1175/1600: Firestrike Graphics score 17086
3DMark 11 @1175/1600:
