Power, temps and noise
AMD quotes board power at around 250W for both the standard HD 7970 and this GHz Edition. Passing judgement when evaluating a sample of just one is a precarious business. Our numbers show the clock-hiked Radeon to pull just a bit more juice when under load.
Reference cooling doesn't tend to be the best on the market. 78°C fits in well with the standard HD 7970's number.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680's TDP, die size and memory footprint are all smaller than AMD's. We can also categorically say that it's quieter than either HD 7970. Bear in mind that putting too much stock in the reference card's results is semi-meaningless when a well-constructed aftermarket cooling solution can knock spots off its noise and temperature numbers.
