I'm trying to pick a 7970 for Linux. I was just going to pick one with an affordable one with high clock frequency, but there was a newegg review about the Catalyst drivers not working with the Gigabyte GV-R797TO-3GD. So I'd like to know, what is good that we know works in Linux? Or is this newegg review incorrect?
Thanks!
a 7970 is a 7970, regardless of OEM. they all use the same GPU provided by AMD. some come out of the manufacturing process better than others and thus can be pushed to higher clocks, but they're all the same GPU.
the differences in the models offered by OEMs come down to the quality of the board and cooling solution. all reference cards, regardless of OEM, are nearly identical. non-reference designs can vary greatly, and cut corners to save money.
the driver will work with all of them just the same.
you should be able to push the clocks on that card to 1100Mhz with no problems. you can even flash the other card's bios onto that card to get the proper voltage tweaks if necessary. but it shouldn't be necessary to do so, we're running all of our reference design 7970s at 1100Mhz on stock voltage.