I don't think it would be either a great stretch, nor revealing a particular dark secret, to say that we never really took to the HD6970 here at OC3D. After the absolute magnificence that was the HD4870 and HD5870 AMD really dropped the ball with the HD6970 which was too hot, too loud and just not quick enough to even stay close to the high-end nVidia cards. So it's with a certain sense of trepidation that we take a look at the HD7970. At least after the HD6970 our expectations are dampened somewhat, so we're hopeful that this will impress us. VTX3D, the VTX standing for Vertex fact fans, have been around for a couple of years and stick solely to the Radeon line of products. But enough of the preamble, what's new?