How High can the 7870 Go?

So my 6790 is beginning to bottle neck my build now that I have OC'd. I have a spare 140cfm fan to use and was thinking it would be suitable on a GPU. I hear the 7870's can OC really well and I just want to know if its hardware or heat holding them back from the CCC speed of 1400 core? Iv seen them hit there 1450mhz memory, but if heat isnt an issue can they reach 1400 core? If not how high have you seen them?

PS: Sorry if this was misplaced. It falls under a build a overclock and a gpu!

I would say no. You would probably hit the voltage limit around 1200MHz on the core.

So. If it has unlocked Bios could I theoretically have a higher voltage limit? I havent done much to GPUs as far as overclocking.

Idk if they are any unlocked BIOSs out there for it. I sure as hell wish I could find one for my 760 though, I have it running at 1306 on the core but I can barely push the voltage.

msi is the only oem that i know of that makes unlocked voltages

you can unlock some cards but it's really hit 'n miss

My 7870 is at 1200 MHz core and whats holding me back is VRM heat more than anything else. I think it was a deliberate design flaw Asus incorporated into the Direct CUII v2 Cooler design for the new digital VRM HD 7870 to prevent it from outclocking a HD 7870 DCII TOP card. 

Economical theory on that is, "If you can reach 1300 MHz on a standard HD 7870 why pay more for the "TOP"end  version?". Simply put, you wouldn't.

I have just found(thanks to you) that MSI offer(ed) a line called Hawk that many got up to 1.4ghz in standard cooler! I MUST find one of these used! Ill put my fan on another heatsink and then Im done.

My 7870 can only go up to 1145 on the core. Few more mhz and it crashes. 

I would just go for a 7870xt. Between the 7870 and 7950.

i can go to 1250 and be fairly stable, 1300 fails everytime (core)

memory will go just about as high as the program will allow

So everyone is at a consensus of it being the temperature from the voltage holding this card back. Great! Ill look for one with an unlocked bios. The Msi Hawk cards are nice ;-) but I plan on using some of my existing 120mm fans to cool it... so maybe Ill get an Artic Accellero Mono, and pair it with my 140+ cfm fans and have a super overclocked setup. Any thoughts?

Standard Artic Accellero Mono makes 200 tdp cooling. My setup should make much more...

As high as your individual card can hit. Throw more voltage, stress, rinse, repeat.

So it turns out that I cant get a 7870 hawk in Canada, they discontinued it... Does anyone know of other 7870's that can hit the 1400mhz core? Assuming an aftermarket cooler.

Just get a GTX 760. They overclock like crazy and they outperform a 7870 at stock. Not much more in price either.

If you want to pay for shipping you can get one on Amazon direct from Japan from the overstocked warehouses that still have these cards. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00828UFZM/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

Although the last one is just a plain rip-off.

I eventually found one hidden on the TigerDirect.ca site for $310 Canadian. But upon checking out the 3dmark site scores. I'm afraid that I might try my first ever NVidia card... Its a MSI 760OC with 4gb vram. Should I consider a card with less Vram? I'm pretty sure 4gb is overkill for 1080p gaming at this point in time, but I want the card to last me a while. I spent $250 on my HIS 6790 Turbo IceQ X and am now regretting it 2-3 years later.

Yeah I stumbled into one of those while reading a review, they used it as a comparison card, it looks interesting however I have never had a NVidia card and am rather anxius at the thought of it... If I got one of those I would want to try to make sure that its voltage unlocked so I can unlock MSI Afterburner and get some more voltage still... Cooling is never an issue :-D

I would never buy launch hardware that hasn't been around at least 90-120 days after release. Too many bugs and hardware design flaws among PCB manufacturers.