The question doesn't have to be just for the 7970, it just happens to be the card I am leaning towards in my build.
Sure makes picking a GPU difficult when there seems to be 100's of the same card made by dozens of manufactures and different clock speeds and prices all over the map.
OK so even if I compare the same clock speeds is there much difference between the manufactures other than the heat sink they put on, like would one perform better than an other. Would one that is more expensive out perform the exact same spec if the price tag was lower. And are there any manufactures that have a better build quality that others? Or are these all basically the same with different prices.
Depends on how you define performance - are acoustics, temperature, and OC headroom in the performance definition? If not, there will be no performance difference between 7970's at the exact same spec.
There are subtle differences, such as the heatsink, but other differences including PCB design and power delivery. There are also different warranties. None of these differences will affect FPS in the slightest.
There is a difference between the 7970 and 7970GHz Edition, but I don't it justifies a huge premium, considering you can OC the regular 7970 to similar specs.
Personally, I'd get the cheapest 7970 with an aftermarket cooler, preferably with heatpipes. I own a reference a GTX 570, and to keep it under 80c at full load, I have to crank the fan so it sounds like a jet plane (70%). I can literally hear it from the base of my stairs, and my room is upstairs across a small hallway. I can also hear it through my headset if I'm watching a movie, and I have a Corsair Vengeance 1500. Reference coolers are the worst. The reference coolers on Radeon cards are particularly notorious for poor acoustic performance.
The cheapest non-reference 7970 on Newegg ATM is the Gigabyte WindForce, which is actually a highly regarded cooler.
Thanks for the info!
Looks like I picked the right card then. http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/L2Ks