AMD Mulls Releasing a Faster Clocked Radeon HD 7970 Graphics Card

Goose and Maverick aren't the only ones with a need, a need for speed (that's a Top Gun reference for you young guns out there, not a shout out to EA's Need for Speed series). Apparently AMD isn't content to simply own the fastest single-GPU graphics card on the planet, but it's also flirting with the idea of launching an overclocked version of its Radeon HD 7970 part.

According to news and rumor site Fudzilla, the Sunnyvale chip maker knows its GPU can dance the line at around 1,200MHz, so why not roll out an official version? That's the question AMD is currently mulling.

"Several things indicate that the company is working a faster version and second wave of overclocking products," Fudzilla said, adding "but it has not been decided when and at what speed and brand they come out."

Perhaps it would carry the moniker Radeon HD 7970 OC, or AMD could bump up the model number to 7980. Regardless of what AMD decides, you can bet AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners will offer factory overclocked versions of their own, with or without a new model number in tow.

In case you need a refresher, reference specs for a stock 7970 include a 925MHz engine clockspeed and 3GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1,375MHz on a wide 384-bit bus.