A question about 7970m

As 7970m is a downclocked and downvolted 7870, does that mean AMD simply picks some 7870 chips that can be used in that voltage and rework the power supply module or they are totally different cards while may have the same amount of sp, etc
I know this question sounds silly but the reason why im curious about it is that if its really a 7870 then i can ov and oc it without a possiblity to damage the card as long as i can ensure the temp and power?

 

I don't know about the first part but yes you can overCLOCK it without problems as long as you monitor temps. Overvolting is never "assured". I doubt anyone here, even if they themselves have overvolted it, will tell you that it is safe to do so.

 

No it's not safe to overvolt, but overclock it is.
With overvolting you're pushing the voltage in the components behind their capacity.
There are some cards that can take increased voltage just fine, some others dont, general rule is to avoid it unless you know what you're doing and take full responsibility of your actions.
When overclocking, even if you reach instability, the worst you can have is glitches, artifacts or system lockup/driver crash.
However a reboot returns things at stock and you'll be fine.

 

Then i think ill keep the stocked volt while pushing it to 900/1250, a bit unstable though (sometimes a white screen comes out in 1 or 2 fraps, but not often)
btw, whats ur x score in 3d11? is 1928 a decent score considering to a overclocked system?

 

My best score actually is 6500~ with 2760qm stock and card at 950/1500.
I'm waiting my new psu and a CPU that I swapped with mine to see how much improvement I have over my current score.
Note that my score is made with 12.7 leaked drivers which is a bit lower (around 200 PTs) than 12.5.
I was reaching 6600 easily with 12.5 but performance in games is not even comparable to new leaked 12.7 drivers.