Update on this:
Hardware:3/4 Powercolor 7870 EZ Edition (1 more to be installed when the risers I ordered shows up)
ASRock 970 Extreme4
Sempron 145
4 GB Ram
Sparkle 1200 Gold PSU
USPS Priority Flat Rate Case
Software:CGMiner 2.11.3
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Catalyst 13.1 with included SDK
MSI Afterburner 3.0.0 Beta 8
http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/msi_afterburner_beta_download.htmlCatalyst 12.8 absolutely refused to recognize the cards at all. I finally got fed up with trying to get it to work, downloaded, installed 13.1, and the cards were instantly detected. I tried Afterburner 2.2.5 like I have on my other rigs, but it wouldn't allow me voltage control. Googled for 7870 tahiti voltage control and found a link about the new Afterburner 3.0.0 Beta 8 which allows voltage control for 7870 tahiti editions. Installed that, went into settings, and setup unofficial overclocking (much easier than older versions). That allows memory underclocking and full voltage control.
Results:2 GPUs Installed
975 e / 170 m / 1.081 v
430 mh/s / card
Voltage was a little weird because CGMiner reported 1.256, Afterburner 1.081, and GPU z 1.030.
3 GPUs Installed
975 e / 170 m / 1.100 v
412 mh/s / card
Temperature:Space the cards are in: 81.5 F
GPU 1 Riser: Roughly 30% fan 72 C
GPU 2 First 16x slot: Roughly 60% fan 73 C
GPU 3 Last 16x slot: Roughly 30% fan 72 C
I had to add a 120mm fan on top of GPUs 2 and 3 to help keep them cool. Before I dropped the voltage on all of the cards I couldn't keep GPU 2 cool at all. The fan would run up to 100% and I would have to shut the machine down as the temperature kept climbing. After dropping the voltage the temp dropped a ton, but the card still has some issues without the fan on top of it. I'm going to try putting it on a riser as well to get it away from GPU 3 or mix these in with my 7970 rigs. I play with the core clock on them then. After spending so much time on it today I was kind of just happy to have it hashing and wanted to leave it alone.
I've noticed this with my other rigs, but adding cards drops the hash rate of each individual card. I don't know what causes it, but if anyone has an idea let me know. I've had varying results in adding a 4th card to some of my rigs, but I'll post more results when the risers I ordered shows up.