Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 custom card gets pictured

TechPowerUp came across some photos of a single-fan non-reference Radeon HD 7950 from Sapphire. Clockspeeds are likely the same as the reference board.

The single-fan HD 7950 appears to have a blue-colored PCB that is likely to be AMD's cost-effective reference design. The cooler appears to have a compact heatsink that is cooled by a single central fan. Display outputs include two mini-DisplayPort, and one each of HDMI and DVI. We're also hearing from the source that 900 MHz core with unchanged (1250/5000 MHz) memory will be the maximum factory-OC permitted by AMD to AIB partners. That is not to say that the HD 7950's OC potential beyond that will be limited in any way.

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 custom card gets pictured - More news at DV Hardware

Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Cards in 3-Way CrossFireX

Introduction

Since the launch of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 we've looked at the reference model to see how it performs when the card sits on its own. With that done we then took the time to install a second reference design card into the mix and see how performance with the HD 7970 running in CrossFire.

Today we grab a third card and see what happens when we move to a three way CrossFireX setup. Since we've already looked at the Sapphire card in full detail in our CrossFire review mentioned above, we'll be getting into the performance side of things fairly quickly today.

The first thing we need to do is just take a quick look at our testbed, if you've been following our HD 7970 series of content, though, you shouldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Once we've done that we'll move onto the performance of the setup and see how it compares to other HD 7970s we've looked at.

When we've moved away from two cards and onto three and four card setups we've seen that performance can tend to get hit a fair bit. Quite often we don't see the gains we'd like to see and that ultimately makes three and four card setups quite overpriced and sometimes impractical. Still, the HD 7970 has shown us some wonderful performance so far... fingers crossed it translates over to today's 3-Way CrossFireX setup.

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Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Cards in CrossFire

Introduction

We're slowly working our way through our HD 7970s which we have on hand. We started off by checking out the reference card from AMD to find out the kind of performance was on offer from the new AMD model. We then checked out the first card that stepped away from the reference cooler; the XFX HD 7970 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation.

After that we moved onto the HIS HD 7970 3GB and took the time to overclock it to see just what kind of potential was on offer from the brand new model. Today the Sapphire HD 7970 3GB showed up and it was time to see what happens when we finally put together a pair of these new cards and see what kind of performance we're able to get out of the new models when in CrossFire.

As always, before we get into the performance side of things, we've got to take a closer look at the box and the package before we take a closer look at the card itself. Once we've done that we'll quickly cover the specifications and make sure CrossFire is working before we get into the testbed side of things and of course check out the performance.

The Package

Checking out the box there's nothing too out of the ordinary going on. We've got the brand and model on the front along with some of the main features highlighted including the 3GB of GDDR5 running on a 384-bit bus. Turning over expands on some of the features a bit more and gives us a bit of an idea what's going on with the package.

Checking out the package we've got the typical paperwork including a key to become a Sapphire Select Club Gold Member. Also above you can see a CrossFire Bridge, DVI to VGA connector and full length HDMI cable. Thinking the package was a little light I double checked with Sapphire to see what came in the package. Unfortunately the card had done the rounds and the last place that had it didn't put everything back in. Along with what you can see above we've also got a MiniDP to Single Link DVI Active Adapter, HDMI to DVI Adapter and a MiniDP to DP connector.

It's worth noting that Sapphire is the first company to include a MiniDP to DP connector, as we've been saying all along, if you're going to make use of a DisplayPort cable, it will come in extremely handy and prevent the need of having to purchase one separately.

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Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB Vapor-X Video Card Review

Introduction

It's been a bit of an AMD love fest lately when it's come to VGA with a lot of HD 6000 series making their way through the doors. It's not all that uncommon, though, as we tend to see a few months after launch companies start to release their different variations of the models that we begin to know and love.

Some choose to overclock, others choose to throw a new cooler on it, while some just go all out and do both. Today we're checking out the Vapor-X version of the HD 6870 which is a series we've grown fond of over the years thanks to the superior cooling it's offered over reference cooled cards.

With the HD 6000 series running a little warmer than people previously had hoped, it seems like the perfect candidate for a new cooler. So what kind of performance do we get from the card and does the cooler bring with it lower temperature, lower noise, or even both?

Well, before we find that out, let's check out the package, the card and then the specifications of the card in hand.

The Package

Cable wise we've got a pretty impressive array included. Apart from all the normal stuff we've also got a HDMI cable and mini-DP to DP connector. One of the better AMD card bundles we've seen when it comes to cables.

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Sapphire Radeon HD 6990 4GB Technical Run Down

Introduction

I wish we could offer you the performance numbers of the new HD 6990 4GB, but no thanks to my Australian location falling into the APAC region and the APAC region not always getting the same love as the European and North American ones, our HD 6990 4GB is running late.

The whole situation is made only worse by a public holiday here yesterday. That means while the card arriving a day beforehand would've caused an extremely busy day, at least it would have meant we would've had our performance numbers in time, since only the weak need sleep. The Sapphire HD 6990 4GB should be arriving literally any minute now and instead of having to type about the card as well as do all the testing and graphs, we thought we'd get that part out of the way first.

We've got all our slide decks from AMD and some images from Sapphire. We'll tell you all the stuff we normally would in a video card review outside of the performance of course. Because there's so much to cover as well, it means we can get the performance article to you even faster while making sure we can cover as much information about the new dual GPU beast from AMD.

The Package

Looking at the package, there's nothing really all that different to what we've seen before. Of course, the brand and model are very noticeable; so is the fact that Sapphire has chosen to let us know that it's a "Dual GPU Graphics Card".

Also on the front we can see a lot of the features like 4GB of GDDR5, DirectX 11, AMD HD3D, Display Port, High Speed HDMI, 7.1 HD Surround Sound and more. We can also see the new "Vision" labeling that AMD is going to start to push. The HD 6990 4GB falls within the "Black Vision" series which seems to be at the top of the tree.

As for the bundle; while we don't have a picture, we can tell you what's inside. Apart from the normal stuff like Driver CD, Manual, Sapphire sticker and CrossFire bridge, we've also got a bunch of adapters.

We've got three to be exact with two Mini Display Port to Single-Link DVI adapters being included. One is active while the other as passive. We've also got another Mini Display Port adapter with this one going to HDMI.

I assume we'll also see some form of power converters like we do from most companies, but we weren't able to confirm what exactly we would get. It's probably safe to assume that two Dual 6-Pin to 8-Pin PCI-E power connectors will be included. We'll confirm this in our performance article, though, when we take pictures of our own card.

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