Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC

[Skyguy]

The Sapphire HD 7950 OC is the overclocked version of the AMD design, and also comes with a customized air cooler. Is it strong enough to fend off the GTX 580? Framerates tell some of the story, but what about temperatures? Power consumption? Gaming value? Let's take a closer look at the Sapphire HD 7950 OC and answer those questions for you.



Click http://www.pureoverclock.com/article1430.html for the full review.

[realneil]

So it really was worth staying up for. I still think it's expensive, but only because it's out of my reach for now. I would like to have one of them, and ~two~ would be sublime!
I wonder how they scale in Crossfire?

Thanks for the review Jake, It was a good read, and I think that this card will change the Video Card landscape.

I have a question,.....Sapphire has been putting a Dual BIOS switch on a lot of their Radeon cards lately. One position is a stock BIOS, and the other position is a BIOS with a factory tweak to increase performance a little more.
Does this card have that switch? (it will be a tiny little thing, located near the crossfire connectors along the top edge of the card)

[Drdeath]

Thats an ass kickin. Great review jake

[KIPPER]

Solid performance, great review Jake, thanks

[Doomas]

All my GPU was ATI, - 4870, 5850, well - is any chance that Nvidia release something good for try out ...

[Drdeath]

All my GPU was ATI, - 4870, 5850, well - is any chance that Nvidia release something good for try out ...

If your looking for something affordable and older the GTX 460 is a little better than the 5950. If you looking for new, the new releases are always pricey either Nvidea or ATI.

[SamCR3]

Excellent review. Awesome card. Too bad I'll never be able to afford one.

[Lil' ½ Dead]

580 comes very close to beating it. If I had not already have a 580 I would pick one up base on 7950 being cheaper at retail.

[Skyguy]

Neil, there is indeed a BIOS switch on the card near the Crossfire bridges. My apologies for not explaining that more detailed in the review.

[realneil]

Neil, there is indeed a BIOS switch on the card near the Crossfire bridges. My apologies for not explaining that more detailed in the review.

OK it's got the switch. Were you using the faster BIOS during your tests? Or was it on the Stock BIOS?

What are the differences between the two BIOS's?

This is quite interesting.

[Doctor_Death]

I may pick up two 7950s for my case reviews, I'll have to decide between the Sapphire 7950 in this review, or the new Asus 7950 DirectCUII TOP at a 900MHz core clock:

[Irocing]

OK it's got the switch. Were you using the faster BIOS during your tests? Or was it on the Stock BIOS?

What are the differences between the two BIOS's?

This is quite interesting.

Very impressive.

Still on the fence as to 7xx Kepler.

But,
Question??

Was that the 1.5 gig 580, Or, The 3 gig card they were using in the comparison tests.

Would have made a difference in some of the higher mem usage apps and games.

Just wondering.

Later

[Skyguy]

Standard GTX 580.

And the Sapphire was tested at the OC clocks (900MHz), as shown in the GPU-Z screenshot. Kinda pointless to test/use a card at stock if you buy the OC version for extra money, in my opinion.

[realneil]

Standard GTX 580.

And the Sapphire was tested at the OC clocks (900MHz), as shown in the GPU-Z screenshot. Kinda pointless to test/use a card at stock if you buy the OC version for extra money, in my opinion.

Agreed, who (any real gamer) wants the card to run it at the slower speeds?

[Solara2xb]

Even tho I just got my Asus GTX580, I have been considering selling it to get the new 7950 cards.
Not sure yet.. My GTX580 performs awesome right now... but would like to water cool the card which I can't do with my Asus GTX580.

[Deton]

you can if you go with universal gpu block.