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The Sapphire HD 6950 Toxic Edition is another stellar card design from AMD's largest partner. While it is supplied with only a single fan, Sapphire have cleverly adjusted the board design to improve air flow, meaning the cooler will expel more hot air outside the rear of the case. As testing has showcased, it really does work well, reducing fan speeds.
On a performance level, the HD6950 Toxic Edition falls in between the reference HD6950 and the reference HD6970. If you are fortunate enough to get one which will accept the pre programmed bios settings with extra shaders, then you will end up with HD6970 performance out of the box. Sapphire aren't making a big deal out of this bios setting however as there is a possibility that the card might not work in the ‘unlocked' position. That said, our sample worked with the full 1536 shaders and could even be overclocked further with the TriXX tool.
The HD6950 Toxic Edition is supplied in a very high state of overclock, however we did manage to push the core even further, from 880mhz, to 954mhz. The GDDR5 memory also scaled to 5624mhz, which shows significant headroom. With 2GB of fast GDDR5 memory on board, high resolution gaming is also a strong point, across three screens.
Thanks to the proprietary cooler, the Toxic Edition is quieter than the reference design and temperatures peak just over 70c, when gaming.
While the card has not yet gone on sale, we have been informed that the price point should only be slightly more than the reference card design – with a £10-£15 premium. At this price, and with this specification and overall performance, it is clearly a very intelligent purchase.
Pros:
- great design.
- is supplied overclocked and headroom allows for more.
- runs cool.
- is quiet.
- bios switch can unlock more performance, but it isn't guaranteed.
- Bundle is impressive and includes Dirt 3.
Cons:
- Another fan would have helped reduce noise levels even further.
Another great card. really enjoying my 5830 xtreme.
Thanks, looks like another good product. so price will be £220 ish? is that the ballpark? I notice sapphire do a dual fan 6950, but its not overclocked and probably cant be unlocked either.
excellent, I need to get dirt 3 cause i need a new game
2GB is nice. I still play GTA4 and that helps. I like maxing everything
Id like to see if two of these would be as good as a HD6990.
you ever hear of the return key?
Good card, but im holding fire until the end of the year, until the refreshed cards come out.
PC market is dead anyway, nothing happening within it 🙁 games all suck lately
Whats up with the box? did they cut the dual fan cooler out at the last minute?
so many of these cards out now its hard to keep track. I think ill wait until the 7 series before upgrading, my old 4 series still manages to play most of the games on my 17 inch screen. Best waiting for the new mid range boards whenever they are out.
This card seems the ultimate 6000 series bang for buck card, runs cool/silent, low power requirements and can be tweaked to outperform the 6970 by a large margin. I need this card sooner then later please!