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It wouldn't be a Sapphire box without the appearance of a 3D rendered woman with perky breasts. This time it appears our femme fatale is preparing for an audition in the next Tron film.
The bundle is extensive, with many video and power converters included. There is also a Crossfire connector, case sticker and an information sheet detailing the use of the ‘Lethal Boost' button.
This is one of the heaviest video cards we have ever tested. The cooler is physically intimidating, and Sapphire have utilized a custom cooling plate for the back of the HD 7970 6GB TOXIC Edition.
The Vapor X name is proudly engraved into this backplate, above the ‘Vapor Chamber Technology Cooling' moniker. This is the latest implementation of Sapphire's famous Vapor X cooling technology. More on this shortly.
This custom backplate is sculpted to allow for additional VRM heatsinks to be attached, as shown above. This will ensure that the card is kept well under control.
The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 6GB TOXIC Edition is Crossfire capable in 2, 3 and 4 way configurations. It demands power from two 8 pin PCI E power connections. In theory this card could demand up to 375W of power.
The I/O backplate is also a custom version, with holes cut into the top section to allow for heat to be expelled outside the case. There are two DVI ports, a single full sized HDMI connector and two mini DisplayPorts. All outputs can be used simultaneously.
The new Vapor X cooler is based on a vapor chamber specifically designed for this card, it doesn't feature on any other Sapphire graphics cards. Heat is carried away by four heatpipes into a huge rack of aluminum fins. These heatpipes are 2x8mm and 2x6mm. The two 90mm fans feature aerofoil blades and dust repelling bearings.
It is clear that Sapphire haven't cut any corners in the design of this massive cooling solution.
The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 6GB TOXIC Edition features 6GB of high grade Hynix GDDR5 memory. The card also has a new 8 phase power design for the GPU VDDC, with an additional one phase each for VDDCI and MVDD.
The design uses a brand new double sided Black Diamond Choke for the first time, as well as DirectFET technology and all on a 12 layer PCB to ensure the board runs fast and stable. According to Sapphire the double sided Black Diamond Choke design reduces the temperature around the power design portion by 40 degree Celsius in lab tests, when compared to the reference PCB design.
Above, is the ‘Lethal Boost' button, which when depressed increases the clock speeds to 1,200mhz core boost and 1,600mhz (6.4GBps effective) memory.
When Lethal Boost is active, the Sapphire logo on the button glows blue, as shown above. The main ‘Sapphire' writing also glows, which is a nice touch.
An overview of the Sapphire HD7970 6GB TOXIC Edition, built around the 28nm Tahiti core. The image above left is the default setting – 1,100mhz core and 1,500mhz memory (6Gbps effective). The image above right is after pressing the Lethal Boost button – 1,200mhz core and 1,600mhz memory (6.4Gbps effective).
The card has dual geometry engines, eight render back ends, 2048 unified shaders, 32 color ROPs per clock and 128 Z/stencil ROPs per clock.
wozzers,. off to read now
thats incredible. only skimmed over it, will read more later. quad crossfire anyone? 🙂
Well im not easily impressed but this has hit the spot. When will it be available in stores? might sell my laptop to try and snap one up before they sell out.
By the way What has happened to XFX this year? they seem to have completely dropped off the radar.
now thats what I call a video card. I can only dream.
I only need another 2 screens, a new computer and this card now to make my gaming life complete!
Will be interesting to see the price if this hits retail in the big UK stores. i reckon it will be closer to £600. 6GB of GDDR5 is costly and some of the lower spec 7970s are already just over £500.
What is the recommended power supply for this and a system? 850W? 750W?
engineered to the limit. Its almost like the Asus Mars and Ares, but half the price 🙂
Will Sapphire genuinely make man y of these? seems like an engineering showcase. Still, its friggin impressive to see a company putting so much effort into something so incredible.
AMD must be pleased to see this. their reference cards are pants.
I prefer nvidia cards, but I wish to god Sapphire would join the green ranks. I can only imagine what they would come up with.
Im still waiting on a modified GTX690 with three fan cooler overclocked to the hilt. Not to buy, just to read about.
I dont see anywhere in the review when it says they will only make a few of them, where is everyone saying they will make this limited edition?
Thats a good cooler on the card, wonder if they would have had more success going three fan, but 80mm each, spinning them slower but producing more airflow. It also looks like the cooler could handle 120mm fans. so x2 of them would have rocked even more.
I dont know why people r complaining about the price. GTX690 is £1,000. Two of these might only be a little more with much more performance.
Good job Sapphire @thumbs up
thought id follow up after I had a spare half hour to read this in depth.
That is one of the best video cards ive seen. Great to see this as everything in the graphics card world has been pretty boring lately.
I just messed up my keyboard reading this. time to order a new razer blackwidow.
WTF, This what im looking for….
Awesome GPU….
hmm, I wonder if the Intel have like this…
Any review about the Intel’s latest GPU’s?
This card looks fantastic and I’m glad to see such a powerful offering from AMD. It’s hard to agree that this is a good card for Eyefinity simply because Sapphire neglected to offer three of the same output. Even with adapters we will still have to deal with the notorious single/double tear due to mixed outputs being used with three monitors.
Gracias for inspiring me to go look up my own legwork.
Yours was way more detailed than mine.