KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition has been designed from the ground up for the demanding enthusiast gamer with a high level of disposal budget. In this regard Sapphire can consider their latest flagship product a complete success.
Furthermore, if you want to play the latest Direct X 11 titles across three screens at 5760×1080, then this is the card I would buy, without hesitation.
Until today, the incredible KFA2 GTX680 Limited OC Edition claimed the ultimate single GPU performance spot, however in the majority of the real world game testing, the Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition managed to outperform the overclocked GTX680. The reference clocked GTX680 doesn't even factor into making a viable challenge.
When I reviewed AMD's latest HD7970 GHZ Edition a short while ago, I concluded my disappointment with the AMD reference cooling solution. Due to the complete omission of cooling heatpipes, and inadequate heatsink, the single small fan had to spin extremely high to maintain a tolerable thermal curve. In this regard Nvidia's GTX680 had the edge.
Sapphire have addressed our concerns by utilising their latest Vapor X cooler which is based around a vapor chamber specifically designed for this card. The heat is moved away by four 6mm and 8mm heatpipes into a huge rack of aluminum fins. Above this are two 90mm aerofoil blades which feature dust repelling bearings.
Under the hood the Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition has a new 8 Phase power design for the GPU VDDC, with an additional single phase each for VDDCI and MVDD. Also, Sapphire use 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.
The performance results are unquestionably impressive. In 7 out of 11 tests, The Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition outperformed the KFA2 GTX680 Limited OC Edition.
To get such incredible performance Sapphire have adopted two 8 pin PCI power connectors which in theory can handle up to 375W of power. Our synthetic testing with Furmark highlighted that the card can actually demand all this power, although when gaming the demands dropped to between 245 watts and 275 watts. The KFA2 GTX680 LTD OC by comparison consumes around 185 watts of power when gaming.
To deal with all this power and heat, the Sapphire Vapor Chamber cooler has to work hard, and the twin fan solution is audible at the default setting. When the ‘Lethal Boost' is enabled, the noise emissions increase further, although we never found the card that intrusive. It is certainly far from silent, but it is actually significantly quieter than the reference HD7970 GHZ Edition we have in our labs (38.4 dBa v 43.4 dBa).
Right now we have no pricing information and we wouldn't like to take a guess, even an educated one. With such a crazy, no compromises board design and a doubled 6GB GDDR5 memory count we can only surmise that this will be priced over £500 inc vat when it reaches UK shores.
Due to the strict engineering tolerances this card will be released in very limited quantities, so getting hold of one might be difficult. As a engineering showcase Sapphire have managed to release the fastest single GPU card on the market. We don't think this will be beaten for quite some time.
Pros:
- Unparalleled performance.
- mega cooling solution.
- two speed modes.
- the ultimate performance card for Eyefinity gaming.
Cons:
- demands a lot of power.
- not the quietest card we have tested.
- It is sure to cost a packet.
Kitguru says: Every so often a card is released that ignites the performance market. We didn't think it was possible, but AMD finally have a class leading HD7970 solution, courtesy of their most famous partner, Sapphire.
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.