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The Sapphire HD6970 Battlefield 3 Flex Edition arrives in a very stylish box with the game artwork on front. It will certainly attract the eye within a store environment.
The bundle is comprehensive. The package includes several video and power converter cables, a software disc, Crossfire cable, HDMI cable and literature on the range of products.
The card is built around a blue PCB and Sapphire highlight the FleX technology. The large fan is centralised and we can see the copper heatpipes behind it.
The card is Crossfire capable in 2, 3 and 4 way configurations. It demands an 8 pin and a 6 pin power connector to operate properly.
Many graphics cards based on AMD technology require the third monitor in an Eyefinity set-up to be a DisplayPort monitor, or connected with an active DisplayPort Adapter. The SAPPHIRE FleX family can support three DVI monitors in Eyefinity mode and deliver a true SLS (Single Large Surface) work area without the need for active adapters. The first two monitors are connected to the two DVI ports and the third to an HDMI to DVI cable (supplied) with no extra hardware required. Additional monitors can also be connected, but they must be Displayport monitors or connected with an active Displayport adapter.
The rear I/O plate has extra venting to allow for additional heat dissipation.
Sapphire are using a Vapor X cooler on this card, which has a copper block and several thick copper heatpipes which are routed into two separate rows of aluminum fins.
Above, the bios switch allowing for the two separate profiles. The ‘normal’ setting has clock speeds of 880MHz for the core and 1375Mhz for the memory, and a quiet fan profile, whilst the ‘boost’ setting raises the core clock to 930MHz, as well as increasing the core voltage, fan speed and overclock limits.
Above, the GPUz overview from both bios settings.
THe price is pretty good, but some of the GTX580s have dropped in price recently too, £380 ish. Nice to see them working out a deal for BF3.
Is battlefield 3 any good? havent played it yet.
Cant see it anywhere for sale yet. is this a preorder on any store im missing?
Love the vapor X cooler, got one on my GFX too 🙂
If you were buying one today, would you get this or the twin fan XFX ?
Battlefield is £30 for PC. This is a very good price.
Nice, good temps and cooler
No one is stocking it, or evenon preorder
I like sapphire cards, i want their 6990 but cant get one anywhere
Great. Good luck to all wo entered the comp. Hope i win!
Love it! Cant wait to play bf3. They make good hardware
Why buy one of these. New cards will be out in a few months
Vapor x rocks. Dual bios switch is a good idea. Any ideas when we might be able to get it? Ive held off buying bf3 for this now
6970 is a great card, but i bought the 6959 and modded it to 6970 cost me 210
Last month
@Billy …and why buy those cards coming out in a few months when new cards will come out a few months after those? lol
I agree you gotta jump in sometime. Seems like as good a time as any now
Nice. I rexoomend 6970 for 1080p. Has extra bandwidth for more aa than 6950
Really dumb question bby someone who knows nothing of graphics cards, just because its supports the 3 screen setup it will still work fine with just 1 screen ? Also the switch to change the modes is that a physical switch on the card or a something you can change on the computer on the fly?
Hi Dan, Yes, the card works fine with 1 screen. I just tested Battlefield 3 with eyefinity. All other games are using one screen.
There is a physical switch on the card for the enhanced core speed mode. Switch it while the system is off and restart. There is a picture of it, earlier in the review.
Ok awesome thanks for the speedy response. Does that switch poke out the back or would i have to take the case of my computer each time i wanted to change it?
I would just leave it on the higher setting all the time.
The bios switch is on the card itself, you would need to take the door off the case to get at it.
So you review an special/overclocked edition with BF3 and you do not bench it with BF3, just with these freaky triple display that only people with $5000 rigs uses… cool.
Three 1080p screens in uk can cost as little as £500. And we used this sapphire review card to test battlefield 3 with those screens. Not sure how you work out 5000 dollars just for that.
An eyefinity setup is not expensive at all actually. i5 2500k, 4gb of ram, £80 motherboard easily used as a basis for an ef rig.
pretty good………………nice