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As regular readers will be aware, Sapphire boxes generally feature 3D rendered women carrying futuristic weaponry, resplendent in sexy army clothing. This box takes a completely different approach and follows the artistic styling of Apple. Clean panels and a high resolution image of the card on the front. There is also a focus on the 3GB of GDDR5 memory, top right.
The bundle includes several video converters, a user manual, Sapphire branded sticker, two power converter cables and driver discs for both Windows and Macintosh.
The Sapphire HD7950 MAC Edition features a clean, white cooler and a black fan at the side with a Sapphire branded sticker in the centre. The PCB is black, a total contrast to the front of the card.
Two Crossfire connectors, meaning the HD7950 MAC Edition could be used in 2,3 or 4 way configurations. Not on the Macintosh however as the Mac Pro Tower only supports two 6 pin power connectors (and lacks Crossfire driver support regardless).
Next to the Crossfire connectors is a BIOS switch – in one position the Sapphire HD 7950 MAC Edition supports Mac OS X/Windows under non-UEFI compliant mode and in the other it supports Windows with UEFI hybrid firmware enabled.
Two six pin power connectors are positioned on the opposite side of the card. Apple recommend no more than a total of 300 watts from the expansion card slots, which would include the graphics card.
Sapphire haven't cut corners with the display support. The HD7950 MAC Edition includes two mini DisplayPort outputs with a maximum resolution of 3840×2160 per display under MacOSX. The card also features a 3GHZ HDMI 1.4a port, which was not included on official Apple HD5770 and HD5870 graphics cards when bought with the Mac Pro.
Lastly, there is a dual link DVI port with HDCP which supports a maximum resolution of 2560×1600 – ideal for those 30 inch screens such as the Apple HD Cinema Display. This DVI port can be used with a VGA monitor, courtesy of the adapter supplied in the box.
The card supports two display outputs simultaneously, for a dual monitor configuration.
There are around 14 screws to remove before you can detach the cooler from the main PCB. The HD7950 MAC cooler is basically a reference AMD design with a few tweaks made by Sapphire. Due to the restrictions on spacing inside the Mac Pro it makes sense for Sapphire to adhere to the AMD reference guidelines, but more on this later.
The memory is actively cooled by the plate surrounding the copper central section.
Wow, thats a heck of a nice card. Mac gamers will be wetting themselves!
I have mine pre-ordered. fab review, thanks !
Well its extremely expensive, but its just as well Apple didnt get them on their store, or they would probably charge £1000 for the card and fitting!
Nice to see Sapphire looking outside the usual channels. Mac gamers will have been dying to get something like this for a long time.
Wow, £400 for a HD7950. Shame we cant buy the cooler would look awesome in my NZXT side panel modded case !
About time Apple had a decent up to date video card, but its kind of ironic its coming just before the new range, so in a few months it will already be out of date.
Perhaps Sapphire will be doing this on a more regular basis for Apple users? I dont know why people are saying its expensive, of course its going to be expensive, the production run will be limited and they wont sell millions. I reckon it might sell ok however, a lot of mac gamers with towers.
i love the styling.
Shame they didnt sell it overclocked at 1000mhz 🙂
Awesome review, many thanks for this. i definitely will buy one for my westmere mac pro.