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The Sapphire HD7990 box artwork features a monochrome version of their futuristic Army girl beside a large ‘6GB GDDR5' graphic. There are eight games given away with this graphics card, Crysis 3, BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon.
Sapphire bundle a software disc, the code card for the 8 games, and a plethora of video converter cables and a Crossfire cable.
The Sapphire HD7990 is identical to the AMD HD7990 reference card, although the two outside fans have ‘Sapphire' branded stickers on them. The cooler is still a black plastic shell with three large fans which take up the full length of the PCB. The rear of the card has a backplate in place for protection and to help enhance memory cooling.
The Sapphire HD7990 takes power from two 8 pin power connectors, as we would expect.
The card is Crossfire capable, and we will be looking at this later in the review. There is also a dual bios switch close to the Crossfire connector.
The HD7990 has a single dual link DVI output, and 4 additional mini Displayport connectors. It can support all five output connectors simultaneously, if you want to power five monitors.
The images below are taken from our previous launch article – the cards are identical, so we didn't feel the need to disassemble the Sapphire version.
The rear backplate is used to cool some of the GDDR5 memory, additionally it offers protection against damage. The backplate has little thermal pads in place to transfer heat from the memory chips on the PCB.
Above, the main cooler, after disconnection from the PCB. There are two copper cores in place to cool each GPU core, placed on either side of the PCB. If you want to see close up pictures of the PCB, then make sure to visit the high resolution gallery on the next page.
As the images above show, the AMD HD7990 Malta cooler is designed in ‘two halves’, with a dedicated heatsink for each core. Each heatsink has four thick copper heatpipes which run into the aluminum fins to dissapate the heat. The three fans are placed above the heatsinks and ensure adequate cool air circulates.
Two of the fans are doubled up into a single fan header, and the other fan is connected to a header on the other side of the PCB.
A GPUz screenshot of the Sapphire HD7990 running the latest Catalyst 13.5 Beta 2 drivers. We discussed the hardware configuration in detail on the last page.
well thats a lot of cash for that system lol. Interesting to see the staggering power demands.
my friend still cant buy one HD7990 never mind two, no stock anywhere. any ideas when they might be available?
More positive than the article in January, I read that and thought AMD weren’t supporting quad cf at all. I guess at that stage the HD7990 wasn’t official.
Good information on the power demands, I think a lot of people think every gaming system needs a 1000W PSU.
LOL, I was jockingly expecting the ‘MUST HAVE’ tag and you didn’t disappoint me at all.
@just a passerby. you should look at the more ‘budget’ oriented articles. people who want the fastest system and the most powerful computer would consider this a must have. I want a HD7990 and am saving up for it. due to the power with 3 monitors. Nothing is faster.
These reviews are hardly designed for people who struggle to afford a GTX650.
good review.
@Alex
I think ‘Worth Buying’ tag is more appropriate, not ‘Must Have’ but I was jokingly expecting it.
So internet denizen nowadays can decide what others should read, eh?
As cocky as a person can be, you fit the word perfectly. Maybe you’re born to have that personality.
I don’t need a graphic card as I don’t do gaming but I do fond reading hardware reviews. Also there is no such a thing ‘nothing is faster’, such thinking is a retardation to technology advancement. Well, of course if you had written it as ‘for now, nothing is faster in the market’, I would agree, but never forget engineering sample of next gen do exist (to be fair quadxfire/ quadsli it) and of course even you will struggle to afford it right now :).
You can feel free to give me those HD 7990s, I will gladly take them off your hands,besides I need to upgrade from my 2 Sapphire ATI Radeon 2gb HD4850x2s I have in quad-CrossfireX.
I am a nvdia fan boy and always been using nvidia video card but it seems to me nvidia release so many card and deliver no real difference between them gtx 780 then gtx 790 keep releasing stupid model and all nvidia fan boy keep buying ghem but o well might as well get the this hd 7990 because i know it beats all other-cards….Wow what a good article I just bought a sapphire 7990 will get another one when the price drop so I can cf these bad boys thankyou so much for the great article cf wins sli lose