PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX HD 7950 Review - PAGE 17

The first graphics card I dropped five bills on was an NVIDIA 5950 Ultra, and it is remarkable how far the graphics market has come since that time. Custom designs are now light years ahead of where they used to be, and the three models we looked at in this review are a shining example of this. All three of the graphics cards we examined, regardless of the company, displayed excellent performance, thermal efficiency, overclocking headroom and acoustics. So, all three companies really hit the nail on the head and produced outstanding graphics cards that offer a better out-of-the-box experience in comparison to the reference HD 7950 models.

Out of the three graphics cards, the XFX and Sapphire models were slightly faster out-of-the-box due to the 900Mhz clock speed. However, the PowerColor model only lagged by a few frames-per-second and in some benchmarks the additional 20MHz didn’t translate into any appreciate differences between the higher clocked models. Additionally, all three graphics cards easily overclocked their GPU engine and memory clock to 1100MHz and 1575MHz (6300MHz effective). At this level, all the graphics cards displayed exceptional performance, easily pushing them ahead of both the stock GTX 580 and HD 7970. With the improved thermal solutions, all three of the graphics cards managed to keep the core cool, even when we were pumping up to 1206mV into the core.

Since these models are all overclocked and come with souped-up thermal solutions, they command a slightly higher MSRP. At time of launch the Powercolor PCS+ HD 7950, Sapphire HD 7950 OC and XFX R7950 BE will be priced at $469, $479 and $499, respectively. This makes them between $30 and $50 more expensive than the stock models. However, a quick look over at Newegg shows all three currently priced at $499, still these SKUs are quieter, more efficient and possibly overclock higher than the reference models. So, overall all three of these graphics cards are a good buy, if you have the scratch. If not, the best bet is to wait for the prices to drop in the following months when NVIDIA releases the Kepler series.