PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX HD 7950 Review - PAGE 4

The packaging XFX ships their HD 7950 in is a little smaller than the others, but the card still comes with a decent bundle. It even comes with the Do Not Disturb door hanger which conveniently includes the card's activation code and part number. A CrossFireX bridge, HDMI to DVI convertor, driver, manuals and a Black Edition case badge are all included. On top of these, XFX has really crammed their box full of information from front to back,.

The XFX R7950 Black Edition graphics card is encased in a sleek heatsink shroud with dual fans on the front, a black strip down the center and a brushed aluminum finish. Overall the aesthetics are exceptional, and just a quick look is enough to have you hooked on the visual design.

Internally the XFX Black Edition graphics cards sports the same specifications as the Sapphire model. This gives the card a 900MHz GPU clock, paired with 1792 streaming processors, 112 texture units, 32 ROPs and of course it uses AMD's Generation Core Next architecture. The XFX BE model also comes with the same 3GB GDDR5 frame buffer, giving this card a substantial amount of memory bandwidth which will come in handy when playing games at high single display resolutions or Eyefinity.

As part of the Southern Islands family, the XFX R7950 BE comes equipped with PowerTune technology and Zero Core Power. Both of these technologies are an internal power management system that maximizes the performance of the board via dynamic power adjustment. Zero Core Power, however, takes this management to a new level by disabling the core during long idle periods, which can reduce the total power consumption down to just 3 watts. Also, since PowerTune works on a microsecond level, Core Power will not interfere with gaming as all the GPUs can become active again in just microseconds.

The XFX R7950 BE should also have a power rating of just over 200W, supplied to the card via dual 6-pin power connectors. So, just like the other cards in this review there should be around 20 watts (give or take) of headroom left over to push the core to the max.

The XFX R7950 uses the same video output configuration as all the other models we have looked at thus far. In total there are two Mini-DP connectors, a single HDMI 1.4a connector and a Dual-Link DVI connector. However, what is different is the XFX logo on the ventilation ports. This feature can be easily overlooked, but according to XFX the design actually lowers your card's temperature by up to 20% by increasing airflow by up to 200%.

Like the other models, the middle HDMI 1.4a connector supports 3GHz speeds with frame packing. Essentially this allows the connection to run the frames faster, thus creating a smoother gaming experience. The HDMI and DP ports both natively support HD3D and can also be paired together to support HD3D Surround which increases both the depth and field of view in games.

The XFX R7950 BE uses the same PCB layout as the other models, but the XFX model comes with XFX Ghost Thermal Technology, a HydroCell thermal solution, solid capacitors, ferrite cores and a 2oz copper PCB. The PCB also sports a CHL8228G voltage controller from the CHiL Semiconductor Corporation. Of course the PCB also includes 12 memory chips surrounding the Tahiti Pro graphics processor, dual 6-pin power connectors and two CrossFire connection points.Howeever, missing from this model is the dual BIOS toggle switch, making it appear as if XFX doesn't want anyone flashing this card.

The thermal solution used on the R7950 BE uses XFX Ghost thermal technology, along with a HydroCell heatsink and Double Dissipation fans. These technologies increase the thermal efficiency of the heatsink. Breaking it down by technology, the Ghost thermal feature allows air to pass through the heatsink directly to the PCB and core components, thus cooling more than just the GPU. The HydroCell technology on the other hand is a chamber based on the same principles as heat-pipe technology. A liquid coolant is vaporized at a hot surface, the resulting vapor is condensed at a cold surface then the liquid is returned to the hot surface. The recirculation process is controlled by a wick system.

The last piece of the thermal solution is the Double Dissipation fans, which offer up to three times more air flow in comparison to standard fans. Essentially this means the fans can produce more airflow at a lower decibel level, allowing them to kick out higher CFM while remaining quiet. The IP-5X fans block dust from entering the bearing to help increase the lifespan of the fans.