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Review: Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC 2GB

by Tarinder Sandhu on 22 August 2011, 21:52 3.0

Tags: Sapphire

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa6xp

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How we test

GPU comparisons

Graphics card Approx.
pricing
GPU clock
(MHz)
Stream
processors
Shader clock
(MHz)
Memory clock
(MHz)
Memory bus
(bits)
Graphics driver
Sapphire Radeon HD 6990 OC (4,096MB) £530 880 3,072 880 5,000 256 x 2 Catalyst 11.4
Sapphire Radeon HD 6990 (4,096MB) £530 830 3,072 830 5,000 256 x 2 Catalyst 11.4
2x HIS Radeon HD 6970 in CrossFire (4,096MB) £520 880 3,072 880 5,500 256 x 2 Catalyst 11.4
2x Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 in CrossFire (4,096MB) £400 800 2,816 800 5,000 256 x 2 Catalyst 11.4
PowerColor HD 6870 X2 (2,048MB) £315 900 2,240 900 4,200 256 x 2 Catalyst 11.6
HIS Radeon HD 6970 (2,048MB) £260 880 1,536 880 5,500 256 Catalyst 11.4
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC (2,048MB) £235 880 1,408 880 5,200 256 Catalyst 11.8
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 (2,048MB) £200 800 1,408 800 5,000 256 Catalyst 11.4
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 590 (3,072MB) £575 607 1,024 1,214 3,414 384 x 2 ForceWare 267.84
2x ASUS GeForce GTX 580 in SLI (3,072MB) £740 772 1,024 1,544 4,008 384 x 2 ForceWare 266.58
2x ASUS GeForce GTX 570 in SLI (2,560MB) £530 732 960 1,464 3,600 320 x 2 ForceWare 266.58
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 SOC (1,536MB) £420 855 512 1,710 4,100 384 ForceWare 270.61
Inno3D GeForce GTX 580 HAWK (3,072MB) £400 772 512 1,544 4,008 384 ForceWare 275.33
ASUS GeForce GTX 580 (1,536MB) £370 772 512 1,544 4,008 384 ForceWare 266.58
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 SO (1,280MB) £300 845 480 1,690 3,800 320 ForceWare 275.33
ASUS GeForce GTX 570 (1,280MB) £265 732 480 1,464 3,800 320 ForceWare 275.33
Point of View GeForce GTX 560 Ti (1,024MB) £180 822 384 1,645 4,008 256 ForceWare 270.61

Test bench

CPU Intel Core i7 980X (3.33GHz, 12MB L3 cache, six-core, LGA1366)
Motherboard ASUS P6X58D-E (0502 BIOS)
Memory 6GB Corsair Dominator (9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz)
Power Supply Corsair HX1000W
Monitor Dell 30in 3007WFP
Disk drive(s) Crucial RealSSD C300 (256GB)
Chassis Corsair Obsidian Series 700D
Operating system Windows 7, SP1, 64-bit

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 Extreme preset, overall score and combined test results recorded.
Aliens vs. Predator DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, very high quality.
Call of Duty: Black Ops DX9, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 8xAA, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark.
F1 2010 DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 8xAA, ultra quality, Monaco circuit.
Just Cause 2 DX10, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, very high quality, Dark Tower benchmark.
Metro 2033 DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, very high quality.
StarCraft II DX9, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, ultra quality.
Power consumption To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and whilst playing Just Cause 2.
Temperature To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and whilst playing Just Cause 2.
Noise A PCE-318 noise level meter is placed at front of a Corsair 700D chassis with side panel on.

Notes

Testing with the latest Catalyst 11.8 drivers we can see how the manually-adjusted Sapphire TOXIC fares against its peers. Pay close attention to the temperature and noise readings, as that's where Sapphire believes it's strong.

Any major driver-related improvements are noted along the way.