Sapphire Radeon HD6950 Review  

Introduction

Specifications

Here are the specifications of this card:

A much more detailed list of features can be found on the Sapphire product page here. We tend not to copy manufacturer's specs since product pages change over time and that renders our information inaccurrate.

Looking at the top end of ATI/AMD's lineup we can see that the Cypress parts that were rendered obsolete by Barts (the price is so much lower that it doesn't matter if the performance is similar) being released a month before Cayman are end of line and will vanish as stocks dry up. The true successor to the 5870/5850 is the 6970/6950, coming in at a similar price point but with double the memory and a host of new features.

To see how the 6900 series compares with its Nvidia competitors:

Die size is almost half of the Nvidia products and is partially accounted for by the lack of a 320 or 384 bit memory bus. It will be seen in the months to come whether Nvidia's 384-bit bus or AMD's 2GB memory is a significant factor in performance. For now the jury is still out.

The key aspects of the 6900 series are as follows:

The dies are similar in size so one can assume that the 6950 has some capability deliberately disabled for product differentiation or that speed binning results in those that fail the 6970 test to be used as 6950 GPUs (assuming thay meet the criteria for these). Realistically, a combination of the two policies will be used.

Power consumption is not too bad - crucially 20W at idle is a good figure as the cards are unlikely to be going flat out all the time and power saving (and noise since fans will spin slowly when not needed) is an important consideration in total cost of ownership (TCO).

The ventilation grill is appropriate for the size of fan used and the display options are flexible enough for all types of user and adequate for enabling Eyefinity either at the start or as a future upgrade.

One useful feature we like is the dual BIOS toggle switch. The cards come with 2 BIOS's as standard so that if something goes wrong while flashing one BIOS, the other can be switched to for uninterrupted use. Two 6-pin connectors are quite sufficient for this card.

The Architecture

The architecture shows what goes into the makeup of each GPU. For those who follow VLSI design a more thorough treatment can be found in white papers on the ATI website.

The GPU

Moving on to the Sapphire card itself lets start with the box.

It may seem strange to evaluate packaging (some people throw it away or tear it open) but it says a lot about brand positioning. Sapphire use a very strudy box with embossed/raised graphics and lettering. Given the lifespan of modern graphics cards (we've never had a single one go wrong in almost a decade of normal use) most users will want to keep the boxes safe to make it easier sell on or give as a gift to friends/relatives when the time comes to upgrade to a faster model. We much prefer the egg carton used for holding the card than the usual flimsy carboard inserts or foam that breaks apart when handled.

The card is 10.5" in length with the fan at the internal end allowing air to be pushed the full lenth of the card and out the ventilation slots in the back. This is similar to the reference design.

A double sided heatsink covers the back of the GPU to assist in heat dissipation but doesn't protrude too far.

One change of note is the moving of the power sockets from the end of the card to the side. This will be welcomed by those whose cases made it difficult or even impossible to fit a lengthy card and have room to get the 6-pin power connectors attached. The only drawback is for those with narrow cases who may find difficulty putting the side back on with wires sticking out from the 6-pin plugs. The vast majority of PC cases in use today, however, are designed with cooling in mind and will have ample room to the side.

Moving on to the back of the card, most of the dual slot real estate is taken up with connectors to support a plethora of outputs and enable the use of 6 monitors in an Eyefinity configuration. We don't have 6 monitors so for a demonstration of Eyefinity we will have to point readers towards www.ati.com

What else is included in the box? An HDMI lead of a good length, a mini-port to HDMI adapter, a DVI to VGA adapter, Crossfire connector and two cables to allow molex connectors to be used for the 6-pin power requirements if the PSU does not have 6-pin connectors. A note of caution - if your PSU doesn not have 6-pin power connectors for PCI-E cards then it is important to make sure both molex connectors used do not come off the same rail and to know the capabilities of the PSU by referring to the manual or manufacturers specifications. If it looks like the power requirements will be exceeded it may be time to upgrade to a new PSU and relegate the old one to a less demanding spare machine etc.

Test Setup

We have two main test systems at present and recently upgraded our Intel one to an i7-2600K we received from Intel for the Sandy Bridge launch in January. The AMD system has the most powerful processor currently available in the AMD range.

Test Results - DX10

Test Results - DX11

Analysis and Other Benefits

Conclusion

Sapphire have an extensive range of products aimed at different market segments. The Radeon HD6950 we looked at today is in their mainstream range. They also have a toxic range (factory overclocked and higher spec than reference design) and their unique Vapor-X range which uses a heatpipe design to improve cooling and so allow quieter fans to be used.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 is well designed with branding to give the feeling of being a member of an exclusive club. Quality is second to none and over the years, reliability of Sapphire products has been of the highest standard. Performance is at the higher end for a Radeon HD 6950 card despite the Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 being one of the most competitively priced cards of this type from any manufacturer.

If you're in the market for a Radeon HD 6950 the Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 ticks all the boxes and is tremendous value for money.

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