Final thoughts and rating
XFX takes on the potent Radeon HD 7950 3GB GPU and gives it a Black Edition DD makeover for its best-in-class card. Clocked in at over 10 per cent higher than the reference card and with performance that accurately mirrors such a frequency increase, the R7950 bridges the two AMD Tahiti architectures nicely. Cool and quiet with the shipping BIOS, XFX also makes available a more-aggressive fan profile for users who wish to clock their cards further.
And in line with the disarming potential shown by the reference card, XFX's scales way, way above even the pre-overclocked settings, making it considerably quicker than most Radeon HD 7970s. Really, the question you need to ask yourself is whether the £65 extra over a basic card is worth it. In return for handing over a 10 per cent price premium you receive higher guaranteed speeds and, in our opinion, a better cooler.
We'll know more about where XFX stands in the Radeon HD 7950 3GB pecking order once a greater number of cards have passed through our hands. As it stands, the XFX R7950 BE DD is a quality card that offers a tidy package for £415.
The Good
Reasonable overclocked frequencies
Excellent power-draw figures for high-end card
Overclocks still further
The Bad
Reference cards are damn good, negating some of the benefit of a custom model
HEXUS Rating
XFX R7950 BE DD 3GB
HEXUS Awards
XFX R7950 BE DD 3GB
HEXUS Where2Buy
TBC.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
