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Review: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC Vapor-X

by Tarinder Sandhu on 22 August 2012, 16:16 4.0

Tags: Sapphire, AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabk6r

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Test Methodology

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC with Boost specification


GPU Comparisons

Graphics card GPU clock
(MHz)
Stream
processors
Shader clock
(MHz)
Memory clock
(MHz)
Memory bus
(bits)
Graphics driver
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 (3,072MB) 925 2,048 925 5,500 384 Catalyst 12.7 beta
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC Vapor-X (3,072MB) 950 1,792 950 5,000 384 Catalyst 12.8
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 (3,072MB) 800 1,792 800 5,000 384 Catalyst 12.7 beta
Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 (3,072MB) 1,000 1,280 1,000 4,800 256 Catalyst 12.7 beta
KFA² GeForce GTX 660 Ti EX OC (3,072MB) 1,006+ 1,344 1,006+ 6,008 192 GeForce 305.37 beta
EVGA GeForce GTX 680 (2,048MB) 1,006+ 1,536 1,006+ 6,008 256 GeForce 305.37 beta
ASUS GeForce GTX 670 (2,048MB) 915+ 1,344 915+ 6,008 256 GeForce 305.37 beta
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC (2,048MB) 1,032+ 1,344 1,032+ 6,008 256 GeForce 305.37 beta
KFA² GeForce GTX 660 Ti EX OC (3,072MB) 1,006+ 1,344 1,006+ 6,008 256 GeForce 305.37 beta
EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC (2,048MB) 980+ 1,344 980+ 6,008 256 GeForce 305.37 beta

HEXUS High-End Test Bench

Processor Intel Core i7-3770K (3.5GHz, 8MB cache, quad-core)
CPU Cooler Intel reference E97378-001
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
Memory 8GB G.Skill TridentX (2x4GB) DDR3 @ 2,400MHz
Power Supply Corsair AX750W
Storage Device Samsung 830 256GB SSD
Optical Drive Generic 24x DVD-RW
Chassis Corsair Graphite Series 600T
Monitor Dell 30in 3007WFP
Operating system Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit, SP1)

HEXUS High-End Benchmark Suite

  Mode and Resolutions Quality Settings
3DMark 11 DX11 at 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 Performance and Extreme Presets
Aliens vs. Predator DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 4xAA, 16xAF, Maximum Image Quality
Battlefield 3 DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 4xMSAA, 16xAF, Ultra Preset
Batman: Arkham City DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 8xMSAA, Extreme Preset
Crysis 2 DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 4xAA, Ultra Preset, DX11 and High-Res Textures
DiRT Showdown DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 4xMSAA, Ultra Preset
Just Cause 2 DX10 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 8xAA, 16xAF, Very High Quality, PLS On
Total War: Shogun 2 DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 4xMSAA, 16xAF, Custom High Quality
LuxMark 2.0 OpenCL GPUs-only Sala (488,000+ triangles) and Room (2,000,000+ triangles)
General Benchmarks
Power Consumption To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and while playing Batman: Arkham City
Temperature To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and while playing Batman: Arkham City
Noise A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and while playing Batman: Arkham City

Notes

We're using this review as an opportunity to introduce a new test platform and a refreshed benchmark suite. Our trusty-ol' Sandy Bridge rig has been retired in favour of a new Ivy Bridge system that consists of an Intel Core i7-3770K processor, a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H motherboard and 8GB of G.Skill memory. DiRT Showdown and LuxMark 2.0 have been added to the benchmark suite.

In the interests of fairness, any GPU vendor-specific technologies are disabled during benchmarking. For example, NVIDIA-exclusive features such as PhysX in Batman: Arkham City and the Bokeh Filter in Just Cause 2 are not enabled.

We've run the Sapphire card with the PTWB feature enabled - the second BIOS position, so the speak - and the card flicks between 850MHz and 950MHz (PTWB) core on an even, regular basis. We also tested the card on Catalyst 12.7 beta and Catalyst 12.8 WHQL and found no performance difference between the sets.