Final thoughts and rating
Sapphire's Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC 2GB graphics card is a strange beast. Look at it from a specification sheet and it has all the bases covered - a super-high factory overclock, decent cooler, and competitive price - but closer examination reveals not all that glitters is gold.
One needs to manually change AMD's Power Control settings, increasing power-draw, in order for the card to function at the specified (in-game) 880MHz core speed, which seems counter-intuitive. Perhaps this is AMD's fault for setting too-conservative ratings, but whatever the case, Sapphire should release an updated BIOS and specific driver for this card, we feel, as going through this extra step is wholly unnecessary.
Flick the BIOS switch and a Radeon HD 6970-matching 1,536 shaders become active, though one needs to force the aforementioned 880MHz core speed via the same control panel. The upshot of all this is a package that, while very decent from the outset, needs to be rethought.
Able to run at very high speeds if you're willing and able to tinker with control-panel settings, Sapphire's Radeon HD 6950 2GB is an opportunity missed, we feel.
The Good
Super-fast clocks, once active
Decent pricing
Easily unlocks extra shaders
Good overclocking ability
The Bad
Convoluted method of obtaining stated clocks
HEXUS Rating
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC 2GB
HEXUS Where2Buy
HEXUS Right2Reply
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