Tried it out: AMD GCN - Introducing the Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950
ASUS HD 7950 - HD7950-DC2T-3GD5
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ASUS also sent us our own 7950 with custom cooling, modified clock. The card is huge again, the main cause of which is DirectCU II cooling. The length of almost 30 cm is not so surprising, but the thickness of the product is unusual even with top cards. This robustness is caused by a special edition of ASUS DirectCU II that takes up 2,5 expansion card slots from our motherboard and case. The exact dimensions are 29,9 cm × 12,9 cm × 5,8 cm.
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From the base that fits the Tahiti GPU, five thick, nickel-plated heat pipes start, which distribute the heat generated to two large, densely lamellar, also nickel-plated ribs. This is where the ROG design metal cover fits, with the two 8 cm fans inside. Such cooling can withstand the heat output of the HD 7950 without any problems, so it's no wonder that even the tuning frame, like the other HD 7950, the GPU runs at 800 MHz instead of 900 MHz, but the operating frequency of the GDDR5 memory chips in this case nor has it changed.
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This type of power is also supplied via two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors, this, supplemented by 3.0 watts available via the PCI Express 75 rail, allows for a total of 225 watts of power. The BIOS changer microswitch is of course also available here, just as the two CrossFireX connectors are not missing from the top of the PCB. The ventilation grille is present here with a doubled amount (in two rows) (it is not certain that this has much significance, because the "wind channel" of the DirectCU II cooling is not closed, so the air does not only flow outside the house).
Apart from this, the number and type of outputs and their capabilities have not changed: a piece of dual-link DVI, next to it is a native HDMI 1.4a peak - it operates at 3 GHz, so it also supports 4096 × 2160 pixel resolution displays, and is able to transmit FULL HD stereo 3D material at 60 frames. We get two more miniDisplay ports with a 1.2 standard that also knows the latest technologies, Eyefinity has moved to version 2.0, where each display can receive a separate 8-channel sound.
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The nice-looking box couldn’t deny that it was drawn by graphic designers working for ASUS. Otherwise, it includes standard things, in addition to the installation disc and user manual, we get a CrossFireX bridge, a miniDisplayPort-DVI converter and two molex-> PCI Express power converters.
By now we have the necessary amount of information, let's get to the test configuration, test cards and measurements!
