Sapphire Pure Black X79N Motherboard and HD7970 GPU Review

Sapphire Pure Black X79N Motherboard:

Sapphire released a diverse selection of polished, competent products last year and 2012 is certainly starting on a positive note with the release of their excellent Pure Black X79N motherboard. We were initially concerned as we received the board a while ago with a very early, slightly unstable beta bios. This bios didn't want to work at all with memory clocked faster than 1600mhz, regardless of manual tweaking. Fortunately, their latest bios is a huge improvement and memory up to 2133mhz worked without a hitch.

When compared directly to competitor flagship products such as the ASRock X79 Extreme9 or the Asus Rampage IV Extreme the Sapphire bios still needs some work. We love the concept of having an array of voltage, clock speed and temperature readings on display universally throughout the bios, but it still lacks several bios settings which the hard core enthusiast audience would expect – such as more sophisticated loadline settings. The ability to directly key in voltage settings would also be welcomed. We also couldn't get 2,400mhz memory to run without some issue, although Sapphire say they are committed to updating their code on a regular basis. Additionally, we would expect retail bioses to offer more stability and improved memory support. There have been multiple bioses released for this board in the last week alone as Sapphire gear up for official launch shortly.

Sapphire motherboards are normally a little more expensive than competing products, although we have no confirmed pricing of the X79N as we go to publication today. We would however expect it to retail for around £235-£250 inc vat … our best educated guess at this time. After all, it has half the memory slots of the leading X79 motherboards available around the £300-£330 price point, and 4 fewer SATA ports than the ASRock X79 Extreme9 which is priced at £300 inc vat.

We have no hesitation recommending Sapphire's Pure Black X79N due to the class leading build quality, fantastic overall performance and efficient board layout. That said, the bios isn't as impressive as the leading ASUS or ASRock solutions, but Sapphire are working hard to continually improve the code and the latest beta bios has noticeably enhanced the product.

The Sapphire Pure Black X79N is definitely worth buying, but it doesn't quite reach the staggering level set by the leading ASUS solutions around the same price point.

Pros:

• Great build quality.
• Overclocks well.
• Very stable.
• Ideal pairing for the Sapphire HD7970 graphics card.

Cons:

• We couldn't get 2,400mhz memory to work flawlessly.
• Bios needs a few more features and enhancement before it can match the big players.
• A full printed manual should be supplied, not just on the disc.

Sapphire HD7970 Graphics Card:

The AMD HD7970 is a fantastic product and we were suitably impressed when we published our launch article just before Christmas last year. There is not much we can add to our closing thoughts, because the Sapphire HD7970 is based around the reference AMD design, with Sapphire branding. This is the first time we have seen a retail bundle, and we appreciate all the video adapters which Sapphire supply.

The HD7970 sets a new performance standard in the high end, ousting the GTX580 from the single GPU top spot, without breaking a sweat. Scores over 8,000 in 3Dmark 11 were previously only possible with the GTX590 and HD6990, and multi card Crossfire/SLI configurations.

The reference cooling solution is a step forward for AMD, as the new blade design produces a lot of air, while reducing noise emissions. There is no doubt that custom third party cooling solutions will improve the situation further, but we will have to wait a while longer before we can test a Toxic or VaporX version of the HD7970.

The only problem with the HD7970 is the same concern we had on launch day – the pricing. At around £450, the HD7970 is a considerable investment and only £70 less than the faster, last generation dual GPU HD6990, if you can manage to get your hands on one that is. With prices of custom cooled GTX580's dropping all the time, you need to really think hard and long about that £70+ premium. Is the extra performance something you really need?

Obviously in this ultra high end sector price concerns are secondary, as hardcore AMD fans will already be budgeting for one, or two HD7990's. We can say if performance is your primary concern then you can't get any better than the HD7970.

The only problem for the plethora of reference AMD HD7970's that have been released today is that there is a new class leader, the XFX R7970 Double Dissipation with advanced, proprietary cooling solution. This card is significantly better than the reference AMD design and we hope that Sapphire can release a HD7970 VaporX or Toxic Edition soon to offer a challenge.

Pros:

• Fastest single GPU card on the market.
• power drain is good, considering the performance.
• We like the new reference cooler.
• Sapphire warranty and product support is highly rated.

Cons:

• Single fan.
• The HD7970's cost around £450, which is a lot of cash.

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