Sapphire Special Edition HD6970 and HD6950 CFx Multi Screen Review

The Sapphire HD6970 and HD6950 are high performing graphics cards based on the same reference design as all other AMD partner solutions right now. It will be a couple more weeks before we get our hands on the sexy customised overclocked editions with enhanced coolers. KitGuru knows you are dying to see the Toxic or VaporX Editions from Sapphire, but patience will be rewarded.

While many enthusiast users appear to have been slightly disappointed with the new 6900 range it really is worth looking at the price points that AMD's partners are achieving.

When the HD5870 was first released, it cost £320 inc vat, the HD6970 is £280 inc vat. As we have noted in our test results, the HD6970 is not only cheaper, but it is usually between 10% and 30% faster. Unigine Heaven Benchmark shows a single overclocked HD6970 is faster than two HD5870's in CrossfireX, a good indication that AMD's architectural changes have enhanced the performance throughput to the next level.

As our scaling chart shows, there is up to a 58.9% improvement from the new HD6970 when compared directly to the last generation single chip leader, the HD5870. The HD6970 is retailing for 15% less on launch as well. 2010 is a very good year to be buying a high end video card.

Sapphire's Special Edition HD6970 card costs £330 inc vat, and for the extra money you get a very high quality aluminum briefcase, a comprehensive bundle of extras, and a free copy of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and the Vietnam addon, which is worth £50. As a Limited Edition collectors item its certainly worth the premium but if the aluminum briefcase holds no interest to you, then save the money and go for the Gamer's Edition. Sapphire also informed us that SSC members get a free copy of the Vietnam addon if they buy the full game.

Moving down the performance scale a little and we can see that the same performance principle applies to the HD5850 v HD6950. When the HD5850 was released it cost £250 inc vat, the HD6950 is £220 inc vat – about 14% less expensive on launch. Yet again, this card is significantly faster than the last generation part.

The HD6950 shows huge scaling improvements when placed side by side against the HD5850. Up to 74% in Lost Planet and a good indication of the improvements in Direct X 11 gaming due to the architectural advancements.

The new cards are hard to fault, the power consumption is great. Two HD6950's in CrossfireX consume under 300 watts when gaming for instance. A CFx setup won't need a high end power supply and the performance headroom easily supports gaming across three screens at 5760×1080.

Finally, this is another area where the AMD hardware scores incredibly well – multi screen gaming. nVidia are far behind right now and unless you are perfectly happy with a single monitor then the HD6900 cards prove much better value. For only £300 you can pick up two 24 inch monitors. If you owned a GTX570, then this £300 would need invested into another card, before you even started shopping for two new screens.

KitGuru says: The Sapphire cards are as good as we have seen to date, and we particularly like the HD6970 Special Edition Bundle from Sapphire.

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