AFOX HD7850 Single Slot Crossfire Review

The AFOX HD7850 Single slot graphics cards are a specialist design, ideally suited to the audience who want to build a gaming capable system into a space restricted chassis. They are also a great shortlist option for an enthusiast who is currently building a diminutive media center with gaming frame rate prowess.

In regards to performance, AMD's HD7850 is a decent card that can handle most games at 1080p, although it can struggle a little with some of the more recent, intensive Direct X 11 engines. As our testing has showcased, adding two into a Crossfire configuration delivers tangible, real world benefits.

Quite often, two of these cards in Crossfire were able to compete with the highly overclocked KFA2 GTX680 LTD OC Edition, which is a remarkable achievement (1,268mhz boost speed). This specific KFA2 GTX680 LTD OC is priced around £550 inc vat (don't confuse it with the slower version). Each of these AFOX HD7850 Single Slot cards costs £207, so you would be saving around £135.

Downsides to the dual card AFOX solution? Well, the KFA2 GTX680 LTD OC Edition is much quieter and doesn't need to rely on a Crossfire or SLI driver profile to achieve maximum performance.

There are always compromises to accept when incorporating a single slot graphics card. Due to the physical dimensions of the solution, the cooler is much smaller, and the fan has to spin much faster to compensate for rising temperatures.

When compared against the reference cooler, the AFOX HD7850 Single slot is both louder, and hotter running. There really is no way around this, even with optimisations of the overall power demand.

While no one will really be contemplating a permanent overclock via one of these cards, there is clearly some headroom available. We were able to achieve around a 9-10% increase on both core and memory speeds, a decent result for a single slot cooler.

You will already know if you want one of these cards. For a specific system build they will prove invaluable due to the space saving benefits. That said, if you are building a standard enthusiast gaming rig, then there are quieter and cooler running HD7850 options available.

You can buy these cards from Airetechit for £207 inc vat each.

Pros:

• Single Slot.
• Nice design.
• In Crossfire they can compete with ultra high end £500+ video cards.
• Ideal for high powered media center.
• buy one now and another later, when funds permit.

Cons:

• Can get loud.
• run hotter than reference HD7850.
• rely on Crossfire profiles for maximum performance.

Kitguru says: These are good cards, ideally suited to a specific audience who need a powerful, single slot graphics card.

Become a Patron!