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It wouldn't be a Sapphire box without the appearance of a 3D rendered woman with perky breasts. This time it appears our femme fatale is preparing for an audition in the next Tron film.
The bundle is extensive, with many video and power converters included. There is also a Crossfire connector, case sticker and an information sheet detailing the use of the ‘Lethal Boost' button.
This is one of the heaviest video cards we have ever tested. The cooler is physically intimidating, and Sapphire have utilized a custom cooling plate for the back of the HD 7970 6GB TOXIC Edition.
The Vapor X name is proudly engraved into this backplate, above the ‘Vapor Chamber Technology Cooling' moniker. This is the latest implementation of Sapphire's famous Vapor X cooling technology. More on this shortly.
This custom backplate is sculpted to allow for additional VRM heatsinks to be attached, as shown above. This will ensure that the card is kept well under control.
The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 6GB TOXIC Edition is Crossfire capable in 2, 3 and 4 way configurations. It demands power from two 8 pin PCI E power connections. In theory this card could demand up to 375W of power.
The I/O backplate is also a custom version, with holes cut into the top section to allow for heat to be expelled outside the case. There are two DVI ports, a single full sized HDMI connector and two mini DisplayPorts. All outputs can be used simultaneously.
The new Vapor X cooler is based on a vapor chamber specifically designed for this card, it doesn't feature on any other Sapphire graphics cards. Heat is carried away by four heatpipes into a huge rack of aluminum fins. These heatpipes are 2x8mm and 2x6mm. The two 90mm fans feature aerofoil blades and dust repelling bearings.
It is clear that Sapphire haven't cut any corners in the design of this massive cooling solution.
The SAPPHIRE HD 7970 6GB TOXIC Edition features 6GB of high grade Hynix GDDR5 memory. The card also has a new 8 phase power design for the GPU VDDC, with an additional one phase each for VDDCI and MVDD.
The design uses a brand new double sided Black Diamond Choke for the first time, as well as DirectFET technology and all on a 12 layer PCB to ensure the board runs fast and stable. According to Sapphire the double sided Black Diamond Choke design reduces the temperature around the power design portion by 40 degree Celsius in lab tests, when compared to the reference PCB design.
Above, is the ‘Lethal Boost' button, which when depressed increases the clock speeds to 1,200mhz core boost and 1,600mhz (6.4GBps effective) memory.
When Lethal Boost is active, the Sapphire logo on the button glows blue, as shown above. The main ‘Sapphire' writing also glows, which is a nice touch.
An overview of the Sapphire HD7970 6GB TOXIC Edition, built around the 28nm Tahiti core. The image above left is the default setting – 1,100mhz core and 1,500mhz memory (6Gbps effective). The image above right is after pressing the Lethal Boost button – 1,200mhz core and 1,600mhz memory (6.4Gbps effective).
The card has dual geometry engines, eight render back ends, 2048 unified shaders, 32 color ROPs per clock and 128 Z/stencil ROPs per clock.
