Sapphire Special Edition HD6970 and HD6950 CFx Multi Screen Review

Today we are using our most powerful system, a Core i7 970 based configuration – liquid cooled at 4.33ghz, with a Corsair AX1200 power supply (a very wise choice for 3 way graphics card configurations) – all built into a sexy Thermaltake Level 10 chassis.

Validation available over here.

Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.3ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65 (MS-7522)
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Power Supply: Corsair Ax1200
Memory: 6GB GSkill Performance Gaming ram @ 902.9 MHz (2:10) @ 7-8-7-24
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)
Monitors: Hazro Ultra Sharp HZ230Wi, Dell Ultrasharp U2410 Rev A00, Iiyama Prolite E2472HDD x2

Other graphics cards for comparisons:
nVidia GTX580
nVidia GTX460 OC (715/900)
AMD HD6870
AMD HD6850
AMD HD5870
AMD HD5850

Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
Catalyst 8.79.6.2RC2_Dec7
Forceware 263.09 WHQL
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
TessMark
ShaderToy
HQV 2.0 Software

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter

Games:
Resident Evil 5
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Lost Planet 2
Far Cry 2
Alien V Predator
Mafia 2
BattleField: Bad Company
Tom Clancy HAWX 2
F1 2010
Just Cause 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Left4Dead2
Battleforge
Medal Of Honor
Devil May Cry 4

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.

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