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Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 Video Card Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Card Layout and Features
There is no space wasted in the heatsink design, in fact it totally maximizes the dual slot cooler configuration and measures in at 10.5" long. The front of the card is rather simple and comes with the customary personalization sticker. On a side note the product girl for the HD 6900 series reminds me of Iria from the anime series Zeiram the Animation.
The back of the card features a metal back plate with a cut out around the primary GPU mounting plate. Given the size and weight of the cooler we are not surprised to see a metal back plate, not only does it really dress up the card visually, but it also helps protect the PCB from a variety of hazards, none of which typically exist in a computer chassis.
Display connection options consist of 2x Mini Display Ports, 1x HDMI, and 2x DVI. (one Single Link Digital and one Dual Link Integrated). Each come with their own resolution requirements so pay special attention during your installation. Due to the video connections the cooling slot is limited to half the height we would normally see. While this seems restrictive there is an additional vent on top of the card to make up the difference.
Display connection options consist of 2x Mini Display Ports, 1x HDMI, and 2x DVI. (one Single Link Digital and one Dual Link Integrated). Each come with their own resolution requirements so pay special attention during your installation. Due to the video connections the cooling slot is limited to half the height we would normally see. While this seems restrictive there is an additional vent on top of the card to make up the difference.
Both the HD 6950 and HD 6970 come with 2 crossfire bridge connectors which enable you to run more than 2 cards in a crossfire configuration. The small microswitch seen near the crossfire connections is a dual BIOS toggle switch. Now before you take that statement literally, there is only a single BIOS on this card. The switch just enables you to update the BIOS or protect it with the factory defaults.
