Just last week we got our first look at NVIDIA’s GTX 580 based on the GF110 GPU. NVIDIA went back and made some changes to not only make the new cards faster, but for them to consume less power and run cooler. While everyone has been excited about the GF110 GPU and the 2 new cards from NVIDIA we all expected AMD to come back with something before the end of the year and they have with Cayman. Cayman is the codename for AMD’s new GPU design. With this new GPU design they have released 2 cards the HD 6970, which is of course the high-end card and the HD 6950 is the mid-range card designed to fit in the $300 segment. Today we will be taking a look at the Radeon HD 6950 from Sapphire that features a dual graphics engine, 2GB of GDDR5 and 88 texture units.
Special thanks to Sapphire for providing us with the Radeon HD 6950 2GB Video Card to review.
Specification | |
Output | 1 x Dual-Link DVI 1 x HDMI 1.4a 2 x Mini-DisplayPort 1 x Single-Link DVI-D DisplayPort 1.2 |
GPU | 800 MHz Core Clock 40 nm Chip 1408 x Stream Processors |
Memory | 2048 MB Size 256 -bit GDDR5 5000 MHz Effective |
Software | Driver CD |
Accessory | CrossFire™ Bridge Interconnect Cable D-Sub Adapter Mini-DP to DP Cable 6 PIN to 4 PIN Power Cable 8-PIN to 4 PIN x2 Power Cable HDMI 1.4a high speed 1.8 meter cable(Full Retail SKU only) |
Packaging
The HD 6950 comes in a nice retail package from Sapphire. On the front there is quite a lot of information about the card and its features. On the back there is some more information about the card.


Opening the box up there is another one inside that hold the card. The card is nicely protected in a anti-static bubble-wrap bag. Also inside you will find driver CD, installation guide, HDMI cable, miniDisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, Crossfire link, and 2 6pin PCI-E power adapters.

