This card is a stunner. The silver and black shroud with raised brushed aluminium shroud is quality throughout and contrasts really well with the glossy black twin 92mm fans separated by the XFX logo in the coolers midriff. The cooler is folded very well at the ends with no sharp edges to be found and rather than using flimsy plastic, the metal should stand the test of time no matter how many times the card is removed/replaced.



The rear of the card shows us that this is no ordinary HD7950 with the PCB having flecks of copper contrasting with the matt black PCB not previously seen on a HD7950. It is interesting that the PCIe power area has 8 points solder where there are 6 pins hinting that this is the same PCB used on the R7970 which uses an 8+6 pin power configuration.



The side of the card has a full length aluminium strip anodised red which displays the card name and cooler identification 'GHOST'. It is labled ATX side up which will look great in any ATX style case with the window to the left panel looking head-on.



As with all of the HD7950's, the XFX R7950 has a dual 6pin PCIe power ports and requires a minimum 500w power supply unit to operate. Caution as always is advised in that a more powerful supply could be needed under high load/overclocking scenarios for optimum performance.



Multiple-GPU compatibility setups are afforded thanks to the twin Crossfire tabs.



The I/O vent is unique in that it has the XFX logo carved out of the metal. Other than that the standard DVI, HDMI 1.4a and twin 1.2 mini-display ports of which they are 4K resolution ready.



The XFX DD R7950 is perhaps the best looking GPU we have tested to date. I love the aluminium GHOST shroud and the contrasting red trim with black PCB looks fantastic. It seems a shame to remove the cooler but as in all of our GPU reviews, we like to go that one step further and see exactly what makes each card 'tick' as it were. So without further ado, let's strip the card...