We really liked the look of this card when we first cast eyes on it but now we have it in hand we can safely say it looks even better in the flash. The matt black, louvered shroud contrasts well with the three glossy cooling fans. The orange highlighting rounds off a fantastic looking GPU.


For a flagship, overclocked card we would have liked to have seen a backplate incorporated here perhaps with some more of that delicious orange highlighting. Instead, what we have is a bare PCB. Well, we say bare but it is actually a plethora of minute traces and sensitive components that are exposed to the elements. All the more reason for a backplate in our opinion!


From the side we see an exposed heatsink hinting at the power beneath with the shroud acting as a highlight more than any form of serious protection. Nonetheless, it looks good when installed.


The card measures a little over 30cm in length (305mm) and is a dual slot design meaning it will take up two port spaces on your motherboard.


The cooling fans atop of the twin heatsink and heatpipe assembly make up part of the TRI-X cooling design. Air is sucked in through these fans and blown through the heatsink to be exhausted partly within the case and part outside.


The I/O area is a standard affair with Twin Dual Link DVI-D ports. These are accompanied by both a DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI port.


To power the card you will need a PSU rating of 750W with (ideally) an 8pin 150W PCIe and 6pin 75W PCIe power cables although Sapphire do provide adaptors for this purpose should your PSU not have these cables available.