Unlike most of the graphics cards we have reviewed, the XFX card has protective stickers over two of the screw heads preventing them from being removed without voiding the warranty. This is a shame as many people will want to replace the TIM to their favoured brand. As we will see though this isn't really necessary.



Throwing caution to the wind, we removed the cooler to display a near perfect contact with the GPU. The TIM was soft and perfectly aligned so I see little reason to break the warranty seal as stated above. The VRM and memory modules have fabric thermal interface material and again are all in place with excellent coverage. The heatsink is a three part design with the main bracket holding the copper baseplate in situ along with the aluminium finned heatsink array welded to the core baseplate.

The cooler also makes use of 'Hyrdocell' cooling which in short makes use of condensation wicks to efficiently transfer heat from the copper baseplate to the aluminium heatsink.



As you can see from the picture above the card comprises of a modified, beefed-up VRM comprising of a 6+2+1 phase power configuration. The 12x 256MB memory modules frame the GPU core as with all modern graphics card PCB's with enough memory to do so. Again we see that the card emphasizes the use of 2oz copper layer throughout the PCB with sections of the die cut away to display the copper beneath.



As stated above, the VRM is a 6+2+1 affair and comprises of what XFX like to call 'Duratec' components which include Solid Capacitors, Ferrite core chokes. This coupled with the 2oz copper layer should ensure the very best in stable, efficent, noise free operation.



To get the most from the Duratec components, the CHiL controller yet again makes an appearance which if you haven't already read allows the tweaking of both clock frequencies and criticil voltages (memory and GPU core).



The memory used on the R7950 are the same HYNIX modules we have seen on both previous HD7950 reviews, the very overclocking friendly H5GQ2H24MFA T2C modules.



Finally we reach the Tahiti Pro core. Despite lacking 256 Stream processors of its bigger brother, the HD7970, the larger VRM module (compared to reference HD7950) should equate to some serious overclocking capability. I think it's time we found out just how far this card will go don't you?