XFX is one of the most popular vendors in the AMD graphics arena and for enthusiasts alike they are the number one choice.The 7950 is built from the ground up on a new architecture on the 28nm process node carrying 4.3 billion transistors and 1792 stream processors.The core clock has been set at 800mhz from the factory and pumps out 118.4 billion texels per second.The card also carries with it 3GB of GDDR5 as a standard,with the memory clock being set a 1250mhz for a full 5GBps of bandwidth.The XFX Radeon 7950 Black Edition that we are going to take a look at today is the flagship model in the 7950 series of graphics cards from XFX. What makes this card stand out a bit is the factory overclock denoted by the Black Edition moniker and the cooler that XFX calls Double Dissapation Ghost Thermal Technology,with the focus of this being that air is allowed to exhaust through all directions pushing air over every component on the PCB.

Also unknown to some is a rather unusual move that AMD made with the 7950. Building a card without a reference design,Thats right AMD has done away with reference designs for at least the 7950.So each current partner will have a custom PCB to a certain extent anyways, with full custom cards coming in the months ahead.

One thing we have to mention up front is XFX’s revised warranty practice for HD 7900-series cards. Their Double Lifetime Warranty has gone away but let’s just say that any Double Dissipation-branded card will have a Lifetime Warranty if registered within 30 days of purchase.