Sapphire's Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition Unleashed

Sapphire has released its HD 7950 Mac Edition graphics card.

Earlier, we showed you Sapphire's HD 7950 Mac Edition, and now we have learned more about it. This card is based on an ordinary HD 7950 and is entirely similar to it. Like the regular HD 7950, it carries 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.

The Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition is compatible with Mac Pros from 2010 or later, assuming that it has a free PCIe x16 slot and two 6-pin PCIe power connectors.

Conveniently, Sapphire has decided to compare the graphics card against the 8800 GT in performance so that users will be able to see a big jump in performance.

Benchmark	Nvidia 8800 GT	Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition	Performance Jump
Xbench	296.7 points	381.3 points	29%
Novabench	213 points	463 points	117%
Cinebench	24.54 FPS	33.02 FPS	35%
Heaven	16.5 FPS	64.7 FPS	292%
Portal	130 FPS	490 FPS	277%
Call of Duty	15 FPS	49 FPS	227%

The HD 7950 Mac Edition is compatible not only with Macs, but with switchable firmware that will also work on Windows PCs. While this is less interesting, it does show that the main differences are in the firmware, meaning that we'll likely find enthusiasts who will flash the HD 7950's Mac Edition firmware to ordinary HD 7950's to make them work in their Mac Pros.

Sapphire's new HD 7950 Mac Edition will carry an MSRP of $450.

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Top Comments

20

A Bad Day , March 22, 2013 6:20 PM

Imagine a Mac GTX Titan's price.
15

Estix , March 22, 2013 6:25 PM

Why stop at comparing it to the 8800 GT?

Why not show us how it fares against the TNT2, or the ATI Rage 3D?
14

wanderer11 , March 22, 2013 6:07 PM

$450 for a 7950? Are we back in March 2012?

Other Comments

14

wanderer11 , March 22, 2013 6:07 PM

$450 for a 7950? Are we back in March 2012?
13

blazorthon , March 22, 2013 6:15 PM

This makes me want to look for potential Mac 7950 customers, buy enough 7950s for them for around $300, flash them to Mac, and sell them at a *discount* of $400 instead of $450. It should be easy money if there are enough Mac users looking for 7950s.
20

A Bad Day , March 22, 2013 6:20 PM

Imagine a Mac GTX Titan's price.
2

halcyon , March 22, 2013 6:21 PM

Despite the price it's good to see a contemporary offering for the Mac Pros. I do often miss my 2010 Mac Pro. Now, Apple needs to update the Pro's a bit and pull the pricing from out of their @$$.
2

A Bad Day , March 22, 2013 6:22 PM

EDIT: Interesting how on AMD's and Nividia's website, there are no drivers for a Mac OS.

It's most likely that both companies considered programming a GPU driver for the Mac OS wouldn't be worth it, since the Mac desktop market is puny.

It would make sense for AMD to charge more for a custom driver that wouldn't be used by many customers due to the small niche market.
15

Estix , March 22, 2013 6:25 PM

Why stop at comparing it to the 8800 GT?

Why not show us how it fares against the TNT2, or the ATI Rage 3D?
3

larkspur , March 22, 2013 6:25 PM

blazorthon - You're too late. People have been doing that with Apple's previous "premium" offering of 5870 cards for $350 (which is $100 less than Apple wanted for the 'official' version). They are even still selling the 5870, looky here! Apple should seriously be ashamed, oh but look, Free Shipping! http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC743ZM/A/ati-radeon-hd-5870-graphics-upgrade-kit-for-mac-pro-%28mid-2010-or-early-2009%29
0

internetlad , March 22, 2013 6:47 PM

You can tell it's for Mac because it's white.

and why the hell is it vs an 8800 GT?
0

A Bad Day , March 22, 2013 6:59 PM

EstixWhy stop at comparing it to the 8800 GT?Why not show us how it fares against the TNT2, or the ATI Rage 3D?

Because most 2010 pre-built desktops don't come with silly old GPUs like those.
-1

dramsey , March 22, 2013 7:01 PM

If you think there are no Mac drivers on NVIDIA's web site, you must not have looked very hard. Or, more likely, were blinded by ideology.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-304.00.05f02-driver.html
2

DarkSable , March 22, 2013 7:02 PM

Well it's freaking beautiful, but...
2

downhill911 , March 22, 2013 7:14 PM

Really niche market since 99% of mac users can not assemble or disassemble computer.
Man even windows is difficult for them.
And now you have this new breed of Windows METROsexuals.
3

A Bad Day , March 22, 2013 7:15 PM

dramseyIf you think there are no Mac drivers on NVIDIA's web site, you must not have looked very hard. Or, more likely, were blinded by ideology.http://www.nvidia.com/object/macos [...] river.html

You know that page where it ask for for the GPU generation, exact model, and the OS you're running? I didn't see a Mac OS as an option.
0

shikamaru31789 , March 22, 2013 7:35 PM

Poor, poor sheeple. The sad thing is people will actually by this overpriced card for their Macs.
3

mynith , March 22, 2013 7:52 PM

99 % of mac users can't disassemble a computer because Macs are designed not to be user serviceable. I had enough trouble finding the Torx screwdrivers for an older model. Pentalobe screwdrivers will be even harder to find. At least in hardware stores anyway. People who own Mac Pros, however, probably have some idea about how to open them. They were meant to be opened. A little silly though how they price it so much higher just for the different firmware. But hey, things are worth what people are willing to pay for them, and Mac users tend to have deep pockets and some have short attention spans as well, so they might go for it.
0

hero1 , March 22, 2013 8:07 PM

This is a joke for a price. Are you kidding me? It's time our mac owner friends stood up and demand better pricing or boycott them. Talk about a robbery.
0

rohitbaran , March 22, 2013 8:13 PM

wanderer11$450 for a 7950? Are we back in March 2012?

Good. Companies make some money and iSheep burn some money they would do in a normal scenario on a Mac product. Everyone wins.
3

unksol , March 22, 2013 8:24 PM

A Bad DayYou know that page where it ask for for the GPU generation, exact model, and the OS you're running? I didn't see a Mac OS as an option.

He's just being an @$$ hat. Nividia only supports 6 cards according to his page. The newest one is a GTX 285 and Mac OS does show up in the drives search... If you select the 200 series. But who would do that?

6 beyond outdated cards for 3-5 herself machines is not "driver support"
0

Cryio , March 22, 2013 8:49 PM

I get the fact that thei wanted to present big performance jumps from one generation (8800 GT) to another (HD 7950), but really aren't other powerhouses on OSX than Portal 2 and Blops2?
1

larkspur , March 22, 2013 8:49 PM

The video driver updates are included in the OS updates. It's well-known that Apple owns its users in addition to its patents. You only get updates when Apple says so, it has very little to do with Nvidia/AMD. And btw - I'd bet that some of the additional price is due to Apple being forced to pay AMD/Nvidia to write the drivers for their ultra-minority OS. Honestly, with such a tiny marketshare in desktop performance machines, they likely have no choice.

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