Mac Edition Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Spotted
A Mac version of the 7950 has been spotted.
ComputerBase in Germany have spotted a Sapphire HD 7950, which is no ordinary Radeon card. This card is intended for use in Mac Pros, and while you cannot buy them anymore, it appears there is still a market for discrete graphics cards in Macs.
The Mac Edition 7950 pictured is almost identical to the Windows version, with exceptions in the cooler, clock speeds and firmware. The card is built on the older 7950 ASIC, meaning that it does not have PowerTune, and thus no Boost clocks. The clock speeds for this ASIC are 800 MHz core and 5000 MHz for the memory. It does pack 3 GB of GDDR5 over a 384-bit interface.
Beyond the clock speeds, the different cooler isn't particularly interesting. It features the same basic reference design, except that it's white instead of black and red and features the text "Radeon HD 7950 Mac® Edition".
The last difference is that the firmware is adapted so that the card will run in a Mac Pro, but the card also features a switch allowing users to switch to the Windows BIOS so that it can also be used in a PC. Undoubtedly, some users might try and place this firmware on an ordinary 7950 and see if it'll then boot in a Mac Pro.
Power is drawn from two 6-pin PCIe connectors, and display outputs include a single dual-link DVI port, HDMI and two mini-DisplayPorts.
Pricing is expected to be around €400 to €450. This is significantly more expensive than the ordinary HD 7950, which can be picked up for about €250. No word on availability.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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TheBigTroll i doubt many people would buy these for a mac. id say its for people who wan a white GPU in their white buildReply -
mikehoncho67 Ahh the Mac versions of everything. Less powerful and significantly more expensive.Reply -
wannabepro Paying for the name.. And the "Prestige" which is dumb, seeing as everyone else has the same iCrap you do.Reply -
warezme mikehoncho67Ahh the Mac versions of everything. Less powerful and significantly more expensive.Yes but if you were to ask a Machead running a Mac Pro, they would swear up and down that it is much faster than any other graphics card in the world behind their fashion black framed glasses and believe it.Reply
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afrobacon Even though I really like the look; I don't think I would ever be stupid enough to buy it.Reply -
dark_lord69 "Pricing is expected to be around €400 to €450. This is significantly more expensive than the ordinary HD 7950, which can be picked up for about €250."Reply
Is anyone really surprised by this?
Apple is the richest company in the world for a reason people! -
bustapr my thoughts wereReply
"oh, this would look nice in a white pc, card color options would be nice to have available on pc. oh look, it works on pc too! and it doesnt have that fancy vapor x-like cooler, just amd stock.
hm, how much is this gonna cost?"
*reads €400 to €450
"HOLY HELL!"
undoubtably the bios would be modded by someone to work on a regular 7950(like the article points out). the white color and regular cooler isnt really worth that much more... -
classzero dark_lord69"Pricing is expected to be around €400 to €450. This is significantly more expensive than the ordinary HD 7950, which can be picked up for about €250."Is anyone really surprised by this?Apple is the richest company in the world for a reason people!If I read the logo on the card, it states Sapphire and not Apple, thus your comment about Apple in this case is pure ignorance.Reply -
icemunk Ooooh, looks like there will be money to make. I flashed my two year old Radeon 4870s for a Mac Pro, sold them on ebay for more than I payed for them new. 15 minutes of work, and a spend-too-much-money Mac user = profit.Reply -
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My classmate's mother-in-law's dog's best dog friend's walker's aunt's ex husband's pool cleaner's grandmother's parrot says that you're lying.