Radeon HD 7950 3 GB: Six Cards, Benchmarked And Reviewed

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With Nvidia's GeForce GTX 670 readily available for $400, AMD's Radeon HD 7950 shifts to the upper middle class of graphics card performance. We test six third-party interpretations in anticipation of pricing more in line with its competitive position.

Asus HD 7950 DirectCU II

Asus' HD 7950 DirectCU II is the thickest card in today's round-up, monopolizing not two, but three expansion slots. We've seen the DirectCU II cooling solution work well in the past, though. So, depending on your motherboard and chassis, giving up that third slot might be worthwhile. Additional cooling headroom is capitalized on with another 900 MHz core clock rate.

Two large axial fans should yield quiet operation, though you're forced to accept heated air blown into your chassis.

The card doesn't have any heat pipes poking outside of its shroud, resulting in a clean system build. But be careful of its weight; we'd recommend using a graphics card bracket to hold it in place.

Igor Wallossek
Igor Wallossek
Contributor

Igor Wallossek wrote a wide variety of hardware articles for Tom's Hardware, with a strong focus on technical analysis and in-depth reviews. His contributions have spanned a broad spectrum of PC components, including GPUs, CPUs, workstations, and PC builds. His insightful articles provide readers with detailed knowledge to make informed decisions in the ever-evolving tech landscape