# Sapphire HD 7970 Toxic 6 GB



## W1zzard (Aug 12, 2012)

Sapphire's HD 7970 Toxic comes with 6 GB GDDR5 memory, a large clock speed increase out of the box, a "Lethal Boost" button to increase performance even further, and a large dual-fan cooler. In our testing this monster delivered the highest single-GPU performance we've ever seen, overclocking worked well, too.

*Show full review*


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## AnnCore (Aug 23, 2012)

"Sapphire's HD 7970 Toxic is like a Lamborghini. It's expensive, not very efficient, and noisy. Unfortunately, noisy computer components don't impress people nearly as much as noisy cars, and a fast graphics card doesn't get you girls either."

Most original opening sentence for a conclusion.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Aug 23, 2012)

Kind of a worthless GPU if you ask me. Just save the money and get the normal HD7970 or GTX680. Put the money you save towards something like an SSD.


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## manofthem (Aug 23, 2012)

Beast card but too expensive. I'm a little disappointed that it could only hit 1275 core clock if the voltage is bumped to 1.35v in boost bios, I would expect slightly more. My first reference 7970 hit higher in lower voltage (before it died on me )

Great review as always!!!!!

Hey W1zz, top of temp and clock profile page, "Temperatures are good and in the typical range of other GTX 680 cards we have tested."


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## NHKS (Aug 23, 2012)

7970 Toxic = 700$
7970  x  2     =  750$ to 800$

hmmm...


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## EarthDog (Aug 23, 2012)

What a waste of vRAM. I mean the thing cant even support a resolution on its own to use that much vram... and 3GB was good to 5760x1200 or w/e soooooooooooooooo why?


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## erocker (Aug 23, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> What a waste of vRAM. I mean the thing cant even support a resolution on its own to use that much vram... and 3GB was good to 5760x1200 or w/e soooooooooooooooo why?



Easy! So that they can charge $700 bucks of course! Price is ridiculous... It would be somewhat feasible if it came with a water block or something.


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## W1zzard (Aug 23, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Hey W1zz, top of temp and clock profile page, "Temperatures are good and in the typical range of other GTX 680 cards we have tested."



fixed. thanks



erocker said:


> Easy! So that they can charge $700 bucks of course! Price is ridiculous... It would be somewhat feasible if it came with a water block or something.



the market for these cards is small enough. putting watercooling on them reduces the target audience a lot more


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## BigMack70 (Aug 23, 2012)

Pricing is too ridiculous on this card. I have 2 Lightning 7970s that hit 1200/1800, making them faster than the normal "lethal boost" on this card. 

Many 7970s, and especially the nice 7970GE cards, can get close to this card's performance for WAY less money, and 6GB vram is stupid overkill.

The only place I see this card having is for someone who wants the absolute best of the best, cares little for value, and throws two of these bad boys into a crossfire setup. 

The card would be much better if the price were $600 IMO. Would possibly be a justifiable purchase then.


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## DarkOCean (Aug 23, 2012)

the price of this is just ridiculous :shadedshu.


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## Frenzic (Aug 23, 2012)

One badboy card if you don't overclock and have the dosh for it  Hey wiz are you gona review the Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor-X GHz Edition 3GB? thnx.


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## BigMack70 (Aug 23, 2012)

^^ IMO their 7970 Vapor-X GE is the way to go... it's $230 cheaper than this card and should be able to OC to the 1200/1600 range fairly easily


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## EarthDog (Aug 23, 2012)

How did this card manage to pull an 8.9 is my other question. I mean its louder than most cards, costs a shhh ton for literally zero returns over a 3GB card, and sucks down even more power. How does this deserve that high of a score?


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## W1zzard (Aug 23, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> How did this card manage to pull an 8.9 is my other question. I mean its louder than most cards, costs a shhh ton for literally zero returns over a 3GB card, and sucks down even more power. How does this deserve that high of a score?



it's fast, and sapphire made extra good use of the dual bios feature


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## erocker (Aug 23, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> the market for these cards is small enough. putting watercooling on them reduces the target audience a lot more



I suppose you're correct. If this card is aimed at the LN2 crowd (with the accessible voltage readouts, etc.) a water block is just an extra unneeded cost. I just don't understand the cost of the card the way it is.


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## EarthDog (Aug 23, 2012)

> it's fast, and sapphire made extra good use of the dual bios feature



So are reference cards that mostly all manage to overclock to those speeds anyway for almost half the cost (and are quieter, and use less power). You are giving this praise for having a $250+ edited bios is what you are saying (and thats ok, I just didnt understand such a high rating). Cool, thanks for the explanation. 

EDIT: PLEASE add editing tools for basic replies!!!!!!


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## W1zzard (Aug 23, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> So are reference cards that mostly all manage to overclock to those speeds anyway for half the cost (and are quieter, and use less power). You are giving this praise for having a $300 bios switch is what you are saying (and thats ok, I just didnt understand such a high rating). Cool, thanks for the explanation.
> 
> EDIT: PLEASE add editing tools for basic replies!!!!!!



many people dont know how to overclock and arent willing to fiddle with the tools. they prefer to buy custom cards for a price premium.



erocker said:


> I just don't understand the cost of the card the way it is.


agreed on that. i doubt sapphire's own cost is anywhere near $700 considering a "normal" hd 7970 is like $450. but they must have their reasons


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## EarthDog (Aug 23, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> many people dont know how to overclock and arent willing to fiddle with the tools. they prefer to buy custom cards for a price premium.


Then they should get this instead...GIGABYTE GV-R797TO-3GD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition ...

Same clocks, better cooler, less power and ~$250 cheaper. 

This card has no place in this market (at that price). Sometimes I do not understand companies.


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## reverze (Aug 23, 2012)

check out the vapor x version , same card with slightly slower stock clock but alot cheaper, doubt toxic is much higher binned


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## Frenzic (Aug 23, 2012)

BigMack70 said:


> ^^ IMO their 7970 Vapor-X GE is the way to go... it's $230 cheaper than this card and should be able to OC to the 1200/1600 range fairly easily



Yer thats why i bought one and i must say, i'm not dissapointed


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## W1zzard (Aug 23, 2012)

reverze said:


> doubt toxic is much higher binned



ASIC quality 58.4% on my sample which is a great value for hardcore overclockers (they look for low values)


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## Frenzic (Aug 23, 2012)

Are you going to review the vapor-x ghz 3gb w1z? as i have one


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## AlienIsGOD (Aug 23, 2012)

No support for CUDA and PhysX

how can that be a con?!? Nvidia's closed software shouldn't count against AMD....


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## Oberon (Aug 23, 2012)

I think the performance summary should be included for 5760x1080; there's really no other plot that matters for this card (you could maybe make an argument for 2560x1400, but not really anything else). You could even just leave off the NVIDIA cards if you don't want to show them in a bad light since they can't drive three screens with a single card, but it would be interesting to compare to the "vanilla" 7970s at that resolution.


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## Nihilus (Aug 24, 2012)

AlienIsGOD said:


> No support for CUDA and PhysX
> 
> how can that be a con?!? Nvidia's closed software shouldn't count against AMD....



Yeah they always throw that garbage up there.

  As far as this card goes, 6GB is still unnecessary.  Even if mounted in quadfire, I don't think there would be a difference at the highest resolutions going from 6GB to 3GB.  Just look at what a pair of GTX 690s can do with a mere 2GB!  Waste of money especially with the HD 7990 just around the corner.


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## Nihilus (Aug 24, 2012)

Frenzic said:


> Are you going to review the vapor-x ghz 3gb w1z? as i have one



Tweaktown did one on the vapor-x 7950 today.  It traded blows with the HD 7970.  Fantastic bang for the buck.


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## KainXS (Aug 24, 2012)

:shadedshu

for what you can get for the price of this, still whoever buys it(not me), have fun with that money sapphire


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## commander calamitous (Aug 24, 2012)

Is that a typo I see on the box.  "Out best" ever


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 24, 2012)

Honestly this is a nice card, but in reality, you can spend 200 dollars less for a GHz edition which is not very far behind in the Frame Game and even put a better cooler on it for less than this card.


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## INSTG8R (Aug 24, 2012)

commander calamitous said:


> Is that a typo I see on the box.  "Out best" ever



Good catch! Indeed that looks like a typo to me


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 24, 2012)

INSTG8R said:


> Good catch! Indeed that looks like a typo to me



This is known as Fat Fingering


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## dj-electric (Aug 24, 2012)

At least this cooler is unmachable in performance, 256W @ 69C, that is nuts.


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## N3M3515 (Aug 24, 2012)

Well people what did you expect?? $600? 550?
We're talking about the king of the hill here, the world's fastest single gpu card.
Of course it commands a price premiun.


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## EarthDog (Aug 24, 2012)

N3M3515 said:


> Well people what did you expect?? $600? 550?
> We're talking about the king of the hill here, the world's fastest single gpu card.
> Of course it commands a price premiun.


Ehhh, there is another card with the same specs, minus the memory (which doesnt matter ONE bit), for $250 less. 

I could see this coming in at $550 or $600 at the most, but $700 is off the chain for something that can be accomplished with a reference card. I mean hell, you can get a card WITH a waterblock on it for less and it would has a decent chance at out overclocking it due to the cooler. Even arguably the best 7970's for overclocking, the MSI Lightning and Asus DCUII are $180 or more less.


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## N3M3515 (Aug 24, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> Ehhh, there is another card with the same specs, minus the memory (which doesnt matter ONE bit), for $250 less.
> 
> I could see this coming in at $550 or $600 at the most, but $700 is off the chain for something that can be accomplished with a reference card. I mean hell, you can get a card WITH a waterblock on it for less and it would has a decent chance at out overclocking it due to the cooler. Even arguably the best 7970's for overclocking, the MSI Lightning and Asus DCUII are $180 or more less.



1200 core, memory oc for $450! wow!
Link?

PD: For the record, i wouldn't buy this card of course, but still it's the fastest single gpu card on the planet so it will be sold at a huge premiun, that's just how things are, and they are going to sell them all.


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## dj-electric (Aug 24, 2012)

No 1200Mhz man but as long as your arms work you should use an overclocking software


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## EarthDog (Aug 24, 2012)

> but still it's the fastest single gpu card on the planet


But its not... I just said that. There are others just as fast out of the box that arent fetching near the premium. Sure, it doesnt have 6GB of vRAM, but its not needed. I just cant wrap my head around its place in the market for those in the know. 

LIke this one: GIGABYTE GV-R797TO-3GD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition ...

That card doesnt have the 1200Mhz speeds, but hey, thats overclocking to me as its not the stock clock for the card. And if you want to do it via the bios instead of software on another card... flash it. Now, I understand people dont want to mess with that stuff but still, the premium is off the chain for what the card really is (IMO).


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## N3M3515 (Aug 24, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> But its not... I just said that. There are others just as fast out of the box that arent fetching near the premium. Sure, it doesnt have 6GB of vRAM, but its not needed. I just cant wrap my head around its place in the market for those in the know.
> 
> LIke this one: GIGABYTE GV-R797TO-3GD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition ...
> 
> That card doesnt have the 1200Mhz speeds, but hey, thats overclocking to me as its not the stock clock for the card. And if you want to do it via the bios instead of software on another card... flash it. Now, I understand people dont want to mess with that stuff but still, the premium is off the chain for what the card really is (IMO).



Overcloking of the sapphire is done and guaranteed by sapphire, so i can safely say it's 1200 out of the box.
And hey i also think it's overpriced, but then again what other card can do that without losing the warranty.
E-pen lol, braggin stuff.

Btw, it's already out of stock.


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## EarthDog (Aug 27, 2012)

Its 1100Mhz out of the box. You need to make an adjustment(bios switch) to get it to 1200Mhz. BUT that is just nitpicking. 

None, but as we agree, its not remotely worth the price as is the general sentiment of people...


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## Mindweaver (Aug 27, 2012)

One of my toxic 5850's is messed up do to heat.. The top card in my crossfire setup is creating artifacts..  This is not the first Sapphire card to do this because of heat. It's going to take a lot for me to ever buy another sapphire product. They screwed me out of voltage control on the 5850 as well.. [/rant] Sorry, I just took a deep breath.. lol  Honestly, I would just buy a stock card and overclock it. Oh and Sapphire's Warranty is shitty with only a 2 year warranty.. If my card had a 3 year warranty.. I could send it back for a replacement.


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## m1dg3t (Aug 27, 2012)

Asus did the same to me on my 5870 mindweaver, what made it even worse was the card was advertised/marketed as being capable of this! It was actually the main selling point of that card.

Just another example of a big company using false advertising to make $$$ off of people and another reason why I will never purchase/reccomend any Asus products 

Owned quite a few Sapphire cards over the years and would gladly use them again 

@ W1zz Nice review as always


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## leopr (Aug 29, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> At least this cooler is unmachable in performance, 256W @ 69C, that is nuts.



I agree its a great cooler but the Accelero 7970 is better.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 29, 2012)

leopr said:


> I agree its a great cooler but the Accelero 7970 is better.




proof please


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## leopr (Aug 29, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> proof please



My results after running Heaven benchmark @ 8x MSAA / 16x AF / Tess @ Extreme:







Highest temp: 63 degrees with the card OCed to 1225/1650 (29 degrees ambient temp). Check out the Toxic temps @ 1200/1600 and i am not even considering noise.

So...thats enough for you ? As i said the Toxic cooler is pretty amazing but the Accelero 7970 is way better and quieter.


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## xplodpb (Sep 19, 2012)

Hey, guys, with the price drop, which card do you recommend, a GTX 670 or a HD 7970? Thanks!


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 19, 2012)

xplodpb said:


> Hey, guys, with the price drop, which card do you recommend, a GTX 670 or a HD 7970? Thanks!



start a new topic on this, this is a review here


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## Morgoth (Sep 19, 2012)

i was hooping for a 2x solution from sapphire..


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## buildzoid (Oct 29, 2012)

*There is a reason for all that VRAM and Noise ain't that big a deal*

when you CF your cards the VRAM doesn't stack so you technically still have 3GB of VRAM because both cards are storing basically the same information in the VRAM so lets say you go for 5 monitors with 3 3GB cards sure you have a physical capacity of 9GB but the cards don't share the vram so you still have 3GB to run 5 monitors and thats when you really start needing 6GB as five landscape 1080p will give you 10 megapixels the same amount can be achieved using 3 1440p monitors and if you get 3 1600p monitors you have 12 megapixels six times the amount of 1080p. 1080p needs 1-2GB to run fine so 6GB cards do make sense for people with 10+ megapixels. As for noise just put a universal WB on it and use a side fan for the ram and VRMs. I actually own a regular Vapor-x and have the fans set to even more agressive settings hitting 90% speed at 68C resulting noise is not that bad much better then my RMAed 590 which was rather high pitched when it hit over 80% fan speed. The Vapor-x cooler is loud but doesn't give of an annoying noise that you can't hear over music and definitely not over the sounds of destruction in video games as it has a very similar frequency to the sound of collapsing buildings and lighter automatic weapons.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 30, 2012)

i seen no point of bringing a month old topic back, especially when most know about the SLI and CrossFire Limitations.


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