SAPPHIRE Officially Launches HD 6950 FleX, Simplifies Eyefinity for Gamers

[btarunr]

SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced the SAPPHIRE HD 6950 Flex Edition, bringing a new level of gaming performance to the company's unique solution for multi-screen gaming. Most graphics cards based on AMD technology require the third monitor in an Eyefinity set-up to be a DisplayPort monitor, or connected with an active DisplayPort Adapter. The SAPPHIRE FleX family can support three DVI monitors in Eyefinity mode and deliver a true SLS (Single Large Surface) work area without the need for costly active adapters. The first two monitors are connected to the two DVI ports and the third to an HDMI to DVI cable (supplied) with no extra hardware required.



The SAPPHIRE HD 6950 FleX is now the highest performing card with this feature, allowing gamers to use low-cost DVI monitors for all three screens. Additional monitors can be added to the setup, but must be DisplayPort connected.

Like the standard HD 6950, the SAPPHIRE HD 6950 FleX Edition boasts true DX 11 capability and the powerful configuration of 1408 stream processors and 88 texture processing units. With its clock speeds of 800MHz for the core and 1250Mhz (5 Gb/sec effective) for the memory this model brings multi-screen enjoyment to even hard-core gamers.

A Dual BIOS feature allows enthusiasts to experiment with alternative BIOS settings and performance can be further enhanced with the SAPPHIRE overclocking tool, TriXX, available as a free download. Cooled by the award-winning SAPPHIRE exclusive Vapor-X technology, the SAPPHIRE HD 6950 FleX Edition has great thermal performance too - and quietly speeds through even the most demanding applications.

Meet the family
The SAPPHIRE HD 6950 Flex Edition joins three other members of the FleX family, providing a choice of price and performance points for different applications and users, including the pioneering HD 5770 FleX Edition introduced last year.

The recently introduced SAPPHIRE HD 6870 FleX was the first FleX series card to feature AMD's second generation DX11 architecture including the latest core technology for streaming 3D content. It has 1120 Stream processors and 1GB of the latest GDDR5 memory, which together with clock speeds of 900MHz core and 1050MHz (4.2GHz effective) for the memory, make it a great performer for most applications. Its efficient cooler with three 8mm heatpipes and sealed dust resisting bearings keep the card cool yet running quietly even under load.

For more cost conscious users, the new SAPPHIRE HD 5670 FleX delivers a cost-effective Eyefinity solution for increased productivity in tasks such as editing or business applications. The SAPPHIRE HD 5670 is the highest performing DX11 graphics card that requires no additional power connector, making the SAPPHIRE FleX edition ideal for upgrading existing PC systems and providing additional monitor support. It has 400 Stream processors and 1GB of the latest GDDR5 memory, which together with clock speeds of 775MHz core and 1000MHz (4GHz effective) for the memory deliver excellent performance and great value.

HD Video
The SAPPHIRE FleX family all have on-board hardware UVD (Unified Video decoder), considerably reducing CPU load and delivering smooth decoding of Blu-ray and other video content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, as well as Mpeg files. The UVD can decode two 1080p HD video streams simultaneously and display HD video in high quality with Windows Aero mode enabled. Both of the HD 5670 and HD 5770 have HDMI 1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. The HD 6950 and HD 6870 FleX Editions have HDMI 1.4 which additionally supports Stereoscopic output.

The SAPPHIRE FleX family is supported by AMD's DirectX 11 WHQL certified graphics driver which delivers support for all of the key DirectX 11 level features required for new gaming experiences and acceleration of next generation high performance applications.

For more information, visit the product page.

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[IceCreamBarr]

Display manufacturer collusion

I applaud AMD for making it easier to have multi display but I need to get a "conspiracy" (of sorts) off my chest... there is NO WAY that the monitor industry has decided to omit DisplayPort from the connectivity options on their monitors because of early adoption issues. There is something going on in the background, I call it collusion, that is preventing the royalty free acceptance of DisplayPort. This display standard comes from the same brains and group, VESA, that created VGA and DVI - Wiki VESA, it gives an interesting take on the omissions. I would counter the Wiki by saying that HDMI is not free; why cry over paying one guy and not the other?

This collusion runs much deeper than just connectivity; bezel thickness, panel technology, lighting technology (although ViewSonic broke rank, let's see what happens now... collusion doesn't work when one guy gets greedy).

These issues will all be fixed in time, no doubt about it, but the monitor manufacturers need to milk each and every advancement... not one monitor manufacturer is making the ultimate screen at a reasonable price, this can only mean collusion.

EU, hey Europe, get on this, sue them or whatever it is you do to companies like Microsoft so their ballz shrink within your borders. Get these monitors flowing, I WANT EYEFINITY.

 

[Disparia]

If they really wanted to simplify it, the backplate (made of nano-robots) would just morph to match the connectors of the monitors I was using.

 

[newtekie1]

I applaud AMD for making it easier to have multi display but I need to get a "conspiracy" (of sorts) off my chest... there is NO WAY that the monitor industry has decided to omit DisplayPort from the connectivity options on their monitors because of early adoption issues. There is something going on in the background, I call it collusion, that is preventing the royalty free acceptance of DisplayPort. This display standard comes from the same brains and group, VESA, that created VGA and DVI - Wiki VESA, it gives an interesting take on the omissions. I would counter the Wiki by saying that HDMI is not free; why cry over paying one guy and not the other?

This collusion runs much deeper than just connectivity; bezel thickness, panel technology, lighting technology (although ViewSonic broke rank, let's see what happens now... collusion doesn't work when one guy gets greedy).

These issues will all be fixed in time, no doubt about it, but the monitor manufacturers need to milk each and every advancement... not one monitor manufacturer is making the ultimate screen at a reasonable price, this can only mean collusion.

EU, hey Europe, get on this, sue them or whatever it is you do to companies like Microsoft so their ballz shrink within your borders. Get these monitors flowing, I WANT EYEFINITY.

The monitor manufacturers do not care that Displayport is royalty free, they are not paying huge amounts for HDMI/DVI. I think the royalty is something like $0.04 per connector or something like that, so 8¢ per monitor if they include DVI and an HDMI port.

However, HDMI and DVI are both widely adopted standards in the industry, so even if you make a Displayport monitor, you still have to include DVI at the minimum, so they are paying the royalties anyway. However, they have to re-engineer their monitors, retool their factories, re-write technical manuals. All of that costs money, money that would be spend on a standard that 99% of potential buyers has no interest in. So while DP is royalty free, it isn't free.

There is no conspiracy here, HDMI and DVI were here first, it is what people accepted. So even if something better and "cheaper" comes around, the industry isn't likely to shift towards it unless there is really a demanded need that it fills that the other adaptors can't.