A Closer Look

MSI's heatsink uses five heatpipes to keep the card cool. As mentioned before, this is the same cooler that we have seen on other cards from MSI before.


The card requires two 6-pin PCI-Express power cables for operation. This power configuration is good for up to 225 W of power draw.


The HD 7950 comes with AMD's dual BIOS feature that was introduced with the HD 6900 Series. It provides a safety net in case a BIOS flash goes wrong; simply switch to the second BIOS and flash back to the original BIOS.


For voltage control the card uses the CHiL CHL8228 chip, it is already well supported by overclocking software, as it is the same component as on the HD 7970.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Hynix, and carry the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C. They are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's new Tahiti graphics processor introduces a new shader architecture, it is also the first GPU to be produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The transistor count is 4.31 billion.

Please note the shiny metal shim around the GPU core, which is part of the GPU and prevents the crushing or chipping of the die during assembly. The GPU's model number is printed on the bottom right of the shim instead of on the die itself.