A Closer Look

Sapphire's card uses a copper baseplate with two heatpipes to keep the card cool. The heatsink's base also cools memory chips.


The card requires one 6-pin PCI-Express power connector. This configuration is good for up to 150 W of power draw.


Our press sample came with the sticker on its antistatic bag instead of the PCB. Looks like quick re-branding to me.


Sapphire is using an OnSemi NCP4206 voltage controller on their card, which supports voltage control and monitoring via I2C.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by SK Hynix and carry the model number H5GQ2H24AFR-R0C. They are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's Pitcairn graphics processor uses the GCN shader architecture. It is produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC, Taiwan, and comes with 2.8 billion transistors on a 212 mm² die.