A Closer Look

Sapphire is using a vapor-chamber and four heatpipes to keep the card cool.


Two smaller heatsinks have been placed on the voltage-regulation circuitry. Near the GPU are two big black chunks that look a bit like memory chips. These are spacers to ensure the cooler doesn't wobble when installed.


Power delivery requires two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors. This configuration is specified for up to 225 W power draw.


A BIOS switch is also available. It lets you switch between a legacy and UEFI BIOS and acts as a safeguard should something go wrong during a BIOS flash.


We've seen the NCP81022 voltage controller on Bonaire-based cards before. It is well supported in overclocking software and offers monitoring and voltage control.


The GDDR5 memory chips are by Elpida and carry the model number W2032BBBG-6A-F. They are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's Tonga graphics processor uses a new version of the GCN shader architecture. It is produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC, Taiwan, with a transistor count AMD does not provide. I measured its die size to be 17.5 x 20.9 mm = 366 mm², which makes the GPU bigger than Tahiti and, most probably, more expensive to produce.