AMD Radeon HD 7950 On Linux: Southern Islands Isn't Yet A Penguin Holiday

Compared to the reference specifications on the AMD Radeon HD 7950, the XFX Radeon HD 7950 (FX-795A-TNBC) is running with a factory over-clock at 900MHz on the Tahiti Pro GPU core (versus 800MHz reference) and 1375MHz (versus 1250MHz reference) for the 3GB of GDDR5 video memory. Included with the XFX Radeon HD 7950 was a CrossFireX bridge, an HDMI to DVI adapter, Windows driver CD, support information, and various XFX promotional items advertising the company's other products.

The XFX Radeon HD 7950 cooler has a single fan centered in the middle with an aluminum shroud running the length of the PCB. The shroud advertises XFX's Ghost Thermal Technology. The graphics card itself is printed on a black PCB.

The video outputs on the XFX Radeon HD 7950 include one dual-link DVI, two mini DisplayPort, and one HDMI. The dual-link DVI is limited to the standard 2560 x 1600 limitation while the HDMI resolution can be up to 4096 x 3112 and DisplayPort on the HD 7950 can output at 4096 x 2160. The second slot on the graphics card is used just for ventilation from the XFX heatsink fan.

The Radeon HD 7950 requires two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors for feeding sufficient power to the Tahiti Pro. The idle TDP is 10 Watts while the maximum TDP is 180~200 Watts.