14 DAY TRIAL // After all the high-end excitement of the past week, seeing a new Radeon HD 7950 graphics card is, arguably, just what the world needs to bring the video market back to its normal state.
One might even say that the new card from Micro-Star International is a small fry compared to the GeForce GTX Titan.
Quite ironic when considering the fact that Radeon HD 7950 is one of AMD's strongest video controllers to date.
Then again, compared to NVIDIA's GK110-powered beast, all other add-in graphics adapters are small fries, although AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition does hold its own to some extent.
But we digress. What we are here to do is describe the assets of the MSI Radeon HD 7950 Boost Edition ASIC.
First off, the graphics processing unit has a base clock speed of 880 MHz and a PowerTune Boost frequency of 960 MHz.
The memory amount is what makes the newcomer less of a small fry than the rest: 3 GB instead of 1 GB or 2 GB.
Said VRAM works at a clock speed of 5 GHz. That means MSI is sticking to the habit of factory overclocking the GPU (reference speeds are 850 MHz / 925 MHz), but leaving the RAM alone, no matter how much of it is available.
Other specifications include a 384-bit memory interface and the Twin Frozr III cooling module, which takes up two PCI Express slots.
It boasts a large aluminum heatsink, two 800 Propeller-blade fans (PWM-controlled). Thanks to it, the GPU operates at 10-degree lower temperature than on the reference AMD adapter.
Finally, the MSI Radeon HD 7950 Boost Edition ASIC graphics card has a price of $330, which can mean anything from 248 to 330 Euro. A reference-clocked edition of this board might be released at some point too, for those seeking lower tags.
