14 DAY TRIAL // There are small information leaks and then there are truly huge ones, like the one that showed how Sapphire means business.
The year 2012 is already kicking things into high gear, even though the real product launch festival will be held at CES.
Sapphire just became the major player on the scene of leaks and rumors.
It slipped details not just on one of its upcoming AMD-based high-end video boards, but on all of them.
The ones that stand out the most are the super-fast Radeon HD 7970 Atomic RX and Atomic WC.
The RX and WC monikers may suggest the type of cooling (air and liquid-based, respectively).
Whether this is true or not, both beasts are bound to cause a fuss with their memory clock of 5,735 MHz and GPU frequency of 1,335 MHz.
That's 1,335 MHz out of the box, not the upper threshold to which it can be overclocked.
For the sake of comparison, the reference HD 7970, as shown on the official product page, operates at 925 MHz.
Besides the Atomic RX and Atomic WC add-in boards, Sapphire is preparing a Toxic 3G model, whose GPU is set at 1,125 MHz and memory at 5,600 MHz.
Somewhat lower on the performance ladder, though not by much, is the VaporX 3G, with GPU and GDDR5 VRAM clocks of 1,010 MHz and 5,500 MHz, respectively.
The rest of the line sticks to the reference specifications (925/5500 MHz), though only the “Da Original” exhibits the Sunnyvale, California-based company's aesthetic design.
One of the remaining duo, the Dual-Fan 3G, features an affordable, double-fan cooler.
As for the Sapphire Radeon DH 7970 FLEX 6G, it is particularly resourceful in multi-monitor setups, boasting six mini-DisplayPorts.
Some, if not all, models are bound to be on display in Las Vegas, Nevada, during the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (January 10-13). What remains to be seen is what companies provide a good competition.