Card Layout
Its hard to not spot the similarities between the R7950 and the R7970. With the two cards next to each other even there are only a few things that stand out like the R7950’s two 6 pin connections. It isn’t until I flip them over that I see a few more differences. You can see that the R7950 is a few millimeters shorter than the R7970 causing the double dissipation cooler to hangover slightly. To keep that gap from pushing out more air XFX has placed a little foam. That is a little ironic considering the whole bottom of the cooler is open also.
The R7950’s backplate is similar to the R7970’s with two Display Port connections, one HDMI, and one DVI. The backplate has the XFX logo cut out of it and should give better air flow over the reference design.
Unlike the HD 7970 the lower powered HD 7950 only requires two six pin connections.
The R7950 has a flat black PCB. The XFX heatsink is attached in 12 different locations making for a lot of work if you want to pull it off and change your thermal paste.
You also get two crossfire connections meaning you can run up to four of these monsters in crossfire in the future!
For cooling you have XFX’s Double Dissipation heatsink. Far from the average cooler they have packed two fans into an all-aluminum chassis that is both sexy and functional. Other than the open bottom section this non-reference design is only of only a few that blows air back out the back. Normally only the reference cooler will do this, your other PC components will thank you for not letting all of that extra air get pushed into your case.