Conclusion
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Pros:
- Low temps
- Minimal noise
- Relatively low price
- Includes DiRT 3 ($40 value)
- Excellent gaming performance with a single monitor
Cons:
- Late to the game
- Less than spectacular performance with two monitors
- Virtually unplayable with three monitors.
- Not factory overclocked
At a retail price of only $270, the Sapphire HD 6950 DiRT 3 Edition is one of the most affordable 2GB 6950s cards available right now, and even competes with many 1GB models. You get a much improved cooler that keep temps low and noise to a minimum. Gaming performance is excellent bang for the buck especially when compared from cards of equal performance from Nvidia.
Not all was perfect however. The DiRT 3 Edition is pretty late to the game. The 6950 has been out for nearly 7 months now, and while the cooler is better than the reference model, stock performance is unchanged. Furthermore, Eyefinity gaming is not feasible without reducing in-game settings dramatically.
Despite these qualms though, the Sapphire HD 6950 DiRT 3 Edition really is a very good graphics card. If you are in the market for a new high-end gpu and you do not want to wait for the next series, this card really is perfect for you.
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