Sapphire Radeon 6950 2GB Toxic

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There is a review of the Sapphire Radeon 6950 2GB Toxic posted at PureOC today that is definitely worth checking out. For comparison purposes, you can see our evaluation here.

The Sapphire Radeon 6950 Toxic comes with a factory overclock out of the box, not to mention an excellent value-added bonus of including a great game for free. As we've come to expect from Sapphire, we're hoping this card also comes with low temperatures and noise levels, a potent combination. Let's dive in and take a closer look at the Sapphire 6950 Toxic and found out if can do just that.
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Find it interesting that Sapphire has several versions of the 6950 for sale but the one that gets sent out to websites for review cannot be purchased ANYWHERE! Ends up being a tease of vaporware. Guess they hope us end users will just say "Screw it. Can't find the Toxic card, so I'll buy another card from Sapphire."

Rebate will expire today at NewEgg and they have had no stock so that is no longer available. :mad: Just going to stick with my GTX 470 card then.
 
jcollett said:
Find it interesting that Sapphire has several versions of the 6950 for sale but the one that gets sent out to websites for review cannot be purchased ANYWHERE! Ends up being a tease of vaporware. Guess they hope us end users will just say "Screw it. Can't find the Toxic card, so I'll buy another card from Sapphire."

Rebate will expire today at NewEgg and they have had no stock so that is no longer available. :mad: Just going to stick with my GTX 470 card then.
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They do show up once in a while. They just go out of stock again very quickly. Just have to be diligent and keep trying. I got one about 20 minutes ago.
 
jcollett said:
Find it interesting that Sapphire has several versions of the 6950 for sale but the one that gets sent out to websites for review cannot be purchased ANYWHERE! Ends up being a tease of vaporware. Guess they hope us end users will just say "Screw it. Can't find the Toxic card, so I'll buy another card from Sapphire."

Rebate will expire today at NewEgg and they have had no stock so that is no longer available. :mad: Just going to stick with my GTX 470 card then.
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Actually, it will have the opposite effect for me. If the rebate expires and they dont come back in stock, I will absolutley NOT be buying a card from Sapphire. They send it out for review, get a buzz going, etc, and then arent able to meet demand. Nope, wont work.


Yes, Im bitter. Im excited for this because of the card, the rebate, AND the games. Take any away, and Im not up to spending so much on it, not this close to 7xxx release, and I'll hold a grudge because I couldnt get one. Im probably not being very mature about it, I admit, but FUCK I want this card, and Im like being teased. Ive got the money ready to drop and I have to play a waiting game to get lucky enough to buy it. It's pissing me off and Im reacting badly.
 
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Chihlidog said:
Actually, it will have the opposite effect for me. If the rebate expires and they dont come back in stock, I will absolutley NOT be buying a card from Sapphire. They send it out for review, get a buzz going, etc, and then arent able to meet demand. Nope, wont work.


Yes, Im bitter. Im excited for this because of the card, the rebate, AND the games. Take any away, and Im not up to spending so much on it, not this close to 7xxx release, and I'll hold a grudge because I couldnt get one. Im probably not being very mature about it, I admit, but FUCK I want this card, and Im like being teased. Ive got the money ready to drop and I have to play a waiting game to get lucky enough to buy it. It's pissing me off and Im reacting badly.
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Why would you want to upgrade to this card when you have a 5850?
Just overclock your 5850 past 5870 speeds. The 6950 toxic would only be about 12% faster.
 
happymedium said:
Why would you want to upgrade to this card when you have a 5850?
Just overclock your 5850 past 5870 speeds. The 6950 toxic would only be about 12% faster.
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2 games, rebate, and strong possibility of the 6970 bios unlock. I want the game anyway, so that saves me 40 bucks, the rebate is 20, dirt 3 could be fun to mess with, plus I could sell my 5850 for 150 easily. It works out perfectly for me.
 
Chihlidog said:
Actually, it will have the opposite effect for me. If the rebate expires and they dont come back in stock, I will absolutley NOT be buying a card from Sapphire. They send it out for review, get a buzz going, etc, and then arent able to meet demand. Nope, wont work.


Yes, Im bitter. Im excited for this because of the card, the rebate, AND the games. Take any away, and Im not up to spending so much on it, not this close to 7xxx release, and I'll hold a grudge because I couldnt get one. Im probably not being very mature about it, I admit, but FUCK I want this card, and Im like being teased. Ive got the money ready to drop and I have to play a waiting game to get lucky enough to buy it. It's pissing me off and Im reacting badly.
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Thankfully I already own Deus Ex: HR and I don'tr really give a crap about unreliable rebates that you will probably never see. Well that and I'm not buying my parts until next week so I can wait. If it's not in, oh well. Guess I'll save money by buying a cheaper card. No loss. It's just a GPU, it doesn't matter.
 
Derangel said:
Thankfully I already own Deus Ex: HR and I don'tr really give a crap about unreliable rebates that you will probably never see. Well that and I'm not buying my parts until next week so I can wait. If it's not in, oh well. Guess I'll save money by buying a cheaper card. No loss. It's just a GPU, it doesn't matter.
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True enough. I was waiting til the 7 series, but when I saw the potential of this card, the price, and the games, I decided it would be a good card for a while to come. I probably wont buy Deus Ex for a while, but bundled with a card I want anyway it was very appealing, and right within my price range for a new card anyway.

Id much rather buy an XFX or ASUS card, this was enough to get me to go with Sapphire. I may be thankful next month that I didnt get this, but in the back of my mind I will definitely still be soured on Sapphire.
 
Chihlidog said:
True enough. I was waiting til the 7 series, but when I saw the potential of this card, the price, and the games, I decided it would be a good card for a while to come. I probably wont buy Deus Ex for a while, but bundled with a card I want anyway it was very appealing, and right within my price range for a new card anyway.

Id much rather buy an XFX or ASUS card, this was enough to get me to go with Sapphire. I may be thankful next month that I didnt get this, but in the back of my mind I will definitely still be soured on Sapphire.
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Then you shouldn't ever buy a GPU again because everyone of them does the same thing.
 
Derangel said:
Then you shouldn't ever buy a GPU again because everyone of them does the same thing.
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What, offer a rebate and 2 games and barely have any in stock until the offer is no good anymore? I see rebates and games offered with cards all the time and dont normally see a problem with supply.
 
Chihlidog said:
What, offer a rebate and 2 games and barely have any in stock until the offer is no good anymore? I see rebates and games offered with cards all the time and dont normally see a problem with supply.
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No I mean send reviewers their best card while only producing a limited number of them to drive up more hype.
 
Derangel said:
No I mean send reviewers their best card while only producing a limited number of them to drive up more hype.
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OK, but offering a special deal which then expires before any more stock comes in is a tease. Im not completely irrational about it now, Ive calmed down a little, but I'm still pissed at Sapphire about it. The rebate expires today, and Deus Ex is no longer being offered. I would have liked to have grabbed this deal but Im not going to play the F5 game trying to get it. Screw 'em. Back to waiting for the 7xxx series.
 
Chihlidog said:
OK, but offering a special deal which then expires before any more stock comes in is a tease. Im not completely irrational about it now, Ive calmed down a little, but I'm still pissed at Sapphire about it. The rebate expires today, and Deus Ex is no longer being offered. I would have liked to have grabbed this deal but Im not going to play the F5 game trying to get it. Screw 'em. Back to waiting for the 7xxx series.
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Yesterday was the first time I've ever seen them go out of stock. I was actually surprised that they were.
 
Derangel said:
No I mean send reviewers their best card while only producing a limited number of them to drive up more hype.
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I think their trying to do some marketing hype here. You can pick up a 6970 for around est for 325, a 6950 est 225. theirs going to be a price drop soon on the 6970 so why not hype the 6950 and jack up the price and leave the 6970 alone for awhile longer. Lot of consumers will think that what they hear is that all sapphire 6950 can do the bios switch, find out they can't and keep the card anyways. Can't take it back to the retailer and tell him your pissed off that it won't go to a 6970 because you paid for a 6950.
 
Uncle said:
I think their trying to do some marketing hype here. You can pick up a 6970 for around est for 325, a 6950 est 225. theirs going to be a price drop soon on the 6970 so why not hype the 6950 and jack up the price and leave the 6970 alone for awhile longer. Lot of consumers will think that what they hear is that all sapphire 6950 can do the bios switch, find out they can't and keep the card anyways. Can't take it back to the retailer and tell him your pissed off that it won't go to a 6970 because you paid for a 6950.
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Yeah pretty good marketing idea. MSI did something similar with the 465 Twin Frozr II Golden Edition.
 
Chihlidog said:
When did these actually release? I was under the impression that they were quite new.
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Early this month it looks like. The first Newegg review is from the 11th and there is an unboxing on Youtube from the 2nd, and a review from Kit Guru on the 3rd. So I'm guess somewhere around three weeks it's been around. Not bad for a card that probably has really limited production and has been talked about around the net, especially after Kit Guru's review talking about unlocking it.
 
With this card being so special, it should have had a customized cooler like a FROZR. The stock like cooler is a big negative, coupled with the fact that I've only seen it listed at NewEgg (which I pay tax) makes this deal not worth it to me. Other cards are sold at 70 different retailers plus brick&mortar stores, so when I really need a card, I'll look then. Got the 470 many months back at Fry's and used a channel wide rebate found on TigerDirect.com to get it for about $200 total.
 
I agree with the people that are upset about not being able to get the Deus Ex game with this card any more. I was going to quietly wait until the 7XXXs come out to replace my 4970X2 but then I read this site and though "Wow that is a good deal, and I was just about to buy Deus Ex, this deal will be Ace I'll pick this up to tide me over until the 7 series comes out". Then saw that everything was out of stock and they weren't offering that deal anymore. No longer worth it and kind of dissapointed now after getting excited.
 
I read this review and got a bit overly excited as well. I'm sitting on a GTX280, and was wanting to do a tidy upgrade for BF3. Originally (and possibly still) planning on waiting for the 7000 series, or a discounted 6900 or 570.

When I read the article, I took away that if you bought this card, you were pretty much guaranteed to get a card that can work in 6970 mode. That + the free games made this a pretty smoking deal. Now it seems that the 6970 dual bios unlock from the manufacturer is what? just a crap shoot on it woking?

Either way - I think I'll take the 300-ish dollars I have burning a hole in my pocket and buy a nice 27" HP LED monitor. That will give me something new to play with and distract me for the next few months while I wait on Southern Islands and BF3 :)
 
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