Introduction

I can honestly say I wasn't 100% sure we would see this day, this year. Twelve months ago it was all about the GTX 480 which at this stage was already delayed by a month. Jump forward twelve months and the HD 6900 series which was due to come out this time last month wasn't here.

Little information on the model on all levels didn't help increase confidence levels, but fortunately it doesn't matter now; the card did make it this year, and we know that stock has been shipped to suppliers and it seems shipped in decent quantity, too.

AMD has managed to scrape in just before the holidays and the question on everyone's mind is, was it worth the wait? And do I buy this over one of the NVIDIA offerings?

Well, I'm not too sure yet since I'm still testing as I write this introduction; but by the end of it, though, I'll have a definitive answer for you. Before we get onto the performance side of things, let's see the package Sapphire is offering before we take a closer look at the actual card and the key specs to it.

The Package

Checking out the package, there's nothing that you haven't seen before here. We've got a driver CD, quick install guide and brochure on Sapphire Select Club to round out the paperwork side of things.

As far as cables go, we've got a CrossFire link, DVI to VGA connector, mini-DP to DisplayPort convertor, HDMI cable and two Molex to 6-Pin PCI-E power connectors.