The card we’re talking about today is called Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition featuring Double Dissipation (part number FX-795A-TDBC). It’s important to differentiate this card from FX-795A-TNBC which is also called Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition but doesn’t have the Double Dissipation moniker. Both cards are identically clocked but, as you can assume, they come with different coolers. You recognize the Double Dissipation Cooler easily - it has two fans.

We must admit that XFX FX-795A-TDBC is one of the prettiest dual-fan graphics cards we’ve seen so far. 

Cooler design borrows from the reference one in that it takes some of AMD’s traditional color, dual slot width and vapor chamber technology. 

With the arrival HD 7900 series, XFX launched its XFACTOR 1.0 collection of features and technologie. With XFACTOR 1.0, XFX aims at the highest level of quality and innovation to ensure gamers get the best performing graphics card. Ghost Thermal technology is the key factor for better cooling. XFX opted for this technology because it allows airflow to cool the heatsink as well as the components and PCB. As you know, overheated components and PCB can also reduce performance. On the next picture you can see how the Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition (FX-795A-TNBC - single fan) manages heat dissipation.


Double Dissipation Technology is XFX’s dual fan design that allows air to cool all the heatsinks and components, as well as the PCB board itself. Unfortunately, we only have the XFX HD 7950 Black Ed. card so we cannot confirm the following comparison, but according to XFX the Double Dissipation can make a noticeable difference in performance; up to 13dBA quieter fans and up to 7°C cooler GPU.


Vapor chamber technology is very popular among graphics card manufacturers because it provides performance and allows for more flexibility in designing high performance GPU coolers. XFX calls this HydroCell and it is used for both Black Edition custom coolers.

Two additional parts are classified as Duratec components: IP5X Dust Free fan and XFX Bracked Design. While we’re not convinced yet, but it is stated that XFXs bracket design can knock temperatures by up to 20% and increase airflow by up to 2x.

The card has one dual-link DVI out, one standard HDMI and two mini DisplayPort outs. Users will get HDMI to DVI converters, but we didn’t find any DisplayPort converters in the package. 

Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition draws power via two 6-pin power connectors. 

The dual BIOS we’ve seen on the HD 6900 series and HD 7970 cards is not featured on XFX’s HD 7950 card. Good thing about dual BIOS is that you can switch to a different BIOS with a flick of a switch. However, installing new BIOS is done the same way which is why XFX decided to only use Standard Gamer Profile BIOS (this profile has a lower RPM profile that will run warmer but will have lower  Db level on the acoustic), whereas hard core gamers who don’t care about noise can opt on Enthusiast Gamer Profile BIOS.

Registered owners of HD 7950 cards will be notified of the two BIOS options via the 5 Star Support system. It’s great that XFX made a USB_FORMAT.zip package to help make a USB stick DOSbootable in case you don't have it. There are also two additional packages,IOS_SAVE.zip a package to save current BIOS, and BIOS_FLASH.zip to update the card with newer BIOS. We tried it - it works great and is done in about a minute.

The card is 27cm long, which is the same like on the HD 7970 or GTX 570/580, whereas last year’s top model from AMD’s offer, Radeon HD 6970, measures 27.5cm.