As we’ve seen AMD and Nvidia bounced back and forth with their latest product launches, the Radeon 7970 isn’t exactly a new model. In fact, it’s the eldest of the bunch so it’s a bit interesting that we’re looking at the Sapphire 7970 Vapor-X today. Considered a bit further, and it’s not terribly surprising though, as Nvidia’s Kepler lineup has made quite a splash in the market, and AMD is likely driving to impress consumers in response. Sapphire is also known for producing several custom variations of flagship Radeon cards, and the Vapor-X has a long lineage in the Sapphire family. Today is no different.

The Sapphire 7970 Vapor-X comes with a custom cooler, and if history is any indication, we expect very big things from this Vapor-X technology, as Sapphire typically produces some of the coolest-running Radeon cards out there. Perhaps more importantly, however, the 7970 Vapor-X sports a factory overclock, to the tune of a 1GHz clock speed. This should provide enough of a speed boost for it to better competes against the competition’s offerings.