The Radeon HD 7970 sample card has arrived in a plain white cardboard box, fully protected on both top and bottom with a sponge-like material; the board itself was wrapped in an anti-static bag:

Since the top plastic shroud of the card is made of shiny plastic, AMD had to cover it with a transparent plastic film, to avoid scratches during transit:

The card PCB is fully covered with a nice black/red themed top cover:

The RADEON logo is debossed onto the central red line:

On the lateral we will locate the product serial number, along with a “Hot! Do not touch!” warning sign:

Moving on, we will find two additional ventilation holes:

The card features a new fan design with larger, wider blades for better airflow, optimized for lower fan speeds and acoustics. The fan blows air onto the 6th generation vapor chamber heatsink and it gets evacuated outside the case:

Nearby we will also find the PCI-Express 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors:

The board features two Crossfire fingers, along with the dual BIOS toggle switch:

The card features a clean design on the back side of the PCB and it’s total length is 27.5cm:

The card features one DVI port, a single HDMI port and two mini-DisplayPorts. The ports are placed on a single slot so the second one is used only for evacuating hot air: