Graphics card maker Sapphire today took the wraps off what it claims is the "fastest add-in board on the planet" - the water-cooled Toxic X1950XTX. It also unveiled a "limited edition" Toxix X1950 CrossFire Edition board.

The X1950XTX's GPU is clocked by the bundled Automatic Performance Enhancer tool from the stock 650MHz to 695MHz, Sapphire said, and claimed users will be able to use other utilities to try and push the core clock even higher. The X1950 CrossFire Edition runs at the same speed.

Both boards are equipped with 512MB of GDDR 4 memory.

It's the lwo-noise liquid-cooling system that enables these clock speeds, Sapphire said. Heat from the GPU is conducted away through water-filled copper pipes then dispersed through the unit's copper heat sink and a two-speed fan, set for either the lowest noise or the maximum efficiency.

The X1950 GPU contains 48 pixel shaders in 16 pixel-processing pipelines, along with eight vertex shaders. The boards have two dual-line DVI ports and an s-video connector.

The Toxic X1950XTX or the Toxic X1950 CrossFire editon are set to ship next week for around £382/$549. ®