|
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512MB TOXIC Video Card
Introduction
I think it's worth everyone's wait for Toxic. As far as brandings go, anyway. But Sapphire puts so much effort into general improvements over the stock designs--which they have no small hand in--that I have to wonder if they hold back just to make certain that their Toxic will be that much better. Maybe I'm giving too much away for an intro. Let's get back to boring stuff, like how HD 4000 changed every possible standard for pricing, and slammed into NVIDIA's market share so hard that they knocked stock out of 'em. People walking past their offices in California were picking it up on the streets as souvenirs, "I was there when HD 4000 was released!" HD 4870, the flagship, wasn't a hundred percent, though. It uses a lot of power, and makes a lot of noise. I don't expect the efficiency to change, but I, and silence enthusiasts everywhere, have been rubbing their hands in wait for Sapphire to throw in their characteristic blue into the equation. I wish I were saying that the wait was over, but I can't find these for sale anywhere. But when they're released, no doubt with an analogous price bump, that they will have been worth the wait.    The Card & Bundle Sapphire's been fairly consistent with their Toxic bundle of PowerDVD and DVD editing software, 3DMark Vantage, Ruby ROM (game demos, overclocking and monitoring utilities courtesy AMD) driver disk, and accessories. Not having a game in there isn't terrific, but it's not big loss, either. I'm guessing that the card will run $300, and the extra expense of a game is, depending on your budget, either going to be a deal-breaker or just plain unnecessary. And nobody gets a Toxic because it's got that free copy of Neverwinter Nights 2. They get it for the heatsink. Previous innovations re: vapor chambers aside, it doesn't matter how the heatsink is constructed, just that it is both cooler and quieter than whatever reference cooling system no doubt holds back the hardware. This one, with its enclosed, curved, black enclosure sports a thick-looking 80mm fan, three heatpipes, and a wide vapor chamber that spans a third of the card.         The accessories are the default, if not complete: VGA, composite, component, and HDMI adapters, two 6-pin power adapters, a CrossFire bridge, and love. The card is overclocked, sans flip-switch gimmick, at 780MHz GPU/ 1000MHz memory.
Page 1: Introduction, The Card & Bundle
Page 2: Specifications and Setup Page 3: DirectX 10 Titles Page 4: DX9, OpenGL, and Synthetics Page 5: Video, Power, and Overclocking Page 6: Conclusion 
Related Reviews Video Cards September 23, 2009
Video Cards June 25, 2009
Video Cards June 8, 2009
Video Cards April 6, 2009
Add Comment
0 User Comments Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
Recent Articles Editorials March 15, 2010
Editorials August 27, 2009
Editorials August 18, 2009
Editorials March 17, 2009
Recent News Jason Bradbury Mar. 19, 2010 - 10:52 pm
Rock Paper Shotgun Mar. 19, 2010 - 10:44 pm
joystiq Mar. 19, 2010 - 6:58 pm
Tom's Hardware Mar. 19, 2010 - 4:42 pm
Rock Paper Shotgun Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:58 pm
Fudzilla Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:57 pm
CVG Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:53 pm
Tech Radar Mar. 16, 2010 - 11:58 pm
|
|||||||||||||||
