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Introduction Specifications Photos and Pictures Installation and Package Test Setup and Procedures Benchmarks: F.E.A.R. (DX9) Benchmarks: Call of Juarez (DX10) Benchmarks: Crysis (DX10) Benchmarks: 3DMark 2005 Benchmarks: 3DMark 2006 Verdict and Conclusion

A single slot Radeon HD3870 with Vapor-X cooling ... that's the Sapphire Toxic Series

 

INTRODUCTION 

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During the Cebit 2008 exhibition, Sapphire Technologies showed us a lot of new products ... mainly the Radeon HD3870x2 (which we reviewed), there was a Radeon HD3450 (Hybrid Compatible graphics card) on display, and they also showed us their new HD3870 Toxic series with Vapor-X cooling. Being close partners with AMD, it's no wonder they're able to release new Radeon graphic cards before anyone else. Yes, that's right, We talking about the up-and-coming Radeon HD3850x2 and hopefully later this year ... ATI's next generation GPU, the RV770. It will be a very interesting 2008 for AMD/ATI.

This year for graphic cards manufacturers, shipping cards based on the original reference design, simply isn't enough to attract the users. If you take a Radeon HD3870 graphics card from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte or even Sapphire themselves ... they all look the same, with minor changes in clock speeds. Now, what if we remove that bulky looking cooler and replace it with a unique and more effective slim-line cooler? Well, this is what Sapphire has done.

 

 

Sapphire has taken a Radeon HD3870, overclocked it slightly, then add their own unique cooler that boasts very effective cooling performance.In this review, our CPU3D review team takes a look at the Sapphire Radeon HD3870 Toxic series with Vapor-X cooling. It utilise a slightly overclocked ATI RV670 GPU @ 800Mhz (default is 775Mhz), with 512Mb of DDR4 ram, which also overclocked @ 2Ghz (default is 1.8Ghz). What makes is card so different is the size and cooling system. It features a single slot cooler, which instantly reduces its bulkiness and does not require 2 PCI slot space. More interestingly, the cooler features a unique Vapor-X cooling system. This cooling system is based on Vapour Chamber Technology (VCT), which helps combine compact dimensions and high efficiency. The cooler is also reinforced with a larger, more powerful copper heat sink, which enables effective cooling while reducing the noise level.

Before we go any further, here's a brief re-cap on the ATI RV670 GPU. It's based on 55nm technology and supports 320 stream processing units, 256-bit memory interface, GDDR4 ram, as well as DX10.1. All-in-all a very inpressive feature list. Now, most Radeon HD3870 cards are pretty much the same, since they use the same AMD/ATI reference designs. However, some board partners such as MSI, Powercolor and of course Sapphire have overclocked the RV670 GPU and memory ... for increased performance.

We expect the performance of the Sapphire Radeon HD3870 Toxic to be very similar to other Radeon HD3870s. But what makes this card so attractive is the slim size and the unique Vapor-X cooler. It will appeal to a lot of gamers and enthusiasts, enabling them to add extra Radeon HD3870 cards without cluttering their system.

 

           

 

It's never been a better time to purchase a Radeon HD3870. The prices have plummeted over the past few months. I've been running 2 Radeon HD3870s in Crossfire mode for the past 2 weeks ... and I'm loving it. However, as a single card it might not perform as good as a Geforce 8800GT, but the main attraction about these Radeon HD38xx cards, is that you can Crossfire them ... giving you superb performance with a dual, triple and quad GPU configuration setup.

For our tests, we'll be benchmarking the Sapphire Radeon HD3870 Toxic with several GPU intensive DX10 games ... with both 4xAA and 16xAF options enabled, as well as your usual 3DMark 2005 and 2006 tests. Our test rig comprises of an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ default 2.4Ghz, Gigabyte GA-P35 DS4 motherboard, Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800 4Gb Kit, PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 860W PSU and a 19" Dell Ultrascan P990 monitor. All-in-all, it's a decently spec'd system for DX10 gaming.

OK, lets not waste any more time and see how well the Sapphire Radeon HD3870 Toxic will perform against similar cards on the market.

 

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Introduction Specifications Photos and Pictures Installation and Package Test Setup and Procedures Benchmarks: F.E.A.R. (DX9) Benchmarks: Call of Juarez (DX10) Benchmarks: Crysis (DX10) Benchmarks: 3DMark 2005 Benchmarks: 3DMark 2006 Verdict and Conclusion