Are you looking for a new video card for your system? If you’re looking for something that’s going to be able to play just about all the games out there; but maximum settings are not a requirement, you may just be in luck with two of the newest budget cards from Sapphire. They have just released their HD 5670 Ultimate and the HD 5550 overclocked cards. These cards use ATI’s new GPUs to allow for DX11 gaming which is what these cards are designed to allow you to do.
It is always a constant battle between all of the mainstream budget cards, so I am very curious to see exactly how these cards will stack up against the competition in their class.
The packaging for the Sapphire Radeon HD 5670 Ultimate is completely white, giving the product a very elegant overall look before you even open it up. The top left hand corner is where you are going to find the Sapphire logo printed and as you move over to the right hand corner, you will see the ArcSoft SimHD plugin tag as well as the 1GB GDDR5 tag. Read more…
I do not know about you but sometimes when I go shopping for computer hardware, I prefer to find a product that is factory overclocked. Part of the reason for choosing factory overclocked hardware is that it saves me the trouble of spending hours of testing the best overclocking setting that can be attained. Factory overclocked hardware also has advantage of carrying the full warranty at the overclocked setting, and often comes with a better cooling solution.
Overclocking a current graphic card is not too hard but it is just easier to choose an overclocked card if the price difference is not too big. For mainstream users, the AMD Radeon HD 5770 is the best card on the market at approximately $150. The card offers impressive performance at resolution up to 1920×1200 with plenty of features. While the card may not be faster than the older generation HD 4870, it does carries something that the older card does not have: full DirectX 11 and Eyefinity support. There are many factory overclocked HD 5770 cards that are available and we have reviewed a couple of them already: Sapphire 5770 Vapor X and MSI R5770 HAWK. Gigabyte is the latest company that offers an overclocked HD 5770 that the company is putting their Super Overclocked branding on.
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With a TDP of around 61W, Sapphire is reaching an upper limit on what passive cooling can do in a still-air environment. Any more, such as a passive cooler on the 5750 (86W TDP as standard), would require significant engineering of the cooler and heatpipes to keep it passive – such as the dual slot Gigabyte HD5750 Silent Cell, which is a passive 5750, but has a massive cooling and heatpipe arrangement, as well as a 6-pin power requirement.
Featuring stock HD5670 clocks of 775MHz core, 1GHz memory (4GHz effective), 400 stream processors and 1GB of DDR5 memory, the HD5670 is marketed as the fastest silently cooled graphics card ‘available today’ – though we can’t find it on sale yet, and the Gigabyte 5750 Silent Cell is on sale, under it’s code GV-R575SL-1GI.
The HD5670 Ultimate isn’t necessarily aimed at the HTPC market, as it isn’t low profile, but we could see a use in larger ‘HTPC/Home Server’ combinations, as well as mainstream desktop computers, and gaming machines, where silence is a large part of the build. We expect the HD5670 Ultimate to retail around $125/£95, which is at a slight premium over the majority of the current HD5670 cards available.
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Another month and, surprise-surprise, it’s another new ATI 5000-series graphics card. The HD 5550 sits towards the lower end of the range, and it would be easy to dismiss as yet one more under-powered card. However, this Ultimate version does have the distinction of being the most powerful card in ATI’s current line up to use a passive heat sink.
The large silver heat sink makes the card itself completely silent in operation, which is great if you want to keep the noise down, such as for a media centre PC. It takes up a considerable proportion of the front of the card, but doesn’t stick out far, so it won’t foul the expansion slot below it. A pair of heat pipes runs from the GPU round to the top of the card, where the cooler extends over the rear. This could potentially block the expansion slot above the card, but the design means you should be able to fit a low-profile card in above it without the two clashing. Read more…
In need of a graphics card that offers both silent operation and decent mid-range gaming performance?
Sapphire reckons it has the answer in the form of its passive Radeon HD 5670.
The card, pictured above, is about as high up the ATI ladder you can get before requiring additional power connectors, making it ideal for a fairly basic build. Ideal, perhaps, for an HTPC that’ll double as a casual gaming rig.
Sapphire’s cooling is provided by two heatpipes and a heatsink that encompasses the card’s key components and wraps over the top edge for good measure. Good news for cooling capacity, bad news for users with low-profile chassis.
Sticking to reference clocks, the card’s core is clocked at 775MHz, whilst the 1GB GDDR5 frame buffer runs along at an effective 4,000MHz. Read more…
As our games continue to become even more robust, it would seem likely that having more memory available to the GPU would prove useful, but are we soon to see 2GB cards become commonplace? After many completed tests with Sapphire’s Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X 2GB, we’re having a hard time settling on that.
Introduction
With the launch of AMD’s Radeon HD 5000 series, all we saw for months and months were 1GB models, and the reason is hard to figure out. GDDR5 pricing might not help, but given today’s games and high resolutions, wouldn’t there be some demand for a 2GB model? Well over the past couple of months, I’ve noticed that such cards are on the rise, and I knew I had to get one in and see if there was a good reason for their existence. Read more…
Futuremark is readying the next generation of its popular 3D graphics benchmark, the 3DMark. The new version will be called 3DMark 11 (probably named after the year 2011 or DirectX 11), and will strive to be every present-generation GPU’s worst nightmare (stress test). With NVIDIA’s entry into the DirectX 11 generation of graphics following ATI making the new GPUs “current”, 3DMark 11 will focus on the GPUs’ DirectX 11 capabilities, probably exploiting new texturing and hardware tessellation features.
The benchmark will be able to push present and future GPUs to their maximum capabilities. At least one of its game tests have been known to be called “Undersea Submarine”. There is no mention of NVIDIA PhysX, so it’s safe to assume that the benchmark will use industry standard features which are available to all DirectX 11 generation GPUs. Read more…
A chinese website has leaked details of a significantly revised version of AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics card coming out very soon. Whilst existing HD 5670′s are based on the 40nm redwood core, the new ones will use the larger Juniper core that is used on the faster HD 5750 and HD 5770 cards. It’s anyones guess at this stage as to why AMD felt the need to do this to an existing model in its HD 5000 series lineup rather than making it a separate SKU. Too many defective Juniper cores, perhaps?
Juniper gives up to 800 stream processors, but these will be cut back to 640 for the new HD 5670s. That’s still a good jump on the 400 available in the redwood core, though. The memory and its interface will remain unchanged; 128-bit GDDR5 running at 4GHz effective, whilst the core will be clocked in at 750MHz. Pricing is expected to stay at the same level; around $90 for the 512MB variant and $110 for the 1GB model. Read more…
SAPPHIRE Technology has just added a new silent cooled model to its extensive range of ATI-based graphics cards. The award winning ULTIMATE Series is SAPPHIRE Technology’s Silent Cooled product line. The SAPPHIRE HD 5550 ULTIMATE is a new graphics card aimed at the mainstream market, whist sharing many of the exciting features of the latest high end series.
The SAPPHIRE HD 5500 series is based on the latest graphics architecture from the ATI division of AMD, built in its 40nm process. It supports the advanced graphical features of Microsoft DirectX 11, and delivers superb video clarity and visual effects, whilst consuming very low power levels. Read more…
I just want to say before I get started that what we’re doing today isn’t really practical in any sense of the word, except for the fact that it can be done. Before we really get into it, let’s just put into perspective what this is going to cost to set up. With the HD 5970 TOXIC being rumored at $999 U.S. and the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 480 we’re using today costing about $500 U.S. – you’re talking about a $1500 U.S. video card setup alone.
While for some that’s not the end of the world, a Tri-SLI GTX 480 setup is going to cost the same, HD 5970 in CrossFireX setting you back around $1200 U.S. and CFX Sapphire HD 5970 TOXICs closer to $2000 U.S. – the thing you have to remember about what we’re doing today is that the $500 US GIGABYTE GTX 480 is doing nothing more than providing PhysX. In a game that doesn’t offer PhysX that extra $500 US isn’t going to do anything more for performance whatsoever. Read more…
Back when the HD 5970 launched in November of 2009, it was the fastest video card on the planet. Fast forward almost 6 months and well, the HD 5970 is still the top dog when it comes to video cards.
So what do you do to follow up the fastest video card on the planet? Well if you’re Sapphire, you take the best and make it better. As ATI’s largest partner, Sapphire has long been known as a source of high end graphics solutions that easily move to the top of the class when they receive the Toxic, Vapor-X or Atomic treatment. While I have not seen an Atomic video card since the HD 4890, the Toxic and Vapor-X cards have been making the rounds. The latest before this behemoth being the Toxic HD 5870 2GB that offered third party cooling and improved performance via higher clock speeds and additional frame buffer memory. Read more…
Certain graphics card characteristics are irrelevant to a great number of users, their basic abilities being sufficient to make buyers interested. However, even less demanding users are starting to increase their appetites, so even those that don’t consider their PC to be intended for gaming purposes now look for graphics cards that are up to par with basic multimedia tasks.
We’re primarily referring to HD video playback, the popularity of which seems to be ever-increasing, partly due to cheaper and cheaper Blu-Ray readers and partly due to increases in internet speeds all around the world, even streaming online video is turning into a hardware-punishing process. HTPC machines are also experiencing a growth in popularity, with more and more of these PCs occupying our living rooms, right next to TVs. Read more…
The other day we gave you a little bit of a sneak peek at the latest video card from Sapphire, the HD 5970 TOXIC 4GB. You can see it here. In that article we mentioned that we tend to leave previews to products we’ve seen at tradeshows or at the manufacturers headquarters.
However, due to the limited samples of the HD 5970 TOXIC 4GB and the actual time frame it takes to do a review, we thought that we would just give you a bit of a sneak peek at what looked to be the fastest video card on the market.
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Vapor-X and Toxic editions. In addition to regular factory overclocked HD 5870 cards, Sapphire has also launched two new HD 5870 cards with 2GB of memory, the HD 5870 Vapor-X and HD 5870 Toxic edition.
Both cards feature the same Vapor-X cooler that provides lower temperatures and higher overclocking potential. The Vapor-X model features reference clocks so it works at 850MHz for the core and 4800MHz for 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Read more…
Now that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480 graphics cards are out and winning every gaming benchmark they can find, it makes sense that partners of Advanced Micro Devices would try to somehow counter this effect with newer HD 5000 Series models. In fact, with Sapphire having already unshackled its 2GB GDDDR5-equipped beasts, it is not such a surprise to hear that PowerColor has also unveiled an HD 5870 of its own.
Obviously meant to stand up to the advanced Fermi architecture through sheer horsepower, the PowerColor PCS++ HD 5870 video controller uses the company’s special Professional Cooling Solution (PCS) to make sure that the factory-overclocked graphics processing unit doesn’t die sooner than it should. The actual clock speed is taken, from the reference 850MHz, all the way up to 950MHz. Read more…
Gigabyte and Sapphire have introduced two overclocked HD 5870 that make reference clocked cards feel totally inadequate and seek counseling. We already mentioned them in our CeBit coverage, but now they’re here and should ship within days.
Sapphire’s new HD 5870 Toxic packs 2GB of memory and its core is overclocked to 925MHz. Impressive numbers, but the €449 price tag is also over the top, as reference cards with 1GB of memory and 850MHz clock sell for around €350. Read more…
SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced 2GB TOXIC and 2GB Vapor-X Editions in its award winning SAPPHIRE HD 5870 series. The SAPPHIRE HD 5870 2G TOXIC Edition is factory overclocked to industry leading speeds of 925MHz core and 1225MHz (4.9GHz effective) memory and the larger 2GB frame buffer gives extra advantage in some demanding applications.
Fitted with SAPPHIRE’s Vapor-X cooler technology, the TOXIC Edition achieves its world-beating performance whilst working at lower operating temperatures and significantly more quietly than other solutions, and still giving enthusiasts headroom for further performance tuning. The SAPPHIRE HD 5870 2G Vapor-X Edition uses the same core technology, but ships with the clocks defaulting to 850MHz engine and 1200MHz (4.8GHz effective). Read more…
The 2GB Radeon HD 5870 party got under way last week with the introduction of Sapphire’s TOXIC edition, and ASUS is today following up with a card it reckons is the “freshly appointed king”.
It’s called the Republic of Gamers 5870 Matrix, and as the ROG branding suggests, it’s a souped-up take on AMD’s fastest GPU to date.
Using a custom PCB, ASUS has attached a 2GB GDDR5 frame buffer to the GPU, and though the memory runs at a standard 4,800MHz, the GPU is pre-overclocked to run at 894MHz – a 44MHz increase over AMD’s reference design.
A healthy bump, but seemingly conservative in comparison to Sapphire’s TOXIC edition – which remember runs at 925MHz and 5,000MHz, respectively, for core and memory frequencies. Read more…
This past fall, AMD launched its latest graphics generation with the high-end HD 5870, and today, it looks to the opposite end of the spectrum with its $50 HD 5450. Though inexpensive, the HD 5450 has a surprising amount of spunk. Coupled with its passive design and full media capabilities, it looks to be the ideal solution for your HTPC.
Introduction
If it feels like we just took a look at a brand-new ATI graphics card mere weeks ago, don’t worry… we did. From the middle of last month to the middle of this month, AMD has a schedule to round-out its entire budget line-up, and although the Radeon HD 5670 sits comfortably at $100, the card we’re looking at today, and the HD 5570 due out next week, both retail for well under that price point. Read more…
Last month Sapphire released the Radeon HD 5850 Toxic, which is a custom designed ATI Radeon HD 5850 that looks nothing like the reference designed board that it is derived from. The Sapphire ‘Toxic’ Radeon HD 5850 1GB card that we have here today is clocked at 765MHz on the core and 1125MHz (4500MHz effective) on the memory, which gives it a significant boost in clock speed over the reference design’s 700MHz core clock and 1000MHz memory clock speeds.
The card also comes with Sapphire’s Vapor-X technology that should allow the card to run 15 degrees C cooler and 10dB quieter than the standard models, while providing additional headroom for even higher overclocking. Read more…