Sapphire Radeon HD 5870

Posted 11/16/2009 at 8:39am | by Loyd Case

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Sapphire’s take on the Radeon HD 5870 is pretty much middle-of-the-road

As with all Radeon HD 5870s, Sapphire’s version offers superlative performance, making it one of the fastest single-GPU cards available today. At its core is AMD’s 2.15 billion transistor Cypress chip, coupled with 1GB of 1,200MHz GDDR5 memory. Two DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort connection allow for flexible monitor attachment.

Sapphire is bundling two games with this card: Dirt 2 and Battlestations: Pacific. Dirt 2 is one of the first titles to support Microsoft’s DirectX 11 graphics API, so it should show off the visual chops of the new GPU. As with all HD 5870 cards, the Sapphire HD 5870 is just over 10.5 inches long, so be sure the card will fit in your case before buying.

Sapphire’s two-year warranty is a little different than most others’; rather than returning the card to Sapphire, the company prefers you return it to the original retailer.

In the end, Sapphire’s take on AMD’s hot new GPU is pretty much like all the others—the fastest card you can get for the money, modest power use when it’s not running a game, and a cost below $400. Overall, it’s a combination that’s hard to beat.

Review Roundup:

XFX Radeon HD 5870                             HID Radeon HD 5870

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870                           Asus EAHH5850

Diamond Radeon HD 5850                      Sapphire Radeon HD 5850

Gigabyte 260 GTX Super OC                         HIS Radeon HD 5770

(Back to the main feature)

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870

Edgy

Fast 3D gaming performance; two bundled games

Lame

Warranty support requires return to retailer; price

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