Sapphire launches 2GB Radeon HD 4870 Vapor-X
Sapphire's new Vapor-X cooler
The latest Vapor-X coolers eschew the larger heatpipes of the Toxic design for a 1.5x and dual height cooler, for the 4850 and 70, with extra heatsinks on both sides for the latter as well.
Both cards are not overclocked out the box, running 750/900MHz for the 4870 and 625/993MHz for the 4850, but the better coolers should provide some additional headroom for clocking the cards. We found the previous 4870 Toxic to be the most overclockable Radeon HD 4870 to date, so we can't wait to see what additional free performance the Vapor-X gives, not to mention the price comparison.
The PCB is Sapphire's own design, with solid aluminium capped capacitors like we're used to on motherboards and heatsinks on the MOSFETs and even the "Diamond Black" chokes, which we're told are supposed to improve power efficiency by 25 percent and keep it 10 percent cooler. Does this actually make a real world difference or is it marketing magic rubbed on from the bottle of snake oil? We'll be sure to find out.
Our biggest question is: does 2GB for a HD 4870 make a difference? We currently recommend the 1GB cards always over the 512MB HD 4870s already available, but will doubling the frame buffer again afford that much more performance? Does the HD 4870 core offer that much grunt to need a massive high resolution frame buffer?
Let us know your thoughts on the memory size and cooler designs below, in the forums.
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20 Comments
Discuss in the forums Replythe HDMI port can also be used for DVI. they're electrically identical, and an adapter is supplied in the box.
I'd rather have the 1GB Toxic (with the nicer looking cooler), though these do look pretty nice.
this should be named GTA4 edition. or crazy-crossfire edition. for single cards, you'll never use up that amount of memory. at least anything below 30inch.
2gb is a lot of mem that the gpu prob won't be able to exploit in the pure gaming arena but the big push is for more than the gpu to push scantily clad vixens around fantasy vistas. Using the gpu for other tasks is where the mem is going to be exploited IMHO.
Memory over 1GB has no real correlation to graphics performance below 2560x1600 + AA and AF, in fact most 2GB cards lose some frames on lower resolutions.
I am really thinking about getting this card. I think there is an improved benefit to having this card run at 1920x1200 over the 1GB cards.
It really is about price to me which $260 is floating on the ends of the price range. I can get a 1GB sapphire reference for just under $190, and the vapor-x 1GB design is $220, so there is a premium that I would be paying for.
I do like amd though when it comes to drivers for which games they work good at.
Also the cooler is much quieter and runs cooler as it did with the toxic ed.
I am very interested in what bit-tech has to say about sapphire.
Is there a review coming down the pipe for the 2GB card?
Have a look at my previous post, for a link to a review of the 2GB card, only a slight benefit at 2560x1600. So unless you want to crossfire and have 30 inch screen, it's probaly better to buy the 4890 or GTX 275, which are due in April.