Sapphire launches Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X

Author: Clive Webster
Published: 3rd November 2009
Comments (16) Stumble
Sapphire launches Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X

The Sapphire HD 5870 Vapor-X goes on sale today - will you be placing an order?

The day has finally arrived when you can buy the Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X card that we gave one lucky reader in our Sapphire competition. That means that the card should be winging its way to winner Mark Nicholls now, if it hadn’t been shipped before.

For the rest of us to get the rugged-looking HD 5870 Vapor-X, it looks like we’ll have stump up £378.99 (inc VAT). We bet Mark’s feeling pretty smug about now!

Unlike previous Vapor-X graphics cards, the HD 5870 is pre-overclocked. Sapphire insists that this doesn’t make the card a Toxic or Atomic card, but we’d always thought that Vapor-X meant that cards come at stock speeds but with the excellent Vapor-X cooler.

The GPU clock has been bumped up from the usual 850MHz to 870MHz and the 1GB of GDDR5 memory from 1.2GHz (4.8GHz effective) to 1.25GHz (5GHz effective). This overclock is pretty conservative 2-4 per cent increase, but with the Vapor-X cooler and a decent overclocking tool, perhaps this card will be the first HD 5870 to break the 1GHz GPU barrier.

Sapphire launches Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X
Click to enlarge

We’ll have to wait till we can find time with our test rigs to tell, but in the meantime, let us know your thoughts about the HD 5870 Vapor-X in the forums.
Quote l3v1ck 3rd November 2009, 12:35
They should ditch one of the ports so the vent is the full width of the card, that way they could exhaust all the waste heat, not dump half of it back into the case from the other end of the card.
Quote frontline 3rd November 2009, 12:36
I like the styling, but wouldn't consider paying a price premium for this as the stock fan on my 5870 performs so well. I think vapor x was more impressive on the 4800 and 3800 series, but maybe the 5870 will overclock well without any adverse effects on the noise/temp
Quote dec 3rd November 2009, 12:43
i wonder if there will be a atomic edition and what it will be clocked at. why isnt the fan orientated to push heat out of the case? seems kinda pointless to take the heat from the gpu only to have it collect in your case. granted you should have good case airflow in the first place to even bother with buying this but still
Quote Scootiep 3rd November 2009, 13:10
Quote:
Originally Posted by l3v1ck
They should ditch one of the ports so the vent is the full width of the card, that way they could exhaust all the waste heat, not dump half of it back into the case from the other end of the card.

Well, I think that most people purchasing this card will either need dual DVI or HDMI and will want Displayport for future-proofing so I can't cay I agree with you there. Personally, I'd rather just get a good but quiet case fan and use that to exhaust it.
Quote Doomah 3rd November 2009, 13:34
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scootiep
Quote:
Originally Posted by l3v1ck
They should ditch one of the ports so the vent is the full width of the card, that way they could exhaust all the waste heat, not dump half of it back into the case from the other end of the card.

Well, I think that most people purchasing this card will either need dual DVI or HDMI and will want Displayport for future-proofing so I can't cay I agree with you there. Personally, I'd rather just get a good but quiet case fan and use that to exhaust it.

But HDMI = DVI with audio. So if they drop the top DVI port, users can still use DVI + HDMI to connect two screens.
Quote rodrigobiz 3rd November 2009, 13:41
378 o.o
I am soooo not buying it...
maybe in 6 mounts.

and by the way where is that beautiful cooler?
Quote fargo 3rd November 2009, 14:09
I'll never understand why bit-tech and others never tell prospective buyers of high-end cards the
length of the cards. people need to know if these cards will fit in their box, this card is hugh !!! I'm
jumping on the sapphire 5850 vapor-x when the price is right and I'd like to know the length of
that as well. my 3870 has served me well but I'm way over due for a change.
Quote xaser04 3rd November 2009, 16:03
Quote:
Originally Posted by fargo
I'll never understand why bit-tech and others never tell prospective buyers of high-end cards the
length of the cards. people need to know if these cards will fit in their box, this card is hugh !!! I'm
jumping on the sapphire 5850 vapor-x when the price is right and I'd like to know the length of
that as well. my 3870 has served me well but I'm way over due for a change.

One could make the assumption that if the length is not mentioned it is the same length as the standard reference card.

IIRC previous vapor-x cards have been reference design (and thus size) but with a different (better cooler). However, given the HD5870 cooler is actually pretty damn good, it does beg the question of whether the additional £70 is worth it (or if either are worth it over the HD5850).
Quote HourBeforeDawn 3rd November 2009, 19:08
well visually it sure looks mean. :)
Quote Pikey 3rd November 2009, 19:15
An extra £80 gosh!
Quote nilesfoundglory 3rd November 2009, 19:43
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doomah
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scootiep
Quote:
Originally Posted by l3v1ck
They should ditch one of the ports so the vent is the full width of the card, that way they could exhaust all the waste heat, not dump half of it back into the case from the other end of the card.

Well, I think that most people purchasing this card will either need dual DVI or HDMI and will want Displayport for future-proofing so I can't cay I agree with you there. Personally, I'd rather just get a good but quiet case fan and use that to exhaust it.

But HDMI = DVI with audio. So if they drop the top DVI port, users can still use DVI + HDMI to connect two screens.

I'd still rather have the second dual link DVI connector, considering only 2 monitors exist on the market that work with DP, and almost all HDMI capable desktop monitors are absolute garbage.

I still wonder why enthusiasts knock cooler designs that don't force air directly out the back of the case. I have a Nvidia 8800GT in a Lancool K7 case. I replaced the stock cooler with a passive heatsink over a year ago. GPU temperatures were cut in half while the rest of my temperatures stayed the same. In a poorly ventilated case, I'm sure all of the heat would just radiate from the cooler and raise all temperatures. Instead, I have enough airflow directed towards the card (I do not have any additional fans installed in the case, everything is stock from Lian Li), and thermal physics does the rest of the work. I'd imagine this card and cooler would be no different. If you install a warmer card in your system and case temperatures go up, I'd say you have a larger issue at hand...
Quote Doomah 3rd November 2009, 21:22
Quote:
Originally Posted by fargo
I'll never understand why bit-tech and others never tell prospective buyers of high-end cards the
length of the cards. people need to know if these cards will fit in their box, this card is hugh !!! I'm
jumping on the sapphire 5850 vapor-x when the price is right and I'd like to know the length of
that as well. my 3870 has served me well but I'm way over due for a change.

This card is 10,75 inch long. Just a tad shorter than the reference card because it misses the fancy end.
Quote Nature 4th November 2009, 08:10
no 2GB???!?!?!? yoink...
Quote Nature 4th November 2009, 08:12
might as well go for the water block
Quote Nikols 7th November 2009, 13:05
Card looks cool and is really solid, fits in my lancool k-62 with plenty of room. Whatever about it costing £380, I've seen it listed for €620 which is bloody ridiculous!!
Quote Elton 8th November 2009, 04:34
The funniest thing: There aren't enough reference HD5870s to go around with..
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