Date: February 5th, 2009
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Sapphire USA
 <--CLICK FOR PRICES ON A SAPPHIRE VIDEOCARD IN AMERICA
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PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS & FEATURES
- I/O Output: Dual DL-DVI-I+HDTV
- Core Clock: 780 MHz
- Memory Clock: 1000 MHz, 4.0Gbps
- PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface
- 512MB /256bit GDDR5 memory interface
- Dual Slot Active Cooler
- HDMI compliant via dongle
- 7.1 Audio Channel Support
- Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 support
- Shader Model 4.1 support
PRODUCT COMPOSITION
So what do you exactly get for US$199 when you purchase this higher end videocard. Seeing this is Sapphire's premier HD4870, hopefully no corners will be cut when it comes to the hardware and software package.
Sapphire supplied a rather complete software package complete with DVD creation, playing and burning software along with Sapphire's installation and driver CD. Also included is a user's manual, a Ruby ROM disc and a full version copy of 3DMARK Vantage for testing. Only missing is a game to test the card out with. I personally would do without all the DVD, benchmarking and other software and supply a good game to go with it. Does anyone really use the software included with these packages? Would you prefer a game? I know I would.
The hardware kit is equally well equipped and includes an component HD dongle, an HDMI converter adapter, an S-video adapter, a digital to analog monitor adapter, two power cables and a cross-fire bridge. As I said, is is complete, but videocard manufacturers need to throw in TWO digital to analog adapters instead of one seeing a lot of enthusiasts might be using two analog monitor for a dual display setup.
And last out of the box is the videocard itself. First thing you notice is the large Vapor-X heatpipe cooler which is cooling the VPU along with the onboard memory. More on this card and its cooling in the upcoming section.
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