Date: April 16th, 2009
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Sapphire Tech
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PRODUCT COMPOSITION
The large radial cooler at first glance seems to follow the same design as the recent Intel stock processor coolers. With Sapphire's implementation, the radial fins are used along their full length and are not only meant to dissipate heat from the cooler's core alone.
The copper base plate insures even heat distribution from the core but upon closer inspection, the cooler doesn't cool the memory chips at all. Though the fan will blow air onto the memory, they are not attached to the heatsink in any way. Whether this will affect overclocking will be seen on the next page. Regardless, they should get decent airflow.
Seems an awful waste of such a substantial cooler just to cooler a standard HD4850 core.
All heat is exhausted around the cooler and into the case's interior or out the back of the case through the card's exhaust. To be honest, this cards cooler could use a bit more engineering seeing it has a great cooler, but most of the heat will escape into the case environment. Other than the vent, you have a analog, and HDMI and a DVI connection. All bases are covered though there are no adapters supplied for a dual monitor setup.
On the other end of the card you see the solid capacitors along with Sapphire's upgraded choke for more stable power distribution which should help in the overclocking department. In addition you have the lone 6 pin power connection.
And for all your 1337 gamers out there, the cooler is illuminated for display in your windowed case. Nice addition for such a decently priced card.
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