Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Vapor-X has 2GB GDDR5

Posted on Friday, March 20 2009 @ 20:08 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck

Even though the Radeon HD 4890 is coming out within a week or two, Sapphire is still working on some new custom-designed Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards with Vapor-X coolers. The 4870 will have 2GB GDDR5 memory, while the 4850 has just 512MB GDDR3.

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.

Source: Bit Tech

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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