Pixel-Churners: A round-up of Radeon 9700 PRO cards

Sapphire Radeon 9700 Atlantis PRO

The Hongkong-based producer Sapphire is a close partner of ATi in the manufacture of graphics cards. The Sapphire boards are made in China.

100% ATi reference design, except for the fan.

The back of the card.

Except for the fan, the Atlantis PRO is based completely on the ATi reference design. Earlier versions of the card are still available with the original ATi fan. The version tested here uses another fan that Sapphire claims cools better. The remaining accessories consist of video cables (S-VHS and composite + adapter, each 1.80 m) and a DVI-VGA adapter. A manual is included to guide you through the installation.

A close-up of the fan. According to Sapphire, this model cools much better than the ATi fan.

The installation CD contains the Catalyst drivers and Hydravision, as well as ATi's MultiMedia Center, this time without the standard ATi DVD player. Instead, Sapphire includes Cyberlink's PowerDVD XP 4.0.

• Plus points:
• 
  Hydravision
  Multimedia Center (without DVD)
  Cyberlink PowerDVD XP 4.0
• Minus points:
• 
  No games bundled