Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 (HD4870 X2 G2 GDDR5)
The second Radeon HD 4870 X2 running at reference clock speeds comes from Sapphire and was also manually overclocked in our lab to see how far it’d go. Standard speeds are 750 MHz for the GPU and 900 MHz for the memory (DDR5 clock frequency 3600 MHz). When overclocking, we could increase the GPU speed of our sample to 792 MHz (the limit of 800 MHz in the driver was too much for the card). The graphic memory reaches its limits pretty earl:, 940 MHz was the highest setting, with everything above that causing image errors.
The fan profile and temperature of the Sapphire differs slightly from other test cards. In 2D mode, the HD 4870 X2 card is cooler at 64°C, and the noise level of 37.5 dB(A) doesn’t change. When overclocking the card for 3D mode, the 2D temperature increases by 2 degrees, although the 2D clock speed remains unchanged.
In 3D mode, the fan speed is between 2,000 and 2,600 RPM, stabilizing at 2,700 RPM under full load. The graphic processors operate at a temperature of 86°C to 87°C. When overclocking, the fan speed automatically rises to a speed of 2,800 to 3,000 RPM, and the temperature drops a little bit, at 84 to 86 degrees. The fan profile from Sapphire works perfectly fine with the Catalyst 8.10, providing optimal cooling.
The test card from Sapphire has the largest number of accessories of the cards we tested: a lot of software from Cyberlink, Power DVD, a CD of demos from AMD, and the 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition. The accessories list ends with adapters for 6- and 8-pin power supplies, a DVI-to-HDMI adapter, and a CrossFire bridge to couple two AMD cards.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2
The HD 4870 X2 from Sapphire can be satisfactorily overclocked, but the graphics memory can’t take much. The fan profile works without a problem, with the card running at low temperatures in both 2D and 3D and when overclocking. The company deserves credit for providing a large number of accessories, with a lot of software, all the necessary cables and adapters.
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
- Medium overclocking potentialLow temperaturesBalanced fan profileGood amount of accessories
- Graphic memory only slightly overclockable
