Sapphire HD 4870 X2 Atomic Watercooled  Review 12

Sapphire HD 4870 X2 Atomic Watercooled Review

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Value and Conclusion

  • Sapphire expects their HD 4870 X2 Atomic to retail above $600.
  • Great performance
  • Overclocked out of the box
  • Full warranty for watercooling + overclock
  • Amazing presentation and accessory package
  • Single slot cooler
  • Quiet under load
  • CPU block included
  • High price
  • Only small performance increase over reference design
  • Fan speed fixed - noisy in idle
  • CrossFire does not work in windowed 3D
  • Extremely high power consumption in idle
  • CPU waterblock doesn't seem to be too powerful
  • Limited overclock despite water cooling
  • Complex overclocking process
  • Dual GPU design - depends on optimum driver support
  • Build quality not as good as HD 3870 X2 Atomic
  • New competing NVIDIA products arriving soon
  • Two fan power connectors required - may not be available on low end motherboards
  • No support for CUDA & PhysX
If you are looking for the perfect christmas present for any ATI fanboy then the Sapphire HD 4870 X2 Atomic is as good as it gets. Its a big package that will ensure proper excitement before unpacking. The presentation is outstanding, even though the build quality of the watercooling tubing leaves me wanting some real rubber tubes. The included CPU waterblock seems to be good enough for mainstream processors but I have my doubts that the radiator can handle the 4870 X2 plus an overclocked and overvolted processor. Still, for users who are not looking to do a lot of tweaking with their system and just want something that is fast and special the Sapphire 4870 X2 Atomic is definitely a cool toy. Most other users should wait until next year when NVIDIA's new GTX 295 is on the market which is a dual GPU design too that is supposed to be very fast and come at around $500.
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Jan 7th, 2025 06:58 EST change timezone

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