Introduction

Back in HD 3870 times Sapphire released a special overclocked edition of the HD 3870 X2 called "Atomic". Now the Atomic is back and has been updated to the HD 4870 X2 Series. The card comes with a pre-filled watercooling kit that also includes a CPU waterblock, which is a novelty. Asetek is the manufacturer of the watercooling components. Also included in the package is a large software bundle, loads of cables and everything else you could imagine. Not only the package has been improved, the clocks have been bumped up as well making the Sapphire HD 4870 X2 Atomic the fastest ATI card on the market. All this comes with a big big price tag of at least $600. While this may sound like much, Sapphire sold all HD 3870 X2 cards rather quickly, so I think this one will sell out fast too.

Packaging & Contents

This aluminum case is certainly the most premium packages ever found on a graphics card. The case is big and heavy and feels like very solid build quality. I could imagine it also has potential uses for transporting your gear to and from LAN parties.
Inside everything is neatly organized with foam insets and a transparent plastic sheet covering everything.



You will receive:

• Graphics card + CPU Block + Pump + Radiator + Fan
• Mounting screws
• Documentation + Driver CD
• PowerDVD, Cyberlink DVD Suite, 3DMark Vantage
• Sapphire limited edition certificate
• 2x Sapphire USB stick
• 2x VGA Power cable
• DVI to Analog VGA adapter
• HDMI to DVI adapter
• S-Video adapter, TV out adapter
• CrossFire bridge
• 3x CPU block mounting plates

The Card

The footprint of the card is exactly the same as the HD 4870 X2 reference card. It actually seems that Sapphire uses the same board and just replaces the cooler. Since a waterblock is uses, this allows the card to occupy just one slot, which is a great think if you plan to run two of these cards and your motherboard's slots are next to each other.


The card has two DVI ports, the standard output config nowadays. In case you need an analog VGA output, you can use the included VGA adapter. For HDMI output use the included HDMI to DVI adapter. The HDCP output features the usual HDCP+Audio, which allows easy setup of a media PC.


If you look closely near the edge of the sticker you can see that it is lifted up a bit. That's the way it came right out of the package. For a product in that price range that claims an absolute premium status, this is unacceptable.


The CPU waterblock has the pump integrated which is why it has a 12V power cable going to it. The rather short power cable uses a fan connector. As you can see the base plate is made from copper and comes with thermal paste pre-applied.


The radiator is a typical heater core style design that has been painted black for looks. Attached is a transparent plastic fan which is running at constant speed unless your motherboard has support for fan speed control on a 3-pin fan header. Even though it is hardly visible on the pictures, the hoses feel to be of rather low quality. They are not made from rubber, but solid plastic which has its structure improved by some kind of shape molding.


When powered up the fan will light up blue.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

On the bottom of the waterblock you can see several contact spots. Both GPUs, the PCI-Express bridge chip, the memory chips and the voltage regulation circuitry is cooled. Unfortunately there are more memory chips on the other side of the PCB which are not cooled. This will essentially limit the memory overclock to that of the other side.


A single CrossFire connector is present to link this card to another HD 4870 X2 or HD 4870. CrossFire will work with any HD 4870 / 4870 X2 from any mamn


The card has one six-pin power connector and one eight-pin power connector. Both are required for operation.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Hynix and carry the model number H5GQ1H24MJA. With a latency of 1.0 ns, they should be good for at least 1000 MHz.


The PLX Technology PEX 8647 is a PCIe Gen2, 5.0GT/s 48-lane, 3-port PCIe Switch.
While the bridge chip on the HD 3870 X2 supported only PCI-E 1.1 transfers, this one has full support for PCI-E 2.0, and also offers new features like Dual Cast and Read Pacing.


Two AMD RV770 GPUs are working together on the HD 4870 X2. The GPU has a die size of 256 mm², is made in a 55 nm process and sports 956 million transistors.