Sapphire has launched a new member in the HD 78XX range of cards. The new card is called the SAPPHIRE HD 7870 XT with Boost and it sits atop of the company’s HD 78XX range creating a new price/performance proposition in the gap between there and the HD 79XX range. Cementing its position at the top of the HD 78XX range, which ordinarily employ the Pitcairn architecture, the SAPPHIRE HD 7870 XT with Boost is based upon AMD’s Tahiti architecture.
The new SAPPHIRE HD 7870 XT with Boost “delivers a new price/performance point to the series” according to Sapphire and features a 256-bit memory interface, 1280 stream processors and 80 Texture units paired with 2GB of high speed GDDR5 memory running at 1500 MHz (6GHz effective). The boost in the card’s title refers to the core clock of 925MHz which dynamically rises to 975MHz “with PowerTune Boost, AMDs dynamic performance enhancement for games”.
Let’s cut to the action and look at the specification table:
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SAPPHIRE HD 7870 XT with Boost specifications |
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Output |
1 x HDMI (with 3D), 2 x Mini-DisplayPort, Dual-Link DVI-I |
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GPU |
Default: 925MHz, with Boost: 975MHz core clock, 28nm chip, 1280 x Stream Processors |
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Video Memory |
2048MB Size, 256-bit GDDR5, 6000MHz Effective |
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Dimension |
275(L) x 115(W) x 35(H) mm Size. 2 x slot |
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Software |
Driver CD, SAPPHIRE TriXX Utility |
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Accessories |
CrossFire™ Bridge Interconnect Cable, DVI to VGA Adapter, Mini-DP to DP Cable, 6 PIN to 4 PIN Power Cable x 2 |
This graphics card features Sapphire’s latest Dual-X cooler “with its graduated heatpipes and two aerofoil fans with dust repelling bearings for efficient cooling and low noise operation”. There are plentiful output options and Sapphire even includes a dongle to hook up old VGA connector displays. The SAPPHIRE HD 7870 XT with Boost has increased HDMI specifications from the rest of the HD 7000 series and offers fast HDMI 1.4a supporting stereoscopic 3D “with enhanced frame rates of 60Hz per eye - 120Hz total”. Sapphire are also happy to let potential purchasers know that “It is also ready for the next generation of 4K displays that can be driven from a single high speed input of 3GHz HDMI 1.4a or DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2”.
As you would expect the new graphics card supports APP acceleration and, as it’s from Sapphire, you get the TriXXX overclocking tool allowing you to tune the voltage of the GPU and the core and memory clocks.
At the time of writing I have no prices or stock appearing in my searches.
