Final thoughts
The AMD Radeon HD 5870 is, arguably, the best consumer graphics card that money can buy right now, but we temper this statement with the knowledge that, over a month on from release, supply remains in considerable constraint.Undeterred by the lack of availability, or perhaps playing on this very fact, Sapphire's using AMD's underlying PCB and bolting a better-performing cooler on top for the Vapor-X offering.
For a price premium of around 10 per cent - £330 vs. £300 - the Vapor-X model ships with a modest increase in clocks, from 850MHz/4,800MHz to 870MHz/5,000MHz, reflected in an average frame-rate increase of three per cent across our benchmarks.
Sapphire plays the game safe with these clocks, because our sample scaled up to 962MHz core and 5,224MHz memory with a little bit of tinkering, so, based on a sample of one, there appears to be intrinsic merit in the Vapor-X SKU.
Augmented by a slightly better-than-reference bundle, we reckon the package is just about worth the extra outlay if you have your heart set on a Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB card - especially if Sapphire can get stock into the channel this week.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X 1,024MB is evaluated with respect to our 'high-end components' criteria.
Sapphire
Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X
1,024MB
HEXUS Awards
Sapphire
Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X
1,024MB
