Bundle and extras
The packaging and accessories
Sapphire's new-style packaging makes an impression. It's understated and in this reviewer's opinion better than the garish, monster-laden efforts from other companies. Sapphire makes due note of the card's HDMI capability, highlighting that it's the desired conduit for transferring digital video and audio to high-definition LCD TVs and projectors, as well as to your very own PC display. This packaging is referred to as Lite, so it's bereft of Sapphire's Select gaming bundle. However, that also translates into a lower street price of around £95.
The rear makes note of CrossFire compliance and Avivo video-processing, which includes H.264 hardware-accelerated video decoding and transcoding.
Along with the card, Sapphire adds in a 6-foot HDMI cable for connecting the card up to a digital display. We're glad to see this inclusion because basic cables, if purchased separately, cost £10 upwards.
Sapphire also adds in an HDMI-to-DVI convertor, should you wish to connect the card's digital output to a non-HDMI-compatible display, and we're thinking of the vast array of LCD PC monitors here. There's also the aforementioned audio cable that can be connected from your motherboard to the Sapphire board and exported via HDMI.
A couple of additional brackets allow you to configure the back panel to your liking, especially useful for cases that cater for a limited bracket width.
The installation/driver CD carries a 153-page electronic manual that's dedicated to Sapphire's X1600 SKUs in general. It, however, makes no mention of the HDMI model. It's also carries the Catalyst 6.4 driver set, although we'd urge users to jump on over to ATI's site and download the latest official set.
Sapphire offers a 2-year warranty with this card and first-year returns are handled by the supplier.
