Presentation, bundle and warranty
Ah, yes, the usual suitably scary character on the box.
Sapphire includes what's known as the Black Box Voucher that encompasses a collaboration between AMD and Valve, through its Steam download service. The voucher entitles the user to download Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. Note though; that all three along with Half-Life 2, and HL2: Episode One, will be released later this year in the retail Orange Box release.
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Drivers and manual CD Valve Black Box Voucher CyberLink PowerDirector 4DE CD CyberLink PowerDVD 6 CD (2ch) Futuremark 3DMark06 Advanced Edition Printed user manual 2x DVI dongles HDMI dongle VIVO cable (S-Video and Composite) HDTV-out (component) Flexible CrossFire bridge |
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Sapphire has all the bases covered. Perhaps the one missing element is the lack of PCIe-to-Molex power adapters. Still, we expect most folks considering this card to have the necessary cables on their PSUs.
Warranty
The Sapphire Radeon HD 2900 XT is backed up by a 2-year warranty. Claims in the first year are handled by the supplier from whom the card was purchased from. Claims after this period are handled by a U.K.-based service centre.Value for money?
The Sapphire package is currently available for around £233 including VAT and delivery. That, we reckon, is a competitive price when evaluated against its Radeon HD 2900 XT peers and the immediate competition, NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS 640.Let's now see how it performs.
