Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Toxic Vapor-X

Examination:

The key differences between the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Toxic and the normal Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 or any of the other HD 4870 graphics cards from other AIBs is the factory overclock and the graphics card cooler. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Toxic arrives with a 780MHz core clock and 1000MHz memory clock. This is in comparison to the reference specification for the RV770XT (Radeon HD 4870) that calls for a 750MHz core clock and 900MHz GDDR5 memory clock.

The Vapor-X cooler found on this graphics card is a Sapphire-exclusive. Sapphire's Vapor-X implements "Vapor Chamber Technology" and utilizes three heatpipes with a thermally controlled fan for what Sapphire believes will deliver the best cooling performance. Covering the actual aluminum cooler and copper heatpipes is a plastic shroud on the face of the graphics card. This is our first time looking at a graphics card that has Vapor-X and later in this article we will share how it really performs. From the initial looks of it, this is a very large and well-designed cooling contraption. The height of the graphics card due to the three heatpipes may prove to be a problem if installing it within a low-profile chassis. The cooler used on the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Toxic was a Zalman VF900 heatsink.

At the rear of the graphics card are the two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors needed for the Radeon HD 4870 GPU.

The screws that hold the Vapor-X cooler in place are visible from the opposite side of the graphics card along with all of the standard mounting holes. The two CrossFire connectors are also visible. The Radeon HD 4800 series supports CrossFireX Technology with up to four GPUs being supported.

The connectors on this graphics card include two dual-link DVI and one video output. This graphics card supports connecting to HDMI displays using the included adapter, which also supports 7.1 channel audio.