Sapphire HD4870 Toxic Video Card Review

The chart above lays out the differences between the 4870 Toxic, regular 4870, and 4850.  All cards use exactly the same core, but the 4850 X2 is clocked slower and has relatively slower GDDR3 memory.  While the numbers may be close, GDRR3 and GDDR5 have a different architecture, so GDDR5 can have triple the peak memory bandwidth performance at the same clock speed.

Here are some of the detailed features of the HD 4870 Toxic

	HD 4870 Toxic Features: ASIC Radeon HD 4870 Toxic Bus Interface PCI-E x16 (PCI-E 2.0) Memory 2GB of GDDR5 memory Clock Speed 750 MHz Cooling System 80mm fan Bracket Full Height Display Support DL-DVI-Ix4/HDTV-out VGA (via cable) HDMI(via DVI-to-HDMI Dongle) HDCP Yes Crossfire Support Native CrossfireX Support External Power PCIe Graphic External 2 x Power(2x3Pin)

	Display Resolution: Monitor Resolution 2D Display Modes Hz Maximum 3D Resolution 640×480 200 65K Colours 2048×1536 800×600 200 16.7M Colours 2048×1536 1024×768 200 1152×864 200 1280×1024 160 1600×1200 120 1920×1080** 16:9 120 1920×1200 100 1920×1440 90 2048×1536 85 2560×1600 60 ** 16:9 aspect ratio monitors are supported on 1920×1080 and 848×480 on Windows® XP and Windows® Vista. The complete list of resolutions depends on the driver version and operating system. NOTE: Resolutions are limited by the performance of the attached monitor.

Redefine HD Gaming

• 2.4 teraFLOPSof compute power
  This is the most powerful graphics card available today with nearly two billion transistors and 1600 stream processors. 1

• 2GB GDDR5 Memory
  With 2GB of GDDR5, the fastest and most advanced memory technology available today, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 delivers almost two times the memory bandwidth of the previous generation.2

• Extreme DirectXR10.1 Performance
  Play today while preparing for tomorrow with state-of-the-art DirectX 10.1 graphics capabilities.

• Unparalleled Anti-Aliasing & Anisotropic Filtering
  High performance anisotropic filtering and 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) smooth jagged edges and create true-to-life graphics, for everything from grass to facial features

• Superior Scalability with dual mode ATI CrossFireX™ Technology
  ATI CrossFireX™ technology with quad GPU support in dual mode offers superior scalability so you can take your game to new heights.

1 As of August 12th, 2008, the ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 is the fastest, most powerful graphics card based on the 3DMark Vantage v.101 extreme top score of 6920.
2 The ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 with GDDR5 memory has memory bandwidth of 230GB/sec in comparison with the ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 with GDDR3 memory with a memory bandwidth of 128GB/sec.
3 AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking, even when overclocking is enabled via AMD OverDrive™ software.

Go Beyond HD Video

Add an ATI Radeon HD 4870 Series GPU to your PC and watch the latest Blu-ray and HD movies play with incredible fidelity –upscale to nearly twice the display resolution of HD content.* Take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities. Sophisticated new features within ATI Avivo™ HD technology provide a truly responsive experience. Support for the latest audio visual interconnects ensures you can take advantage of the latest display technology.

• Unified Video Decoder 2
  Unified Video Decoder 2 frees up your CPU for other tasks so you get The Ultimate Visual Experience™ for even the most processing-intensive content, including VC-1, H.264 and now MPEG-2. Also, take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities.
• Upscale Beyond 1080p
  Watch the hottest Blu-ray movies or other HD content at full 1080p display resolution and beyond.
• On-chip HDCP
  On-chip HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) makes life easier by allowing you to playback HDCP protected content.**
• HDMI
  Enjoy the latest audio technologies using HDMI with 7.1 digital surround sound support. Also, xvYCC support allows the user to enjoy a wider range of color when connected to a capable HDTV.

*Note: HD capable monitor required
** Note: Playing HDCP content requires additional HDCP ready components, including but not limited to an HDCP ready monitor, Blu-ray or HD DVD disc drive, multimedia application and computer operating system.

Break-through Efficiency

• Dynamic Power Management
  The ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 graphics cards feature ATI PowerPlay™ technology and provide the best of both worlds, delivering high performance when needed and conserving power when the demand on the graphics processor is low.1
• Energy Efficient Manufacturing Process
  Second generation 55nm chip uses the industry’s most energy efficient manufacturing process.
• Best Performance Per Watt
  The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards deliver up to 2x the performance per watt of the previous generation.2

1 ATI PowerPlay™ technology consists of numerous power saving features. Not all features may be available in all ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series graphics cards.
2 The ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 delivers 8.8 GigaFLOPS per Watt, compared with the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 which delivers 4.8 GigaFLOPS per Watt.

System Requirements

• PCI ExpressR based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
• 650 Watt or greater power supply with one 2×3-pin PCIeR power connector and one 2×4-pin PCIeR power connector is required (1K Watt with two 2×3-pin and two 2×4-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)1
• Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSUfor a list of Certified products
• Minimum 1GB of system memory
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
• DVD playback requires DVD drive
• Blu-ray™ / HD DVD playback requires Blu-ray / HD DVD drive
• For a complete ATI CrossFireX™ system, a second ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per graphics card (included) are required