Sapphire HD4870 Toxic Video Card Review

Sapphire’s HD 4870 Toxic card accomplishes what it sets out to do.  The performance of this card is phenominal, as it holds its own and even surpasses its closest competitor: and it does it for a few hundred dollars less.

PC games are finicky.  Some people spend lots of money on an SLI or dual-GPU solution, only to discover that some of their favorite games don’t even use the extra horsepower.  Crysis and Far Cry 2 are gleaming examples of this fact.  If you really want to show off at a LAN party, then you’ll want to invest in the fastest single-GPU card you can.

There is no doubt that multi-GPU cards like Sapphires 4850 X2 (reviewed here) can perform very well in some games; but they don’t perform to their full potential in every PC game.  There are other caveats, too when you consider multi-monitor support.

Thrift is also a major consideration when choosing a video card.  Given the current pace of video card releases, our new powerful video card will be obsolete in a few years.  Next year there will be a cheaper card with the same performance as our current flagship.  Knowing this trend, why spend $500 of a dual-GPU setup?  Why not invest in a single-GPU card that has guaranteed compatibility with all games?  When you are forced to upgrade, the loss won’t be nearly as bad as if you bought the latest-and-greatest last year.

The HD 4870 Toxic is a great performer.  The 4870 Toxic consumes far less power, is cheaper than, and (in many cases) outperforms nVidia’s GTX 280 video card.  Given its price point, the 4870 Toxic has some of the best performance for the money, and it is factory-overclocked.  What’s not to like?

	REPORT CARD : Sapphire 4870 Toxic Video Card category rating comments Quality 4 Excellent construction.  Heatsink better than what you expect for OEM. Innovation 5 More performance with less power? Awesome. Performance 4 Some tests GTX wins, others 4870 wins, but the 4870 easily holds its own. Installation 5 Get up and running with little hassle. Value 5 You beat the performance of nVidia’s flagship for less cash FINAL VERDICT: 5 out of 5 stars