Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC Review - PAGE 1

The AMD Radeon HD 7850 is currently one of the best mid-range graphics cards on the market, and for good reason. Just by comparison to the GTX 570, the HD 7850 offers comparable performance, lower power consumption and better (lower) acoustic levels, while still being cheaper than NVIDIA's offering. All of these make the HD 7850 an excellent option for mid-range gamers that want top notch performance without breaking the bank. Of course, most HD 7850 graphics cards from manufacturers are not based on the reference design, and are in fact faster, more thermal efficient and quieter than the reference model.

Today we are examining Sapphire’s aftermarket design of the HD 7850 which sports a custom Dual-X cooling technology, a highly efficient multi-heatpipe cooler and a dual fan design. The Sapphire model also has increased clock speeds, as the core clock has been increased to 920MHz and the 2GB GDDR5 memory has been cranked up to 5000MHz effective. Additionally, the Sapphire HD 7850 OC comes with a generous bundle that includes a High-Speed HDMI cable, Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter and more.

Just a month after the launch of both the Pitcairn XT and Pro graphics processors there are already a handful of custom designs on the market. This means Sapphire is going to be up against some stiff competition. Will Sapphire's custom design and package bundle make its HD 7850 Overclocked Edition a standout in its class ?