Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 DiRT 3 Edition Review - PAGE 1

AMD's Radeon HD 6870 is already one of the best graphics cards in the sub $200 market, but manufacturers have been working to improve the features, thermal performance and even the bundled accessories to increase the card's value even further. To this end, Sapphire has souped up their latest HD 6870 with not just an advanced dual heatpipe thermal solution, but with a free copy of the hit game DiRT 3. In addition, the Sapphire HD 6870 DiRT 3 edition graphics card comes with an overclocked GPU that will improve overall performance in comparison to the reference models.

Though the HD 6870 DiRT 3 edition graphics card includes an impressive bundle with plenty of accessories alongside that free copy of DiRT 3, Sapphire has not tacked on too much of an additional premium, as the card should still retail at or near $199. This even further increases the overall value, and since the HD 6870 is technically a mid-range card, users should appreciate all that Sapphire has included. Especially when some of the other companies resort to simply adding a DVI to VGA adapter and drivers disc.

Since you probably already know what to expect from the performance of the HD 6870 from Neoseeker's past reviews of the card, our review will focus on putting the HD 6870 DiRT 3 edition's thermal performance, acoustics, overclocking potential and value to the test. This way you'll know how well it compares to other HD 6870 graphics cards currently available on the market outside of performance, because let's face it, the Barts XT graphics processors are not going to be too different from one another when it comes to stock performance.