ATI finally launched a more competitive mid-range graphics card line-up with the introduction of the new Radeon HD 3800 series back in November 2007. Raining on ATI's parade somewhat, NVIDIA also just released a mid-range refresh to its excellent GeForce 8 series range, the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. We surmised that ATI's offering was the more complete version, with a better 2D feature set, but NVIDIA's held the straight line gaming speed, and that's what a $250 card is all about, really. Sapphire's significantly tweaked the reference Radeon HD 3870 design and come up with its Atomic version. How it stacks up against the mid-range NVIDIA series is what counts, the Atomic version joins the battle. - Hexus

Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Atomic Video Card Review

Sapphire's development team's brief was to design a cooler that would be better, in every way, than the one found on the reference Radeon HD 3870 512MB card. It needed to be good, too, as the reference model was extremely quiet in 2D mode and, really barely perceptible when under the yoke of full-on gaming. The problem with it, however lay with the double width cooler that precluded use in smaller chassis. So how to design something that was better yet incorporated single slot cooling but reamining silent as well? Sapphire's answer is the Atomic series, powered by vapour chamber technology, no less.

The cooler looks rather innocuous on first glance, similar to a slew of others found on the market, but, as always, the devil is in the details. Thinking of it as a heatpipe and then some, the cooler's block contains a lower portion with extremely low air pressure. Inside, vaporisation wicks easily heat the sealed water up, thanks to the low pressure, as the GPU's heat is transferred through the base. The vapour is then transported until it hits the condensation wick and turns back into water. Then, the water is transported around the chamber, by capillary action, and back to the base, where the process begins again.

To reinforce this approach, the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Atomic uses a single slot cooler which cools a GPU that runs at an overclocked speed of 825MHz, compared to the default 777MHz. Sapphire's also used faster than default memory, the card is equipped with 512MB of 2.4GHz rated GDDR4 memory, rather than the 2.2GHz stuff found on the reference design. The RV670 GPU is, a little faster than the outgoing R600 that debuted last May, but consumes around half the power, thanks to a bunch of improvements, a manufacturing process shrink to 55nm and some clever internal reworking of the core.

We like the fact that Sapphire has done something special with the Radeon HD 3870. Rather than simply raise clock frequencies a smidgeon and keeping the dual slot cooler. The Atomic's vapour chamber technology based diminutive single slot cooler performs substantially better, allowing Sapphire to ship the card with the core and shaders clocked at a generous 825MHz. What's more, Sapphire's also used faster GDDR4 memory clocked at 2.4GHz. The faster clocks ensure that the Atomic HD 3870 performance is generally faster, the feature rich bundle and single slot design makes it a viable option at the $275.

The CrossFire performance is good, and provides a harbinger of things to come. Looking at the competition, NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GT is faster in every game and that's a fact that cannot be ignored. So whilst we're happy to see Sapphire launch something really new and exciting, though you will inevitably receive a better gaming experience by opting for an el-cheapo GeForce 8800 GT 512MB version. The bundle is excellent, making full use of the card's 2D capabilities, but the innate problem in recommending it as a pure gaming card lies with the competition, it's simply faster for around the same money.