Just a few short months ago, both ATI and Sapphire shocked the world with the explosive performance of the Radeon HD 4870 X2. Now six months later, and this card still stands uncontested as the fastest single card on the market. So what do you do if you are Sapphire? You try to make the fastest even faster. Which brings us to today's spotlight at the club. Sapphire has unveiled their brand new limited edition, factory overclocked version of the Radeon HD 4870 X2, known as the Atomic edition. This isn't your typical factory overclocked edition video card, however, as Sapphire has really upped the ante with extra features in this bundle. So what makes the Atomic edition stand out from the pack? - Club Overclocker

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 Atomic Version Review

The feature that stands out the most is the cooling solution. Instead of opting for the typical dual slot blower style fan, the Atomic edition sports a single slot self contained water cooling solution which supports the CPU as well. Secondly, the Atomic edition is also the fastest factory overclocked card on the market today, sporting an 800MHz core speed and 4000MHz effective memory speed. But don't expect to find one of these at every mom 'n pop computer store, as the Atomics are limited to a run of 1000 units only. And really this is a limited edition as we would say and first come first served is very much the idea to take into account.

One of the trademark pieces of the Atomic bundle is the metal briefcase that the card comes in. It is a pretty nice case, and it really adds to the fit and finish of the limited edition collection. Once we pop the top, we are greeted with with a nice graphic layout advertising many of the features we would normally see listed on the outside of the box. Once we pull out the insert, we see first-hand how well packed the video card is. Everything has a solid inch of foam protecting it from the normal jostles associated with the shipping process. Also included in the box is a nice bunch of accessories, more than you get in your standard bundle.

Finally, a look at the card itself. We can see that the water block covers all the vital parts, with the barbs at the top of the card. Other than the water block and the PCI bracket, the layout appears identical to a stock card. Even the 4-pin fan connector remains untouched, even though it is not used for the water cooling kit. Just like the stock Radeon HD 4870 X2, this card requires a 6-pin and an 8-pin PCI Express connector. The rear of the card is also practically identical to the vanilla Radeon HD 4870 X2 version. It's been a long time since there has been a thin sexy gaming card in my rig, and it sure is a sight for sore eyes.

Even under the tight deadlines that sometimes come with the job, we were able to make some time to do some overclocking as well. In our mind, it was important to see if these Atomic editions were all tapped out, or if there was still some headroom. Now surprisingly enough, we were able to push the card another 40MHz on the core and 160MHz on the memory, coming to a final stable clock of 840/4160MHz. This puts the Atomic edition at 90MHz over stock on the core. Not too shabby. It would appear that Sapphire has succeeded in improving the reference Radeon HD 4870 X2 in just about every way possible.

The Atomic edition is faster, smaller, and cooler. While the price is around $200 more than a stock Radeon HD 4870 X2, we are thinking that really isn't that bad, considering that a full water cooling kit could easily cost at least that much. Even though a fully custom aftermarket water cooling kit will assuredly outperform the Atomic, though the Atomic gets kudos for ease of install and zero maintenance. And combine this with an unsurpassed bundle and limited stock, Sapphire is guaranteed to sell out of these in a hurry.