Sapphire is a manufacturer of ATI based graphics cards that is known for their special designs. Many of their products are nothing like the reference designs from ATI, featuring unique PCB's, cooling solutions, clock speeds, and harwdare configurations. The item provided for this article takes all of the potential changes listed above and applies them to one of the top graphics cards. What we have here is a custom PCB sporting a pair of overclocked Radeon HD 4870 GPU's, 2GB of overclocked GDDR5 memory and a custom liquid cooling circuit that keeps the card to a single slot solution. The Atomic series from Sapphire are those that come always highly overclocked but with quiet cooling. - BigBruin

Sapphire Atomic HD 4870 X2 2GB Video Style Review

The Sapphire Atomic HD 4870 X2 2GB graphics card comes shipped in its own collector's edition aluminum carrying case. Now the graphics card itself may be somewhat easy to identify, but for those not expecting to see also a CPU cooler plumbed up to its liquid cooling circuit, the whole assembly may just look a bit foreign. This will be a first for us as well, as we will not only have to analyze the performance of a video card, but it will have to cover a CPU cooler, as well. Each GPU is clocked at 800MHz, and each one has 1GB of blazing fast 4000MHz GDDR5 at its disposal, giving a boost on speeds and doubling up on shaders.

This card is definitely a top shelf item. While we don't have a definite number for the price, early estimates indicate that it will sell for around $650, which is definitely quite an investment for a video card. Carrying this thing through a busy airport might not be the best idea, but it definitely looks cool. Sapphire treats it like any other box they might use to sell a card. The case opens like a brief case, or maybe a sniper's rifle case if you want to make it more exciting. Inside there is a plastic insert that frames the various compartments where you can see the video card, cooling fan with radiator, and CPU water block.

The Atomic HD 4870 X2 is a special edition card, and will be produced in just very limited quantities. This one is number 097, so shall we assume there will be under 1000 total based on the three digit code? The three main components of the Atomic HD 4870 X2 are packed into separate foam compartments in the case, and you have to lift them out with care since they are all connected to each other. The black cooler and black PCB look sharp, and the unit seems rather compact for a dual GPU solution. It occupies just a single slot thanks to the liquid cooling, and the PCB isn't as long as we expected it to be.

The features, specifications, real world performance and physical appearance of the Sapphire Atomic HD 4870 X2 2GMB graphics card are all incredible. It is one of the highest performance cards on the market, while also probably being one of the coolest and quietest. This low noise and low heat is even more impressive when you consider that it isn't just the GPU being cooled, but the CPU and the case too. The card is just being released on the same day this article is being published, so solid information on pricing is not readily available. The Sapphire representative told us, if you have to ask you probably can't afford it.

Okay that may just be so, but we still like knowing the prices of Bentley's and mansions in the Caribbean anyway. And looking around the web finds others guessing that the price will be in the neighborhood of $650. This is about double the price of Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 X2, and about $100-$150 more than a typical Radeon HD 4870 X2 version. Definitely a premium price to pay for a graphics card, but it does come with some premium features, specifications and other interesting goodies. There may be a few cons, but if money is no object in your pursuit of the killer video card, this has to be near the top of the list.