We really do love the launch of a new ATI based graphics card, because as soon as it's released we're on the back of Sapphire asking when an Atomic and Toxic version of the card is coming. Unlike a lot of companies who bump the core and memory up 25MHz, turn around and say overclocked, when Sapphire overclocks they do it properly. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 Atomic is different, though the card really steps out of the square, even for Sapphire. It's not like anything we've seen from them before and that's in the good way. Attention to detail on this card is nothing short of fantastic and we have to honestly say that when the card was delivered we half expected it to be hand cuffed to the courier. - TweakTown

Sapphire Atomic HD 4870 X2 Water Cool Card Review

The card is all flash from the word go with a briefcase style package that has the Atomic logo on the front along with the brand and model. We also see that down the bottom Sapphire make mention of the card being water cooled. Opening the case up, we can see the card along with a radiator and some tubing. We also have a cardboard cover that gives us a bit of a run down on the card along with some of the features. Paperwork wise, we have a standard Radeon HD 4870 X2 manual and another piece of paper that gives us an installation guide on the card itself. As far as software goes, we've got the usual larger package.

As far as extras in the bundle go, we have an Atomic sticker that can be placed on your case along with a couple of pen drives and a sticker that lets you know what number card you have, as the Atomic is only a limited run. Pulling the card and it's connected components out of the briefcase, we have three sections to look at. The main bit is of course the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and connected to that we have a radiator along with the CPU block we mentioned before. There really isn't anything too unusual going on with the card, the back is covered with a sticker that has the Atomic logo along with Sapphire's and ATI's image.

Looking around the video card itself, we have our two power connectors located towards the back of the card, a single 8-pin and single 6-pin connector. Moving to the front of the card, we have a CrossFire connector. While in a good position and not being blocked by the included CPU cooler, it could be a little difficult to get two of these cards running. As we mentioned earlier, the card does come in overclocked. The core has been increased from 750MHz to 800MHz while the memory has moved from 3600MHz speed to a more round sounding 4000MHz effectively. Is that enough for it to really stamp out the competition?

There are a lot of positives to the Atomic edition. Performance for starters is way up compared to the stock model and we can see some good gains. The best being seen at the higher resolutions where a large amount of strain is placed on the graphics card. We also have a pretty good bundle included, an absolutely kick ass package, an excellent cooling solution on the graphics card and also the fact the card is a limited edition model which is numbered, just to make you feel a bit more special as an owner of one of these beauties. The Asetek cooler, on a whole, does a good job of cooling this special graphics card.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the same could be said for their CPU portion. While the concept is cool, it does have some flaws. The integrated CPU cooler and the way the system is designed makes going to CrossFire pretty difficult. Of course the other con is the price of the card, at around the $600 it's not cheap by any standard. If you get past these cons though, you really do have the fastest single card graphics solution we have tested to date and that is ultimately what Sapphire wanted to achieve. In fact Sapphire did an awesome job just when NVIDIA introduced its own dual GPU based GeForce GTX 295 to he public.

The only thing we probably would have preferred to see is the CPU cooler not included, especially since a socket 1366 bracket for i7 CPU's isn't available. All in all, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 Atomic is a fast video card and like anything that pushes the boundaries, but it does have some cons. But ultimately performance talks and Sapphire has managed to make a very quick card.