Every time we look at a mid-range video card we always say how we understand that while everyone wants a higher performing graphics card, many simply just cannot afford or justify the money that is associated with buying one. Here today is no different really. We're looking at a mid-range ATI offering that has impressed us in the past and while these are no doubt not the fastest board on the market, they sit in a segment that is the most popular, and that is the mid-range market. That is also the right segment that many can afford and doesn't get the attention it deserves. Now with a few driver updates since the last time we looked at it and Sapphire choosing to mix it up a bit, it started to really intrigue us. - TweakTown

Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 Arctic Cooler Card Preview

As usual Sapphire has given us a lot of information so we know what exactly is going on. Across the top we have the Sapphire logo, a few ATI ones and mention that the board comes with 512MB of GDDR5 memory and across the bottom we have the model name. With in the middle we have a picture of a girl along with all our important information, main features which again include features like a 40nm core, native HDMI along with mention of the cooler and some of the software that is included in the package. Turning the box over we again have mention of those features and next to that we have some of the card product highlights.

Looking at the video card we can see that Sapphire have decided to move away from the default cooler and installed an aftermarket cooler from the folks at Arctic Cooling. Unlike higher-end video cards, the cooler doesn't take up the entire size of the PCB layout. The cooler isn't terribly exciting though there are no heatpipes present, just a number of aluminum fins. Since the cooler doesn't take up the whole PCB area, Sapphire have to use some heatsinks to cool some of the other parts that aren't covered by the cooler itself. We see to the right we have three little heatsinks along with a longer one next to which has the Sapphire name on.

Now while we didn't test at the ultimate widescreen resolution, we continued to use the same image quality presets as we do when testing out higher-end video cards, which means that games are most of the time running at their maximum settings. And with this in mind, we can see that quite often at these presets, the Radeon HD 4770 isn't that far behind the thirty frame rates minimum we want to see mid-range widescreen. With a small detail drop, we would be able to get up and over that minimum and that is good news. As for the package of the Radeon HD 4770, it doesn't disappoint with a number of applications included.

And while the cable department did look just a bit bare, when you have a look at what's going on with native analog and HDMI being seen, you can understand why there weren't many cables included. At just over $100 there isn't a whole lot you can expect from these graphics cards, but ATI have done a really good job. If you are looking for an Radeon HD 4770 which gives a pretty impressive package and moves away from the default cooler, the Sapphire Arctic Cooling version we have seen today is an quite good option. And at $115, you have really got a lot of video card for little money and decent performance.