Product Reviews

Graphics cards

SAPPHIRE Radeon X850 XT [Computer Shopper]
COMPANY: Sapphire Technology	PRICE: Ł384 inc VAT
RATING:	ISSUE: 207 DATE: May 05

While Gigabyte's 3D1 squeezes two cores into one card to improve performance, Sapphire has gone for a more powerful chip instead. The X850 XT is currently the fastest chip in ATI's line-up.

Part of the price you pay for this power is size: the card is large and blocks the slot directly beneath the PCI-E x16 slot in which it's installed. It's also power hungry, and Sapphire recommends that you use at least a 350W power supply.

There's no doubting this card's speed. Our 3DMark03 test flew by



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with a score of 11,944 running at 1,024x768. More interesting are the Doom 3 scores, as they show how the card deals with real games. Running at 1,024x768 at the high setting with 4x full-scene anti-aliasing it scored 70.1fps. With the resolution up to 1,600x1,200 it still managed 37.2fps, which is above the minimum 30fps required for smooth gameplay. This puts it slightly ahead of the 3D1.

Sapphire bundles the card with a copy of the excellent Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time game and Cyberlink's PowerDVD 5. If you want to use your PC to watch DVDs on a TV, you'll be pleased to know that it has component video outputs for a high-quality output to a TV, as well as the usual DVI-I and analogue outputs for normal monitors.

As always with a product such as this, the downside is the price. At close to Ł400, it's a very expensive graphics card. Considering Gigabyte's 3D1 offers similar performance, comes with a motherboard and is significantly cheaper, we'd rather spend our money on that bundle. This card is suitable only for the high-end gamerlooking for a fast single card.

By David Ludlow

SPECIFICATIONS:
256MB DDR3 RAM, ATI Radeon X850 XT graphics chip, PCI-E x16 interface, DVI-I, Analogue and component video outputs. Part code 21052-02-40