Sapphire HD3870 512MB TOXIC Edition Review

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Sapphire HD3870 512MB TOXIC Edition Review​

Manufacturer Product Page: SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD 3870 512MB GDDR4 PCI-E
Product Number: 100225TXSR
Availability: Now
Warranty: 2 Years
Price: Click Here to Compare Prices



Well ladies and gents, welcome to another Hardware Canucks graphics card review and today we have something for you which may appeal to a great many consumers: a card which offers a truly complete multimedia experience while having the capabilities to play all the latest games on the market. While by now you are surely familiar with ATI’s vaunted HD3870 cards, a little primer is needed since a lot has changed in the GPU industry since its release all those months ago. Its primary competitor –the Nvidia 8800GT- has seen its price plunge in recent weeks to the point where it is now retailing for the same price as most HD3870 cards on the market. As we have seen in review after review, the HD3870 512MB cards just don’t have the stones to compete mono-a-mono with Nvidia’s best selling G92-equipped card when it comes to gaming. Thus, ATI’s board partners have had to come up with unique ways of marketing their cards so consumers will look beyond what is presented at face value and decide to purchase this card based on features rather than pure performance potential.

Sapphire, being one of the (if not THE) largest of ATI’s board partners has been in the market now for countless years and their name is well recognized here in North America. So, if there is one ATI AIB out there who is in the position to push an innovative take on the standard HD3870 design to a market which is hungry for something different, it is Sapphire. They have taken on this challenge like a duck to water and in the past have produced some extremely unique designs which have mostly been released under the “Toxic” name. The card we are reviewing here today represents the next logical step in the Toxic series as it makes its jump to the HD3870 series with the Sapphire HD3870 512MB Toxic. This card was first conceived as the special-edition HD3870 Atomic which came in a metal carrying case that would make any CSI wannabe proud. This one of a kind card has now evolved into something a bit more mundane with the Toxic version but at least this version is widely available.

This card’s main claim to fame is its uniquely-designed single slot cooling solution that Sapphire dubs the Vapor-X. While we will discuss this in detail a bit later, in a nutshell this pint-sixed cooler does a better job at cooling the Toxic’s overclocked RV670 core than the relatively huge dual-slot reference cooler. Have we got your attention yet? Well, if your ears haven’t perked up yet then consider this: this is one of most fully-featured cards on the market with full HDMI compatibility HD decoding among a myriad of other features. It is these features which ATI and Sapphire want consumers to focus on in order to show that their cards are able to compete quite well with Nvidia offerings.

However, when it all boils down to it, it is the consumers who decide whether a product will be a raging success or an abysmal failure. To this end a good shopper will always keep their eyes open for the graphics card that offers them not only the best value for their money but also piece of mind for whatever the future might hold. Unfortunately in this respect, ATI’s board partners have not stayed ahead of the curve since many of them are sorely lagging behind their Nvidia counterparts when it comes to warranty length. So, while the Sapphire HD3870 Toxic comes with a 2-year warranty (which is longer than most people will keep their graphics cards) we still find it is a bit on the short side when compared to the green-totting competition.

Priced at around $210, this card is poised to compete directly with the 8800GT in terms of the price you pay for performance but how will it stack up to the competition? Will its factory overclock boost performance enough to make the Toxic a viable option against the 8800GT? Let’s find out.

 

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ATI's Lineup / Sapphire TOXIC Specifications

The Present ATI Lineup

Well, this is what ATI has to offer us for the next few months at least and we must say: it is a lot more straightforward than the much-maligned Nvidia lineup. At the top of the heap there is the dual-GPU HD3870X2 which performs quite well as long as the game you are playing supports Crossfire. At less than half the price of their flagship card, ATI has the HD3870 on tap which at about $200 offers surprising value for your money and as we have seen in the past at can handle literally any game at low to mid resolutions. Finally we have the HD3850 and the rest of the ATI lineup which contribute of round out a lineup which seems to have something for everyone. All in all, it seems like ATI is really focusing on value in this round of the graphics card war since they just don’t have anything that can compete blow-for-blow against what Nvidia is offering. This has contributed to make GPUs which offer amazing performance all that more accessible to many customers. ATI has shown that the new battles for market supremacy have moved away from the ultra high-end market and now focus on the sub-$400 segment.

Sapphire HD3870 TOXIC Specifications

It seems that with the release of the RV670 core we are finally seeing something from ATI’s board partners we hadn’t seen before: pre-overclocked cards. These cards invariably give the consumer higher performance for their money instead of them having to revert to overclocking the card on their own which in most cases will void their warranty. If the overclock is large enough it should give an extra shot of performance which should increase game playability or even help give the new ATI Folding @ Home client a bit of boost.

Unfortunately, the overclock Sapphire gave the HD3870 Toxic is paltry at best and seems to be more window dressing than a concerted effort to give users increased performance. The core gets a minor increase of 23Mhz (or about 3%) over a reference card while the memory gets a 50Mhz bump equaling about a 2% increase. From experience, we can say that neither of these overclocks will yield any significant or even noticeable difference when playing games and even synthetic benchmarks will only show a very slight difference between this card and a reference-based solution.

 

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Packaging and Accessories

Packaging and Accessories

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The packaging of the Sapphire HD3870 Toxic is pretty straightforward with a Silver Surfer look-alike on the front with a bevy of logos denoting this card’s various features. Meanwhile, the back of the box runs you through yet more features in addition to some product highlights which talk about how “special” this card really is.

The one thing which surprised us the most about this box is how compact it is when compared to other manufacturer’s packaging schemes. While this will benefit you immensely when paying shipping costs, there are some of us who want a massive box when paying $200 for a product.

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The exterior façade is nothing more than a fancy slip-cover since the real box is actually made of plain yet functional cardboard. Inside of this and amid a sea of foam packaging material lies the thick anti-static bag that holds the Toxic and gives you massive reminder to plug in that 6-pin PCI-E power connector. Overall, we were more than happy with the protection afforded this card even though it is housed in an amazingly small compact box.

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Considering past Sapphire cards we have seen have the bare necessities when it comes to extras, the sheer number of accessories that come with the HD3870 Toxic is simply staggering. In terms of adaptors alone you get an extremely long Molex to 6-pin PCI-E cable, a component-out cable, an S-Video to composite adaptor, a Crossfire bridge and the now-famous DVI to HDMI dongle. Other than that you get a pretty well-written instruction manual.

Sapphire didn’t get stingy with the software either and you get CDs containing 3DMark06 Advanced, drivers (though it is recommended that you go to the ATI website for the latest ones) and full versions of Cyberlink’s PowerDVD 7 and DVD Suite. Even though Cyberlink has now released PowerDVD 8, the older version combined with their DVD Suite is still more than enough for watching high-definition movies through your Sapphire card. In addition, we received the infamous Black Box registration card (even though somewhere wires were crossed and we got two registration numbers) with the Toxic which includes the games Half Life 2: Episode II, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Some of you may be thinking that this offer of free Steam games is no longer valid but we had no trouble going through the registration process and receiving the games.

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We have reviewed quite a few graphics cards here at Hardware Canucks and this is the first one to include a HDMI cable. While it may not be up to the picture quality standards seen with the Cobalt Cable Ultimate HDMI cable, I was using on my Pioneer TV, it was definitely better than some of the generic junk I have tried in the past. Many consumers get smacked pretty hard in the face with sticker shock when they see how much the “big box” stores charge for HDMI cables ($60 for a no-name four footer anyone?) so including this definitely earns Sapphire some brownie points in our books.

 

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A Closer Look at the Sapphire HD3870 TOXIC

A Closer Look at the Sapphire HD3870 TOXIC

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Here we finally have our first look at the Sapphire Toxic and without a doubt it is definitely unique with its loud “Sapphire Blue” PCB which is offset quite well by its black single-slot cooler. You would be completely forgiven if you assumed this card was a lower-end HD3850 due to its single slot heatsink but let me assure you; this is 100% HD3870. Even though Sapphire has designed a custom PCB especially for this card, the length stays the same as the reference design at a slim 9 inches so it shouldn’t have a problem fitting into any ATX compatible enclosure. Yet, while this design looks sleek, sophisticated and downright cool, there is one problem…

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Yes, the problem is with this low-slung, Toxic-labeled heatsink. Even though the Vapor-X heatsink perfectly covers the core and the memory modules, it is orientated in the exact opposite direction we were hoping it would be. This means that instead of blowing hot air towards the back of your case (where an open expansion slot cover would exhaust it quite well) it pushes all the heat towards the front of your case where it will eventually be circulated towards your CPU area.

Other than that, we really have to appreciate the compactness of this heatsink and at least from the outside it seems exceptionally well designed.

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Since Sapphire designed their own custom PCB, they also decided to go with bit different component choices versus the reference card, namely in the power distribution / voltage regulation area. They have moved away from the quartet of large vGPU inductors we saw on the reference card and are now using a trio of open-top inductors. There also seems to be silkscreening in a number of areas for extra capacitors which were not installed. Even though this design differs from the reference card, we can’t find anything here that would suggest this card is of a lower quality. In addition, Sapphire wisely positioned the only two standard electrolytic capacitors to the side of the heatsink’s exhaust to shield them from the higher temperatures it generates.

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While the cooler dominates the top of the card, Sapphire uses the space provided by its vast expanses of black plastic to adorn it with a few logos. While we already saw the Toxic logo, both the main heatsink assembly and the fan hub have additional logos mentioning the Vapor-X technology and Sapphire’s brand logo respectively.

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Since the Sapphire HD3870 Toxic features video playback, there is a jumper to switch between both NTSC and PAL video signals. Interestingly, our card was set to the PAL region so make sure you pay attention to this if you are planning on viewing video signals on a TV in the NTSC region. For more information about PAL and NTSC, please go here: PAL - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and here: NTSC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This jumper is located right next to the Crossfire connector which is used to link two, three or even four ATI graphics cards together.

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The backplate of the card is different from the standard HD3870 in the fact that since this it has a single-slot cooling solution, the Toxic can make due without an exhaust grille. Aside from that, there are the usual two DVI connectors and one “HDTV” out connector.

Meanwhile there isn’t much interesting going on with the back of the card itself even though this is the area which interests modders the most. Other than the fact that this is a custom PCB you can also see that there are not that many screws holding down the Vapor-X heatsink; there are only the four around the core plus another three spaced around other parts of the card. This is a far cry from the dozen or more an Nvidia 8800GT has.

 

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Under the Heatsink / A Closer Look at the Vapor-X

Under the Heatsink

Please remember that removing the heatsink on this card will void your warranty.

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After unscrewing the seven screws holding it down and then carefully sliding it off, we are finally able to see what lies below the Vapor-X cooler. Even though we will be taking a look at the Vapor-X in detail a bit later, upon first glance it looks to be a standard heatsink with a copper base plate and thermal pads for the ram modules. There is a perfect amount of thermal compound applied to the core and while we are talking about the core, we may as well mention that even though the PCB is custom, the heatsink mounting holes are in the exact some position as those on a reference card.

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After the thermal compound is cleaned off, we get a full view of the RV670XT core along with the Samsung GDDR4 memory modules which are 64MB x 8 pattern for a total of 512MB of ram. These Samsung K4U52324QE-BC080 modules are rated at 1200Mhz (2400Mhz DDR) so there should be a bit of overclocking headroom left in them since they are spec’d at 1150Mhz on this card. You can find the full spec sheet here: http://www.samsung.com/global/syste...AM/512Mbit/K4U52324QE/ds_k4u52324qe_rev12.pdf

A Closer Look at the Vapor-X Heatsink

Since we had a beautiful looking single-slot heatsink sitting in front of us, we quickly succumbed to the temptation to take it apart too see how it ticks. While on the next page we will look at the technology behind the Vapor Chamber cooling concept, here we take a quick look beyond those pretty presentation slides at the nitty gritty details of the actual heatsink. Upon first glance it looks like a run-of-the-mill, single-slot heatsink the likes of which we have seen a million times before. However, there is much more to it than what first meets the eye.

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After popping open the hood we are greeted with a high density aluminum fin assembly which is used to disperse the heat generated through the copper contact plate. Interestingly, the entire vapor chamber is enclosed in copper instead of this highly valuable material (now at an all time high on commodity markets) being only used for the small area of the heatsink that actually comes in contact with the core. Since copper is such a good heat conductor, it makes sense that Sapphire would use it almost exclusively for the entire underside of this heatsink.

This is all capped off with a 13-bladed, 60mm low profile fan which is positioned to push as much cool air as possible over the fin assembly.

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With these densely packed aluminum fins, it looks like the fan will have to spin for all its worth in order to vacate the heat as quickly as possible. As we will see later, this leads to increased noise levels but it is a tradeoff you have to be prepared to pay for single slot cooling.

The vapor chamber is capped off with what looks like a small copper knob and while this may look odd, it seals the whole vapor chamber within its copper enclosure.

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Here we have finally come to some very lurid and disappointing shots of this heatsink and let me tell you: it ain’t pretty. Copper corrosion is the name of the game here where it looks like the glue which holds the metal support plate in place has begun eating away at the copper itself. This it is THE only graphics card where we have seen a situation like this and since this cooler is supposed to be the Toxic’s crowning glory it boggles the mind why quality was allowed to slip like this. However, it should be noted that Sapphire is aware of this problem and they will be rectifying it on future models that use this heatsink design.

 

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The Inner Workings of Vapor-X Technology

The Inner Workings of Vapor-X Technology

Vapor-X technology is basically a patented Sapphire technology which is used to cool off the GPU core using a vapor chamber. In a nutshell, a vapor chamber cooler will hold water which is vaporized by the heat generated by the core. This vapor will carry the heat to a condensation wick which will then be dispersed through the top plate and transported back to the base plate where the process repeats itself. In this section we will look a bit closer at how Sapphire has implemented this technology to efficiently cool RV670XT core on their HD3870 Toxic.

Here we have a breakdown of the different components which go into the manufacturing of a vapor chamber. Let’s start at the bottom with the lower cover which is in this case the copper base-plate that makes direct contact with the core. From there we have the vaporization wick which is placed directly above the GPU core and sits on the lower cover so the water contained therein will quickly vaporize and make its way through the chamber to the condensation wick. The condensation wick is placed in direct contact with the upper cover which is also copper in order to disperse the heat generated as the water vapor condenses on the condensation wick. As we saw, nearly the entire top cover has aluminum fins on it in order to quickly move away the heat. Finally, we have the transportation wick that is used to transport the condensed water back to the vaporization wick.

In order for this method to be effective, the entire chamber needs to be sealed and put under vacuum. This is due to the fact that water vaporizes much easier in an environment with extremely low air pressure. Thus, it is very important that a vapor chamber cooler is well made without any manufacturing defects or the air pressure within the vapor chamber will decrease and this will result in lowered heat dissipation capabilities.

If all of this explanation was a bit too much for you, Sapphire provided us with a handy diagram that shows the process which the heat takes in its journey through the vapor chamber. Something to note here is because this is water vapor in a vacuum, it will spread evenly over the whole condensation wick instead of accumulating all on one spot directly above the core.

So after all of that information, what are the claimed benefits of a vapor chamber-based heatsink? Here you can see the main benefit is that the heat evenly spreads over the top plate which makes it much easier to disperse via more traditional methods. Sapphire has chosen to use aluminum fins which are cooled directionally by a single fan so this should result in quick heat transfer.

According to the documentation we have from Sapphire, a vapor chamber has 50% less thermal resistance than copper while having TWICE the heat conductivity. Add to that the fact that is it omni-directional (due to the low air pressure) whereas copper sticks to the old “heat rises” mantra and this looks to be a hell of a technology.

 

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Test System & Setup

Test System & Setup

System Used

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.5Ghz
Memory: 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 @ 1556Mhz
Motherboard: Asus Blitz Extreme
Disk Drive: Pioneer DVD Writer
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 320GB SATAII
Fans: 5X Yate Loon 120mm @ 1200RPM
Monitor: Samsung 305T 30” widescreen LCD
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64


Graphics Cards:

Sapphire HD3870 TOXIC
HIS HD3870 512MB
XFX 8800GTS 512MB (stock)
EVGA 8800GT 512MB (stock)
Diamond HD3850 512MB (stock)


Drivers:

Nvidia 175.16 WHQL
ATI Catalyst 8.4 WHQL

Due to the unpredictability of some beta drivers in Windows Vista x64, we have decided to only use WHQL drivers for all graphics cards other than the one being tested.


Applications Used:

3DMark06 Professional
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Crysis
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Prey
Unreal Tournament III
World in Conflict


*Notes:

- All games tested have been patched to their latest version

- The OS has had all the latest hotfixes and updates installed

- All scores you see are the averages after 4 benchmark runs

- If the game did not support 2560 x 1600 resolution, the closest resolution to that was used

- NO demos were run. Only full games were benchmarked.

 

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3DMark06

3DMark06

While some may wonder at the use of still including 3DMark06 in the tests it gives us a good idea of the basic limitations of a graphics card. Since the standard test runs at 1280x1024 there will be a fair amount of CPU bottlenecking with higher-end cards and remember that in some cases a higher 3DMark score does not equate better performance. However, we have now ALSO included tests at higher resolutions with and without AA / AF included for a more balanced look at this test and to eliminate some of the CPU bottlenecking

While the Sapphire card posts some respectable scores across all of the tests, we can see that its minor overclocks nets it good gains without AA turned on at lower resolutions. However, once resolution increases these gains are nearly eliminated. We will have to see if this holds true in actual gaming.

 

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Crysis

Crysis

Crysis is one of those games that comes along every now and then and totally humbles every graphics card on the market. While some people have pointed towards shoddy programming, it is undeniable that this game looks ridiculously good when played at higher settings.

NEW TEST: For this test we recorded a custom timedemo on the Sphere level equaling about 15 minutes of game time. All results were recorded with FRAPS over the course of the timedemo. All settings were set at High and DX9 mode was used.


1280 X 1024

1600 X 1200

1920 X 1080

Crysis has never been a strong point for ATI cards and we can see this here again that even an overclocked HD3870 just can’t put up with the strains of this game. Even at 1280x1024 without AA turned on, the Sapphire card struggles to provide playable framerates. In this case we would recommend than a user tweaks the graphics settings a bit more to get a setting somewhere between medium and high details.

 

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Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts DX9 / DX10

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts DX9

Company of Heroes has always been one of our favorite RTS games with visceral firefights and a gripping campaign. Opposing Fronts is the expansion to this great game and it introduces players to British campaign to liberate France from German occupation in the weeks and months following D-Day.

PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE COMPLETELY CHANGED OUR CoH TESTING. We are now using a single mission (Authie: Boudica's Boys from the British Campaign) since after extensive testing we came to the realization that the in-game benchmark is highly inaccurate and does not reflect in-game performance. Thus, we have taked the Authie mission since it holds a bit of everything the game has to offer: vehicle battles, thundering arty barrages and house-to-house fighting. Record framerates using FRAPS up until the 30 minute mark of the mission.

Please note that there seems to be some issues with the new WHQL drivers and the 8800GTS 512MB at low resolutions in DX10.

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts DX10

Overall, the Sapphire HD3870 does very well in Company of Heroes by delivering incredibly playable framerates all the way up to the maximum resolution under DX9. However, when DX10 is enabled the card’s performance plummets which seems par for the course with ATI cards and DX10. All in all, we were quite impressed with the TOXIC in this game.