Sapphire HD 3870 Review @ Overclockersclub
Overclockersclub reviews the Sapphire HD 3870 graphics card and writes in the conclusion:
The Sapphire HD 3870 is by far the best video card that I have ever tested by ATi. It proved that it is a card that is almost as good as an 8800GTS 640MB which, to me, falls a little short of being the best of the best. This card did extremely well in 3DMark06, knocking the 8800GTS out in every resolution by more and more points as the resolution got higher. I’ve never seen a video card do so well at high resolutions. In the 1680×1050 widescreen resolution, the Sapphire HD 3870 never scored below 46 frames per second in the gaming tests. To further impress me, this video card was sitting at 48 Celsius at idle and only reached up to 60 Celsius at 100% load. Even at 100% load, I couldn’t hear the HD 3870 over my CPU cooler. I did notice that when I powered up my machine, the fan on the card spun really fast, making a loud noise for about a second. This didn’t alter my opinion on this card the slightest bit. A Moderator from the Sapphire forums has informed us that this is perfectly normal and it’s just a short POST (Power On Self Test) that the cards do. The card was extremely easy to disassemble and adding my own thermal paste to the card couldn’t have been easier. This is especially good for anyone who plans on installing an aftermarket cooler. Installing the display drivers for ATi video cards hasn’t always been the best of experiences for me in the past, but with this card I didn’t have a single issue. The Catalyst Control Center is still a great program to use to optimize the video card’s performance for your machine. With HDMI, DirectX 10, and HD support, this card does it all and it is very cheap considering the performance it puts out - retailing for $219.99. So put this Sapphire HD 3870 on your holiday wish list because this video card does exceptionally well at high resolutions and supports some of the most recent and sought after technologies, all at a very affordable price.
Read the full review of the Sapphic HD 3870 graphics card.