Final thoughts and rating
Sapphire's decision to manufacture a Radeon HD 4870 graphics card with custom Vapor-X cooler and larger-than-normal 2,048MB frame-buffer is a slightly odd choice given the expected etail price of around £220, including VAT. We say odd because you literally have to manufacture instances where the double-sized frame-buffer makes a discernable difference to performance, usually at 2,560x1,600 8xAA 16xAF. Larger frame-buffers make implicit sense when the underlying GPU can make real use of it, and as potent as HD 4870 is it can't leverage the 2GB in effective fashion, unlike the Radeon HD 4870 X2, for example.There's a lot of good in the HD 4870 GPU, but sharp pricing from a number of competitors, including Sapphire itself, means that a 1GB-equipped HD 4870 can now be purchased for around £165, so the rationale for purchasing this card would lie with the better-than-reference cooler. It's good, yes, but not really worth the extra outlay. Compounding matters is excellent GeForce GTX 260 pricing right now, starting at £150, the availability of the £250 Radeon HD 4850 X2, and the imminent arrival of a better-performing GPUs from ATI and NVIDIA. No prizes for guessing what they are.
Looking at the broader picture, the larger frame-buffer may become useful for workstation users who can't stretch to a FireGL card: think of this as one on the cheap, albeit with limited support.
Bottom line: The Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Vapor-X 2,048MB graphics card ships with stock frequencies and is marked out by a non-reference cooler and 2GB frame-buffer. Gamers should look elsewhere for value, but it might just appeal to the workstation crowd.
Pros
Much better cooling and aural performance than on the reference card
Should provide decent gaming with 1,920x1,200 TFT panels
Integrated HDMI is a bonus
A workstation card on the cheap?
Cons
Doesn't provide great gaming value for money
Imminent arrival of newer GPUs makes it relatively moot
2GB frame-buffer is wasted on single-GPU Radeon HD 4870
HEXUS Rating
HEXUS.net scores products out of 100%, taking into account technology, implementation, stability, performance, value, customer care and desirability. A score for an average-rated product is a meaningful ‘50%’, and not ‘90%’, which is common practice for a great many other publications.
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the card is evaluated with respect to our 'mid-range components' criteria.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Vapor-X 2,048MB
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