Sapphire HD5770 Flex CrossfireX (3 screens) Review

We already knew the Sapphire HD5770 Flex was one of the best value for money cards on the market and nothing has changed our minds today. Sure, the GTX460 delivers a wicked level of performance, but the Flex edition is a really versatile product which delivers affordable multiscreen capabilities to the masses.

If you caught our recent review of the XFX HD5970 Black Edition Limited 4GB in CrossfireX, you will already be aware of the insane levels of performance high end AMD graphics solutions can bring to the gaming table. Back in the real world however there are not going to be many people who can afford to spend £1,800 on a pair of video cards.

Purchasing a HD5770 Flex and a HD5770 Vapor X will only set you back £275, and the three liyama ProLite E2472HDD LED screens can be bought for £150 each. £725 for three monitors and a dual graphics card solution is easily within the grasp of a sizeable portion of the audience reading KitGuru today. If you already happen to own a HD5770 then this makes even more sense.

The Sapphire Flex and Vapor X make for a great Crossfire pairing … they are efficient cards which don't require a lot of power and they run cool while generating low levels of noise. You won't need a 1200W power supply and while we used a very high end processor today to minimise CPU limiting, you can comfortably use a modestly priced processor, such as the Intel 760, 860 or 950.

Our testing shows that a single HD5770 Flex struggles a little when powering games at 5760×1080 but by simply adding another low cost model the scaling is very good indeed. The second card can also allow for Anti Aliasing to be enabled, depending on the specific demands of the game engine.

The Flex still remains one of our first choices for a versatile, low cost graphics card. We have been using one now for months and have found it a fantastic product for a work based environment. By simply spending another £120, we can now see that those three screens can be used for a bit of fun outside work hours.

Kitguru Says: The Sapphire Flex is one of our favourite cards of 2010 and we still think it is one of Sapphires best products to date.

Become a Patron!