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Sapphire HD5850 Toxic 1GB Video Card Review

Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States; it launched November 20 in Europe. It builds upon the cooperatively-focused gameplay of the original and uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, the same game engine used in Left 4 Dead. The game made its world premiere at E3 2009 with a trailer during the Microsoft press event.

In a similar fashion to the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, and focuses on four survivors fighting against hordes of the infected. The survivors must fight their way through levels, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign's finale.

The gameplay is procedurally altered by an artificial intelligence engine dubbed the “Director” that monitors the players' performance and adjust the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge. Several new features have been introduced: new types of infected, melee weapons, and a story-arc that connects the game's five campaigns together.

We performed testing today at 2560×1600 with 8xAA and 16xAF – all other settings were pushed to the max.

With any of the cards on test today Left 4 Dead 2 is perfectly playable even at the highest resolution with all the eye candy set to full. The overclocked speeds of the Toxic however show the benefits when compared with the reference edition card.

The Toxic card never drops under 60fps which is an exceptional set of results, especially considering the resolution and configuration on test today.

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28 comments

  1. William Crawford

    Bloody Nora batman, thats one scary overclock ! I snagged those apps, thanks for the heads up

  2. I love Sapphires modded cards, those coolers rock my world. Wouldnt it be cool if AMD actually released these from now on with all their new mid/high end ranges?

  3. Absolutely no chance they would be on reference cards, they cost too much. I like the thinking though. Hey with the Intel story that was on here a few days ago and the new reference coolers they are looking at, maybe the whole industry is shifting views on this?

  4. Hats off to Sapphire again,was going to buy this but I held off for a bit even though I read a few good reviews about it. This is a wicked board. £230!! just ordered one

  5. £230 is a wicked price. the ordinary card is £240 in a local store here.

  6. Good price, would like to see CF figures for these. £460 for two of them, would be a good head to head against a GTX480 🙂

  7. I think the 480 GTX would get its ass handed to it, then some, but would be interesting for sho.

  8. I think the 5770 is better value though, ive seen some for £120 online, two of them would beat one of these.

  9. Anyone seen a good price for one of these in Canada?

  10. £349.99 on newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102881&cm_re=hd5850_toxic-_-14-102-881-_-Product

  11. Canada? anyone know? best online place to buy?

  12. Great review, thanks KG

  13. Loved the review, thanks Gurus

  14. Sapphire are great, wish more makers would use vapor x style cooling.

  15. XFX are doing one which I think is sourced from the same company. check out this review. http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/xfx-hd5870-black-edition-review/

  16. Julia Francisco

    Read this review last night and didnt have time to comment. Its a great product as many reviews have already testifed to. Was interesting personally to see the drain figures at the wall.

  17. not much stock available where I live. unfortunately as a bud of mine wants it.