Sapphire HD6870 Toxic Edition Review – the fastest HD6870 available?

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 23c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.

Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.

The Vapor X cooler on the Sapphire Toxic card is exceptional. Other overclocked HD6870 cards we have tested have operated at 85c under Furmark load. When gaming, this card peaked at 67c. Fantastic.

Return to ambient is a feature we have recently added to our reviews … we measure the time it takes for a solution to return to idle temperatures, immediately after full load. The faster the time, the better the cooler – for example a Noctua NH D14 cooler will return an Intel processor to idle temperatures much faster than a reference cooler. This is a good indication of how quickly a heatsink can dissipate heat.

At full Furmark load, the fan spins at 67% (around 2,600rpm) to maintain a temperature of 74c. When load is negated, the temperatures quickly drop to around 60c and then the hardware profile automatically drops the fan speed to around 1,800 rpm. After this the cooling process is slower, taking a total of 23 seconds to return to idle. The cooler is exceptional, but Sapphire have deliberately fine tuned the revolutions per minute to slow down quickly once the temperature reaches around 60c.

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