Sapphire HD7870 Overclock Edition Review

We have reviewed many cards from AMD partners in recent weeks and the Sapphire HD7870 Overclock Edition is another excellent card targeting the demanding enthusiast audience. We don't think the Sapphire cards are quite as pretty as the XFX Black Edition models, but they perform at a similar level.

The Sapphire HD7870 Overclock Edition is more than a match for the XFX HD7870 Black Edition overall, with a slightly quieter cooling solution and improved temperature performance. Surprisingly, the biggest competition for both of these cards comes from an unusual corner in the shape of the Gigabyte HD7870 Overclock Edition, which hit our labs a few weeks ago and blew us away.

The temperatures from the Gigabyte card are better than either Sapphire or XFX solution, peaking at only 48c when gaming. Additionally, the Gigabyte solution has three large fans which certainly seem to work better than the dual fan coolers from either Sapphire or XFX. The Gigabyte HD7870 Overclock Edition is also supplied with the highest core clock speed of 1,100mhz, which means it performs better out of the box.

The Sapphire HD7870 Overclock Edition overclocked to 1,230mhz which is similar to competitor cards. Every modified HD7870 solution we have tested to date actually achieves over 1,200mhz, so there is clearly plenty of headroom with these boards.

We are slightly disappointed with the Sapphire clock speeds, 50mhz isn't that big a deal and Gigabyte had the right idea to push the card higher. This gives them the edge in benchmark results and ensures that the audience don't need to spend too much time tweaking the hardware more. Overclocking headroom on these cards will vary, but after reviewing many of them recently and factoring in a ‘safety margin', it appears that 1,100-1,150mhz is easily achievable without much effort.

The Gigabyte HD7870 Overclock Edition is still the best HD7870 we have tested to date and is still our ‘must have' award winner. The Sapphire HD7870 Overclock Edition is an excellent card, but it falls short of the Gigabyte version in several areas. Gigabyte have pushed the HD7870 sector forward in a positive direction since launch day, and it is now up to other companies to meet this grade.

Pros:

• Cooler is very quiet.
• Good overclocking headroom.
• we like the black cooler.

Cons:

• 50mhz increase could be more.
• Gigabyte 3 fan cooler performs the best.

Kitguru says: Another excellent graphics card from Sapphire, but Gigabyte win this round.

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