Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Review

A Closer Look at the Sapphire HD 5870 1GB

Here it is…and it’s beautiful, isn’t it? Decked out in a mostly-black heatsink shroud and PCB, the HD 5870 cuts an imposing figure. Unlike past xx70-series cards however, this one is a full 11” in length which makes it equal to the GTX 200-series of cards. This is quite long but it shouldn’t cause any major issues in any modern PC cases.


Sapphire has branded this card quite well without venturing too far into the tacky end of things with subdued colors and their usual impression of ATI’s Ruby mascot. There is also a red line straight down the center of the card which ties the fan in with the rest of the card. All in all, this is a simple yet unique take on the somewhat boring heatsink shrouds we have been seeing over the past few years.


The rear of the card has a pair of small openings in order to keep the VRM area ventilated so no overheating takes place. Both of these vents use a red border that work perfectly design-wise with the color scheme on the rest of the card and are independent from the main cooling fan.


As has been the case with past ATI cards, the side not facing the motherboard is where the power and Crossfire connectors are located. Interestingly, even though this is billed as an ultra high performance card, it only uses a pair of 6-pin PCI-E connectors. This is due to the fact that the maximum board power is “only” 188W or roughly 5W more than a stock GTX 285.

Along the outside edge of the HD 5870 are additional exhaust vents which take any excess heat and dump it into your case. These have been added since as you will see, the rear exhaust vent is woefully small when compared to other cards.


This is actually the first ATI card we have seen other that the X2 cards which features a full-coverage backplate. Not only does it look great but it also helps with heat dissipation.


The connector layout on the backplate is totally different than what we are used to seeing. Gone is the archaic “HDTV Out” port and in its place are connectors for HDMI and DisplayPort. The usual pair of DVI connectors is still there as well and while this layout may seem perfect for outputs, it seems to limit the size of the exhaust grille. We really have to wonder if this stunted area for hot air to be exhausted will prove to be a bottleneck when it comes to proper cooling.