Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X 1GB Review

A Closer Look at the Sapphire HD 5870 1GB Vapor-X

Even though beauty is all in the eyes of the beholder, to us this card simply looks stunning in an industrial, bad-ass way. Like with most cards, the cooler is the most visually impacting item on the card but coupled with the black PCB, this combination will be sure to catch anyone’s eye.


The Vapor-X heatsink is a thing of beauty which utilizes a centrally-mounted 90mm fan to move cool air over the internal fin assembly. Not only is this setup supposed to cut down on noise but it will also allow the core to run up to 13°C cooler than when using a stock heatsink. The only issue we can see with this setup is that it doesn’t give the hot exhaust air a direction that will bring it out of your case’s confines. This means any heat generated by the core and memory will stay within your case which could lead to an overall increase in your other components’ temperatures.


While the heatsink’s shroud is unique to say the least, the fin array it protects is your standard affair with aluminium fins that disperse the heat generated by copper heatpipes. As we mentioned above, since the back of the shroud is left open, it allows hot air to escape into the confines of your case.


Power for the Vapor-X is supplied by a pair of 6-pin PCI-E connectors which is par for the course with HD 5870 cards. Meanwhile, the backplate gets a bevy of connectors which fully support ATI’s Eyefinity technology. There are a pair of DVI outputs along with HDMI and Displayport connectors.