Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2GB OC Edition Review

Sapphire HD 5970 Specifications

Sapphire bills this HD 5970 as their OC Edition which means it is comes with higher than stock clock speeds right out of the box. Naturally, there will be a reference edition at a slightly lower price but looking at the “overclock” given to this card, we hope there isn’t much of a price premium. We are looking at a whole 10Mhz on the core and 40Mhz on the memory. This should allow it to look a bit better than a standard HD 5970 on paper but not make any noticeable difference when it comes to gameplay.

Packaging and Accessories

For the HD 5000-series, Sapphire has gone with a standard box design along with a dreadlock-totting Ruby look alike for their mascot. All things considered, we were expecting a larger box but this compact design means that shipping will actually cost both you and Sapphire less in the long run.


Within the box, we see that the card itself is well protected by a thick cardboard holder as well as an anti-static bubble wrap sleeve. There is also an additional foam insert for some additional lateral protection.


Sapphire has packaged a virtual cornucopia of extras along with their HD 5970 OC. You get two DX11 titles in the form of BattleForge and Dirt but it is important to remember that no CDs are included. Rather, you will have to download both games from dedicated servers.

In addition to the game, there is the usual Crossfire bridge, 6-pin to 8-pin power cable, Molex to 6-pin adaptor and driver CD. Sapphire has also included a pamphlet showing where you can download their new Redline overclocking and voltage tuning software. Finally, Sapphire has also included a DVI to HDMI dongle and a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adaptor.