Sapphire HD 5850 1GB & Sapphire HD 5770 1GB Review

A Closer Look at the Sapphire HD 5850 1GB

Product Number: 21162-00-50R
Manufacturer’s Product Page Click Here
Warranty: 2-years
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Yes, we are going to sound like broken records here talking about the box and the packaging so let’s avoid that and say Sapphire uses the same size box for their HD 5850 as they do for the HD 5770. However, this one has a distinct purple hue to it.

Accessories-wise there is the usual DVI to VGA dongle and Crossfire bridge along with two very long Molex to 6-Pin adaptors and that’s about it. For whatever reason, our sample didn’t come with a voucher for DiRT 2 but according to every retailer we spoke to, these cards are still shipping with the voucher included.


At around 9.5” in length, the HD 5850 1GB is anything but compact but for the rendering power it provides it is well within the limits set by other high end cards. It carries the same black and red color scheme seen on the HD 5770, HD 5870 and HD 5970 while Sapphire has kept with that scheme but added a few more muted colours to the palette. Other than the HD 5750, all of ATI’s cards are designed around the same basic heatsink shroud design which gives a nice flow to their current lineup.


The underside of this card doesn’t really have anything special to look at since the HD 5850 traditionally avoids the full-length backplate of the HD 5870 and HD 5970. We do however get a good look at that sexy black PCB.


At the back of the Sapphire HD 5850 1GB, we have a pair of PCI-E power connectors which peak out from within one of the red-fringed vent holes. Remember, with the inclusion of the power cables, this card will take up around 10 ½” within your case so make sure you have the room needed before buying.

Finally we come to the backplate which like all of ATI’s 5000-series has a pair of DVI connectors as well as outputs for HDMI and DisplayPort.