Prey

Even though Prey may be a bit older game compared against many of the other ones we are testing, it still provides a workout of even the best graphics cards on the market. This time we have enabled its Graphics Boost feature (Gboost in the charts) and run through a custom timedemo.


I know I am beginning to sound like a broken record but I have to say it again: the overclock of a mere 23Mhz on the core nets the Toxic next to no performance increase in actual gaming scenarios. That being said, it is good to see the HD3870-series hanging tough in this old but still demanding game.


Unreal Tournament III

With absolutely stunning graphics, this popular online FPS provides great visuals to go hand-in-hand with palm-sweating gameplay.

For these tests we set up a 15 minute Bot Match on the Serenity level and let it play though. All of the results were recorded with FRAPS.


While this may be one of the more demanding levels in this game, the Sapphire Toxic handles it quite well. However, it should be mentioned that we find that anything above 40FPS will deliver the optimal gaming experience in this game and at 2560 X 1600 resolution the HD3870 fails to provide this. That being said, if you can afford a 30” LCD you are probably not looking at a $200 graphics card to drive your favorite games.