Sapphire HD3870 512MB TOXIC Edition Review

3DMark06

While some may wonder at the use of still including 3DMark06 in the tests it gives us a good idea of the basic limitations of a graphics card. Since the standard test runs at 1280x1024 there will be a fair amount of CPU bottlenecking with higher-end cards and remember that in some cases a higher 3DMark score does not equate better performance. However, we have now ALSO included tests at higher resolutions with and without AA / AF included for a more balanced look at this test and to eliminate some of the CPU bottlenecking


While the Sapphire card posts some respectable scores across all of the tests, we can see that its minor overclocks nets it good gains without AA turned on at lower resolutions. However, once resolution increases these gains are nearly eliminated. We will have to see if this holds true in actual gaming.