Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB Toxic Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

ATI has been gaining steam with numerous releases over the last few months but none have come close to the price / performance ratio of the HD 5850. In this review we take a look at Sapphire's Toxic Edition which features high overclocks while packing a Vapor-X cooler and custom PCB. To whet your appetite even more, Sapphire has priced this card within a few dollars of the reference card.

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Please use this thread to post your questions and comments.

[Zero82z]

Add to that the fact that is it omni-directional (due to the low air pressure) whereas copper sticks to the old “heat rises” mantra

This bit doesn't really make sense. "Heat rising" refers to convective airflow, but that doesn't apply when dealing with heat transfer through a solid conductor. In that situation, heat will flow from hotter to colder areas regardless of direction.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by Zero82z

This bit doesn't really make sense. "Heat rising" refers to convective airflow, but that doesn't apply when dealing with heat transfer through a solid conductor. In that situation, heat will flow from hotter to colder areas regardless of direction.

It has been removed but your statement should be expanded upon to a certain extent. Heat transfer through a solid conductor may be dictated by the transition of hot to cold areas but can also be influenced by orientation of both areas in relation to one another.

[rapmaster]

Impressive card!!! and it doesn't cost that much more than a reference one. I'm always amazed by their Vapor-X/Toxic card, can't go wrong with them.

[thorn]

definitely impressive temps on that card.

Also I think a small mistake was made in the table on page 7, the memory and speed values are switched.

A little OT, but technically 'heat rising' is advection

[Zero82z]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

It has been removed but your statement should be expanded upon to a certain extent. Heat transfer through a solid conductor may be dictated by the transition of hot to cold areas but can also be influenced by orientation of both areas in relation to one another.

Well, on a microstructural level it can be affected by the orientation of different atoms with respect to the crystal structure of the material, but as far as orientation in the sense of up or down, it doesn't make a difference.

Originally Posted by thorn

A little OT, but technically 'heat rising' is advection

Advection is when the flow of air causes the heat to move, and convection is when the heat itself creates an airflow. So it depends on whether you mean heat rising due to it being moved by air, or heat rising simply because of its temperature compared to the surrounding air. Generally when people talk about heat rising, they are referring to natural convection.

[feerof]

wow that's impressive... even cooler than the reference 5770 wow...

[_dangtx_]

nice card, decent read. went over it very fast as usual, didnt notice major bugs :)

[KeepSix]

Great review (as usual). One thing you didn't touch on - the overall look of the card. I think it's quite fetching, although I suppose that's being subjective. I'd have to put a mirror on the bottom of my case so I could admire that one.

[SKYMTL]

I believe I used the word "stunning". No? ;)