Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT with Boost

Sapphire may not have tweaked the performance of the Radeon HD 7870 much when it made the HD 7870 XT with Boost, but it did put its personal touch on the graphics adapter.

For those who think the Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT with Boost is a custom version of the AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, that is incorrect. The new video board is actually a custom-made version of the regular HD 7870, with a clock speed of 925 MHz in base setting and 975 MHz when the GPU goes into PowerTune Boost mode, “AMDs dynamic performance enhancement for games.” Even that much should be more than enough for games though, with or without EyeFinity multi-monitor setups. After all, the chip has 1,280 stream processors and 80 texture units. Speaking of which, HD 7870 XT with Boost has an HDMI output, two mini-DisplayPort connectors and a dual-link DVI port. VGA monitors and HDTVs are supported as well, thankfully, via a bundled adapter dongle.

Spec-wise, the new graphics adapter runs the 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM at 1.5 GHz, or 6 GHz effective frequency. That leaves just the cooler, and it is definitely better than the reference model, even if not necessarily mind-blowing. Then again, there wouldn't have been much point to it if the cooler hadn't been better and quieter than the original contraption. That said, the Dual-X cooler has graduated heatpipes and two aerofoil fans with dust repelling bearings deeper silence and better cooling efficiency. The improved HDMI 1.4a performance will make 3D easier on the eyes, thanks to enhanced 60 Hz per eye. 4K displays should be driven well by the interface as well, or DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2.

Sapphire didn't say what price people would have to pay in exchange for a Radeon HD 7870 XT graphics card, but we imagine that the tag will be around $250 / 250 Euro, give or take.

Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT with Boost
Image credits to Sapphire

Posted in: Hardware, Preview