14 DAY TRIAL // As most end-users probably know by now, Advanced Micro Devices has just launched the latest addition to its lineup of graphics cards with built-in support for DirectX 11 graphics. Needless to say, the CPU and GPU maker's partners spared no time in debuting their own custom products, one of them, HIS, even choosing to pair its card with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PC game. In a similar turn of events, Sapphire is also releasing an HD 5830 + Modern Warfare 2 bundle.
Sapphire's rivals did their best to make their respective releases stand out, either by slightly overclocking the graphics processing units, building a special cooler or even using a different PCB. Instead of complicating things too much, Sapphire chose to not tweak the design and, thus, maintain a rather low price compared with those of the overclocked versions. As such, the Sapphire Radeon HD 5830 has the GPU running at 800MHz and the 1GB GDDR5 VRAM at 4000Mhz. The graphics adapter also has the same number of stream processors as the stock model, namely 1,120.
Of course, as customers have come to expect from any and all gaming-oriented HD 5xxx Series products, the Sapphire HD 5830 fully supports the ATI Stream technology, ATI CrossFireX, ATI PowerPlay and ATI Avivo technologies, as well as ATI Eyefinity. The last of these can be taken advantage of thanks to the built-in HDMI output, DisplayPort connector and dual-DVI, with the HDMI even supporting HDMI 1.3 with High Bitrate Audio.
In order to differentiate itself, at least through its design, the device uses a blue PCB and a dual-slot cooler with automatic fan control. The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game copy will come in the form of a coupon. Set to be available shortly, the card will carry a price tag of about 230 Euro.