14 DAY TRIAL // Not so long ago, Sapphire was revealed to be gearing up to launch the Toxic HD 5850 and it seems that the company decided not to let end-users wait too long before the official announcement. In fact, the company released not one but two different models of the ATI Radeon HD 5850 graphics card, namely the Radeon HD 5850 Vapor-X and HD 5850 Toxic. Both models are equipped with 1,440 stream processors, 72 texture units and the ATI Stream technology, for fast performance and optimum image quality.
As it is the case with all cards from the HD 5xxx series, the two models boast support for DirectX 11 and the Eyefinity technology, which allows them to spread the image over three distinct monitors. What differentiates the two adapters is their core clocks. They are both faster than the reference model, with the Toxic being more powerful.
Its GPU and memory are factory-overclocked to frequencies of 765MHz and 4500MHz, respectively, whereas the Vapor-X model has speeds of 735MHz for the GPU and of 4200MHz for the memory. In addition, the Vapor-X technology allows the card to operate at temperatures that are 15 degrees C lower than those of the stock model, with the sound output also being reduced by 10dB. This lower temperature provides extra headroom for overclocking.
In addition to DirectX 11 and ATI Eyefinity, the two graphics cards also support CrossFireX and have dual DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI outputs. They also boast an on-board hardware UVD (Unified Video decoder) “considerably reducing CPU load and delivering smooth decoding of Blu-ray and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, as well as Mpeg files.”
According to the hardware maker, its HD 5800 series cards are supported by AMD's DirectX 11 WHQL-certified graphics driver. The HD 5850 Vapor-X is priced at 252 Euro, whereas the Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic carries a tag of 265 Euro.
