Introduction

Climates differ depending on the geographical area you live in, but when you live in a climate controlled home, most people maintain a fairly constant temperature year round. Although we would like to think that our climate controlled temperature maintains a constant in every room of the house, it doesn’t. There can be different variables that may cause one room to be cooler than another and it could be how the room is furnished or the amount of electronics running in the room. One electronic component that produces heat is a computer and, depending on where that computer is placed in the room, it can generate heat or be affected by other variables around it, causing it to absorb the hot, ambient air around it. Factors that can cause a computer to absorb more heat than desired are carpeting, small confined spaces and how high it is off the floor.

Most people who are aware that heat can shorten the life of a computer component usually focus on the CPU and will purchase an aftermarket heatsink and fan combination to better cool the CPU. What many people forget to think about is their video card; most take it for granted that excessive heat can also shorten the life of a video card. Cooling a GPU is just as important as cooling a CPU and many times the stock heatsinks that come with many reference models do not cool as efficiently as desired and can tend to be very loud. Usually, within a few weeks of the launch of a new series of video cards, we will start to see manufacturers releasing video cards with their signature heatsinks. Sapphire is one of those manufacturers and their Vapor-X line has proven itself as an efficient and quiet cooling solution since its introduction in 2007 with the 3870 Atomic Edition video card. This was the first of Sapphires video cards to use Vapor- X technology.

The Sapphire Radeon HD5870 and HD5750 are the next line of Sapphire's video cards to receive Vapor-X technology. The Sapphire HD5870 and HD5750 Vapor-X Edition line of video cards also have slightly higher clock speeds than the standard edition of 5000 series video cards in their class.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X

The Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 comes packaged in a white and blue box with a Penguin on a snow cap to show that this is the Vapor-X version of Sapphire's line of 5000 Series Graphics cards. There is also a coupon for a copy of Dirt 2 and a copy of Battle Forge and BattleStations: Pacific is included.

The Sapphire 5870 is 11" x 4.5" x 1.5", comes with a dual slot cooling solution and is Crossfire and Eyefinity ready. You will need two 6-pin PCI-e connectors to power the card.

A closer look at the front I/O plate, the Vapor-X fan and the two 6-pin power connectors.

Sapphire HD 5750 Vapor-X

The Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 comes packaged in a light blue box with a Penguin on a snow cap to show that this is the Vapor-X version of Sapphire's line of 5000 Series Graphics cards. (Ice = Cold) There is also a coupon for a copy of Dirt 2 and a copy of ArcSoft Sim HD IM included.

The Sapphire 5750 is a standard sized video card and comes with a dual slot cooling solution and is Crossfire and Eyefinity ready. You will need one 6-pin PCI-e connector to power the card.

Installation

To install the Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 and 5870 you will need to open your case, find and unscrew the existing video card, remove it from the PCI-e slot, then insert the new card in its place. You will need one/two 6 pin PCI-e cable on your PSU to power the card.

Software (Driver Installation)

The installation of the Vapor-X drivers is easy and, if you have installed any programs before, you will find it pretty routine. If not, you can simply follow the on screen prompts and you will have your drivers installed in no time.

Graphics Drivers

Technologies

What's New?

A new line of DirectX 11 compatible 40nm Radeon video cards starting with Cypress (5870 and 5850), Juniper (5770 and 5750), Redwood and Cedar (entry level) and Hemlock (dual core 5800 series) all released within 6 months.

Architecture and Specifications

5800 Series

5700 Series

Efficiency

5800 Series

• Idle: 27W / 5850 and 5870
• Load: 151W 5850 and 188W

• Idle: 18W
• Load: 108W

With ATI Eyefinity technology, the 5700 Series of video cards can run three monitors simultaneously as one image for more immersive gaming. The maximum resolution is 3X 2560x1600.

DirectX 11 Features

What else is new with DirectX 11?

• Tessellation- "A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again. All the figures fit onto a flat surface exactly together without any gaps or overlaps."
• Shader Model 5.0
• Direct Compute 11- "Microsoft DirectCompute is an application programming interface (API) that takes advantage of the massively parallel processing power of a modern graphics processing unit (GPU) to accelerate PC application performance in Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. DirectCompute is part of the Microsoft DirectX collection of APIs. Other DirectX APIs include Direct3D, Direct2D, DirectWrite, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, and DirectSound."
• HDR Texture Compression

• ATI Stream Technology - ATI has sent their OpenCL GPU SDK to the Khronos Group for certification. ATI is stating that by the end of this month it will be released. Programs using the OpenCL SDK will take advantage of the power of Microsoft Direct Compute for better GPU acceleration.
• CyberLink announces "the companies are expanding their existing engineering engagement with a strategic focus on Microsoft DirectX 11 DirectCompute, taking advantage of the capabilities of AMD’s new DirectX 11-capable graphics architecture"
• Three DirectX 11 games before 2010 and two more before Q1/2010. Battleforge by EA Games is available now.

SAPPHIRE Technology confirms the source of its Vapor Chamber Cooling

SAPPHIRE Technology uses the brand Vapor-X on all its high performance products based on Vapor Chamber Technology. It has just been revealed that the Vapor chamber technology used in SAPPHIRE Vapor-X coolers comes from Microloops. Vapor-X has very efficient heat dissipation, which helps to remove heat quickly from the hottest component on a graphics card – the GPU. Because this heat transfer is so efficient, the device can be cooled with heatsink fans operating with lower speeds, and therefore lower noise. It also allows the GPU to be run at higher speeds – known as overclocking – to deliver increased performance.

“Sapphire Technology was the first graphics card manufacturer to use Microloop’s Vapor Chamber as the cooling device,” confirms Sapphire CEO Mr. KD Au. “We aspire to give our customers a unique product and create a perfect product integrated energy-saving and low noise design. The Sapphire HD3870 launched in 2007 was the world’s first graphics product using Vapor Chamber cooling. It used an ultra-slim 3mm vapor chamber in a single slot graphics card design, which could dissipate 150W heat. Under test in 3D mode, the Sapphire HD3870 single slot cooler with Vapor Chamber achieved lower operating temperatures than the ATI BBA board dual slot cooling design.”

“Following this successful experience, Sapphire created a new range of HD 4000 series cards named the ”Vapor-X Series”, all of which use Vapor Chamber cooling,” added KD. “ The Vapor-X product line is popular in the channel as well as with users and has won over 80 editor awards in the global media. The Sapphire HD 5000 Vapor-X series will be released in the near future, and I believe that the outstanding performance of the Sapphire HD 5000 with Vapor-X cooling system will be another award winning combination.”

100% of Sapphire’s Vapor Chamber technology comes from Microloops. Microloops and Sapphire Technology started to co-operate in 2007. Microloops Vapor Chamber technology was originally used in high level servers from companies like HP and IBM to avoid high operating temperatures. For both Sapphire and Microloops, the HD3870 was the first graphic card to use Vapor Chamber technology.

“We have been working with Sapphire technology for 2 years now, so Vapor Chamber technology is a mature technology for graphics cards,” commented Microloop GM Mr. TS. “ We all know Sapphire’s product design is superior and now combined with Vapor Chamber thermal device, the Vapor-X Series has sold over half million pieces and won over 80 media awards globally. It is a milestone for Microloops, we will keep researching and developing better performance thermal devices and deliver the products on-time. We look forward to creating a ‘dream’ graphics card combining all the target features -” high performance, low temperature, low noise and low power.”

Specifications

HD5750

HD5870

Features

1. Microsoft DirectX 11 Support

2. ATI Eyefinity Technology, support up to 3 displays. *

3. ATI Stream technology**

4. Microsoft Windows 7 Support

5. 40nm Process Technology

6. 2nd Generation TeraScale Engine

7. PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface

8. Advance 1GB/256-bit GDDR5 memory interface

9. HDMI 1.3 support with Deep Color and 7.1 High Bitrate Audio

10. On chip HDCP Support

11. ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU support for highly scalable performance. (Use up to four discrete cards

with an AMD 790FX based motherboard)

12. ATI Avivo HD Support

• ATI Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD) for Blu-ray™ and HD Video.
• Accelerated Video Transcoding (AVT)
• DVD Upscaling
• Dynamic Contrast
• Built-in HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support

13. Dynamic power management with ATI PowerPlay™ technology including memory clocks

14. Dolby® TrueHD and DTSHD Master Audio TM Support

*Driver version 8.66 (Catalyst 9.10) or above is required to support ATI Eyefinity technology and to enable

a third display you require one panel with a DisplayPort connector

**Requires application support for ATI Stream technology

System Requirements

• PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
• 450 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
• Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products
• Minimum 1GB of system memory
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
• DVD playback requires DVD drive
• Blu-ray™ playback requires Blu-ray drive
• For an ATI CrossFireX™ system, a second ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per graphics card (optional) are required

Maximum Display Resolution:

• D-Dub(VGA): 2048 x 1536 @85 Hz.
• DL-DVI-I: 2560 x 1600@60Hz
• HDMI:1080P
• Display Port: 2560 x 1600@60Hz
• Eyefinity: 7680 x 1600@60Hz*

*Grouped with 3 monitors supporting resolutions at 2560 x 1600 with one of them supporting Display Port input.

NOTE:

1. Resolutions are limited by the performance of the attached monitor.

2. Driver version 8.66 (Catalyst 9.10) or above is required to support ATI Eyefinity technology and to enable a third display you require one panel with a DisplayPort connector

Operating System

• Windows XP(32Bit/64Bit)
• Windows Vista(32Bit/64Bit)
• Windows Media Center Edition 2005
• Windows 7

Testing

To benchmark the video card, we will use our suite of popular games and also a synthetic benchmark created by FutureMark. For testing purposes, all scores will be posted on a graphical chart, which will progress from lowest to highest resolutions. All benchmarks will be on their own individual pages to eliminate confusion. Graphs will measure Frames per Second (FPS) in each resolution, except for 3DMark Vantage, which will reflect an overall score.

Test System(s):

Benchmarks:

• 3D Mark Vantage
• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Resident Evil 5
• Battleforge
• Left 4 Dead

Resolutions:

• 1024x768
• 1280x1024
• 1680x1050

Temperatures:

All Temperatures taken with IR Thermometer and will be read in Celsius.

3D Mark Vantage

3DMark Vantage is a benchmark suite that was designed to test performance of video cards. The overall score obtained when running the benchmark will measure your system's gaming performance.

3DMark consists of four tests, two for graphics and two to test your CPU, one for AI and one for Physics. Hi Tech Legion will test a video card using any of the four settings offered by 3DMark which are:

• Entry 1024x768
• Performance 1280x1024
• High 1680x1050
• Extreme 1920x1200

Comparison

Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman Arkham Asylum is the newest of the Batman series of video games. The Joker has escaped and is holding the Asylum hostage. It is up to you (Batman) to stop the Joker's evil plot and bring order back to the Asylum.

Settings

• No AA
• No Physics

Comparison

Resident Evil 5

The fifth installation of the Resident Evil Series, which is a first person shooter. You are a member of the World Bioterrorism Team and are sent out to stop a new infestation of the virus created by the Umbrella Corporation.

Settings

• AA 8x
• Levels: High

Comparison

Battle Forge

Battle Forge is an MMORPG that is free to play with its download. You choose from mythical characters and battle until your opponents are conquered. Battle Forge is the first game to support Direct X 11.

Settings

• AA x4
• Default High

Comparison

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead is an FPS where four uninfected people are left in a city where everyone else has turned into zombies. The action in this game is intense - zombies come at you from all angles. You can play Left 4 Dead via Stream and can choose whether to play your own campaign or play with others.

Settings:

• AA: 4x
• Ansi: 8x

Comparison

Putting it all Together

When I am in the market to purchase a new series of video card, I normally wait a few weeks after its launch. This is usually about the time when manufacturers start producing those cards with their signature line of heatsinks on them. In the last few years, stock heatsinks have gotten better, but I have always found them to cool less efficiently and they are normally much louder than I desire. So to save me the time of purchasing an aftermarket GPU cooler, it’s worth the wait.

With their Vapor-X line of heatsinks Sapphire rivals many aftermarket manufacturers in both cooling efficiency and fan noise. They also save me the grief of having to remove a heatsink, removing the paste and trying to figure out what bracket to use to mount an aftermarket heatsink. Below, I will show temperatures and fan speeds from both a stock heatsink and the Vapor-X heatsink.

Load tested at 100% load using OCCT GPU Test for 20 minutes. No adjustments were made to fan speeds during testing, all were set to auto.

Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 (Stock Heatsink)

• Idle: 37C
• Fan Speed Idle: 29%
• Load: 79C
• Fan Speed Load: 47%

Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 (Vapor-X)

• Idle: 34C
• Fan Speed Idle: 40%
• Load: 62C
• Fan Speed Load: 44%

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 (Stock Heatsink)

• Idle: 35C
• Fan Speed Idle: 21%
• Load: 82C
• Fan Speed Load: 35%

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 (Vapor-X)

• Idle: 34C
• Fan Speed Idle: 24%
• Load: 65C
• Fan Speed Load: 55%

As you can see, there is a big difference in the cooling efficiency between the stock and Vapor-X heatsinks. The Sapphire HD5750 Vapor-X had a 3C difference at idle and a 17C difference at load. The Sapphire HD5870 Vapor-X was1C cooler at idle and 17C at load.

What I did notice was the differences in fan speeds, the 5750 Vapor-X at idle was set at 40%, opposed to 29% on the stock heatsink, but it did only raise 4% at load to maintain it's load temperature. The 5870 Vapor-X was a little closer to the stock heatsink at idle but did run 20% faster at load.

As I mentioned in a prior review, the stock heatsink fans are loud and when run at over 50%, they are audible from over 20 feet away. I don't like too much noise, I run my systems 24/7 and use Folding @ Home when I am not gaming, so my video card almost always has a load. Constant whining of fans when I am trying to sleep or even have a conversation in the computer room are unacceptable to me. The fan noise generated by the Vapor-X heatsinks were quiet, even though they ran at higher speeds, and at times, almost inaudible from less than 10 feet away.

Conclusion

Price Point

Price: $399.99 USD (5870 Vapor-X), $144.99 USD (5750 Vapor-X)

Class: Mainstream Enthusiast, Mainstream

A price point of $399.99 USD places the Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X DirectX 11 Video card in the Mainstream Enthusiast Gaming category this video card is at the upper end of mainstream. The Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 had a price point of $144.99 USD and should be considered a mainstream video card but enters the mainstream catagory at the lower end of mainstream.

Performance

If considering an upgrade from your old graphics card, you won't be upset with the performance of either Sapphire's Vapor-X 5000 series. They will perform well while playing today's demanding video games. You will also be able to take advantage of DirectX 11 and the enhancements that come with it.

Reviewer's Opinion

Why go out and spend extra money on an aftermarket GPU heatsink cooling solution when for $10.00 USD more than the Standard Sapphire HD 5870 you can have a Vapor-X Edition? Both the 5870 and 5750 Vapor-X Edition video cards proved to be more efficient than the cards tested with stock heatsinks.

If you are seeking true gaming performance without having to skimp on video enhancements, such as AA and AF in higher resolutions, the Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X Edition with it's superior cooling potential is a chioce not to be overlooked. The Radeon HD 5870 is quite possibly the highest performing single GPU video card on the market today. You can also take advantage of the benefits DirectX 11 has to offer, since it is the only Mainstream Enthusiast video card on the market. If you are contemplating a video card that can render graphics across multiple monitors, Eyefinity comes standard with all Sapphire 5000 series video cards and can be accomplished without having to purchase additional software.

Not looking to get into serious gaming but would still like to have a video card that performs well and stays cool while multitasking? The Sapphire HD 5750 Vapor-X Edition is an affordable chioce. You still get the benefits of DirectX 11 and the same technology built into the Radeon HD 5000 series video cards at a price that will not be hard on your pocket.

Pros

• Direct X 11 Compatible
• Affordable Upgrade
• CrossFire Ready
• Eyefinity Multi Display Capable
• Quiet
• Vapor-X Heatsink Technology

Cons

• None

Editors Choice