Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC 2GB Graphics Card Review

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUqahhhcvlw[/youtube]

With the recent launch of the 7800 series, it was no surprise that AMD’s partners were going to start pumping out custom cards and we knew for a fact that Sapphire would be one of the first on this bandwagon. They had the choice of developing a card with a custom PCB, custom cooler or factory overclock.

Now Sapphire could have done any one of these three major things, but decided to lead the market, and not follow it, by doing all of the above. We saw a fantastic card with great performance due to the overclock and an equally impressive cooler which is quiet and keeps temperatures to a minimum. The cooler has a good design to it, and incorporates a dual fan design which allows for the lowest noise output possible while giving a good amount of airflow across the card.

The performance seen allowed the card to start knocking on the door of its bigger brother; the 7870. At certain points in various benchmarks, we saw a small 3-4FPS difference, even at high resolutions and triple screen Eyefinity configurations, showing that this card isn’t for the faint-hearted if you want the performance, but on a budget as the next step up starts getting into serious money after the 7800 series.

Even the price difference with a 7850 compared to the bigger, more powerful 7870 can be around £70, but with this model coming in at £201.34, it shows some great value and seems to undercut most of its competitors by around £20.

The pricing on this card is definitely a key selling point and looking at the other major points of the card, which we’ve simply said everything that needs to be said. It does what it’s set out to do and that is to offer close performance to the 7870 but for users on a budget. The card is powerful for those wanting a nice upgrade to the new 7000 series of cards and if cool and quiet is what you’re after, you know Sapphire are renowned for making some of the quietest, coolest and mother efficient coolers for graphics cards around.

With a clear understanding on who this card is aimed at, the price point of it and the performance on offer, I can safely say that I’m happy to award it with the Editor’s Choice award, as it truly does tick all of the right boxes again and again and it seems that Sapphire have done it again as when you look at it at face value, for a 7850, it’s a stonking good card.