Sapphire Radeon HD 5830 Xtreme 1GB Graphics Card Review

A Closer LookThe card has quite a large, but stylish cooling covering from end to end with a single fan design. Just between the blades we can notice the aluminium heatsink and can faintly see the copper heat pipes.

Taking up the usual two expansion slots, the cooler lays flat, therefore not obstruction any areas and making dual GPU solutions a lot better in terms of airflow.

The fan is the highlight of the cooler with eleven curved blades with the Sapphire logo taking centre stage.

Taking a look around the card shows that two six-pin PCI-Express power connectors are needed to get this puppy barking and is located towards the end of the card.

Moving further along the card towards the rear is a single CrossFire connector for users wanting to install a second 5830 to give better performance and all round improved gaming experience.

Connectivity wise, things aren’t really jumping, but the 5800 series didn’t incorporate the newer options for Eyefinity in terms of five or six display connections. The various connections on the card consist of a Mini DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI port, together still allowing for multi-monitor configuration.

Even though this card is branded as Xtreme, it refers more to the PCB design, components and cooler that are all custom designed. With regards to speeds, the card uses a reference 800MHz GPU clock and 1000MHz memory clock.