Granted this isn't the all-singing, all-dancing, ultra shiny new card on the block (current time of writing that would be the Radeon 7900 range) but this mid-range classified card is certainly worth the money for the performance it provides.
I purchased this card to replace the existing AMD based based in the Dell Inspiron I purchased a number of years ago. The existing one was 250MB low end budget card, which could only really run the most basic of games. This card has certainly given the machine a new lease of life!
Packaging:
sturdy box, with the card placed in an anti-static bag - extras included the SLI connector (used to attach multiple cards together), a DVI to VGA adapter, and the usual Drivers on a CD and instructions.
Card:
By todays standards a usual size, but against my previous one, it was mammouth! It has two fans installed on the card which keeps the card cool whilst running quietly.
Installation:
For those with smaller cases please make sure that you measure this to ensure that it will fit - I had to move a hard drive in my case to ensure that the card fitted. Installation was simple as with any other PCI/PCI-E card.
Configuration:
This card was installed under Windows 8 - one thing that's worth noting is that on first load the Windows 8 will configure and restart the machine before you are prompted to logon - this was slightly daunting as it was unclear whether everything was going to work together. On the next restart the card was configured and all I needed to do was set the resolution. Sapphire do provide software and drivers for Windows 8 from their site.
Performance:
These are personal experiences:
Skyrim ran on high settings and handled the high-res texture packs without any issues.
Far Cry 3 ran on a high/ultra-high settings and without any lags.
GTA 4 - needed a special set of commands to recognise the cards - but this is fully documented on the Rockstar site. Once this was changed the game ran on full high settings.
Overall:
This is a very nice card that performs well. This has a 19" monitor running at 1400x900 attached to it and performs very well. I would certainly recommend this to people looking to upgrade.
| Brand | Sapphire |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 20.7 x 10.5 x 3.5 cm; 199.58 Grams |
| Item model number | 11200-14-20G |
| Manufacturer | SAPPHIRE |
| Memory Clock Speed | 920 MHz |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Radeon HD 7850 |
| Graphics Chipset Brand | AMD |
| Graphics Card Description | Radeon HD 7850 |
| Graphics RAM Type | GDDR5 |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 2 GB |
| Graphics Card Interface | PCI-E |
| Number of VGA Ports | 1 |
| Are Batteries Included | No |
| Item Weight | 200 g |
