Introduction

Fans of racing are undoubtedly familiar with the 24-Hours of Le Mans, an endurance race that lasts for an entire day (if you are there to party, an entire week). Multiple cars in various categories participate and compete in their respective categories, similar to how boxers are faced off depending on the weight class. It is not only the drivers who are the stars of the show as it takes an entire team to win in Le Mans. You have the engineers, responsible for some of the greatest innovations in automotive design, who work hard all year to prepare a car that can withstand the difficulties of the race, and you also have the cars themselves, which are every bit as impressive for any person interested in technology.

It can be said that video cards are the same way. It is exciting for us enthusiasts to see each new technology that comes out from AMD or NVIDIA’s laboratories and the innovation they bring to the table in terms of gaming. Each card can perform differently from driver to driver, with the more mature ones able to perform significantly better. Some video cards may even have been on the track longer than others but due to their creative and robust design, they are still quite “roadworthy” and can handle the latest and most demanding games. Sapphire, the world’s largest manufacturer of AMD video cards, thinks so too, so as an exclusive release, Sapphire is offering the HD5850 once again, but now at a significantly lower price point.

The Sapphire HD5850 Xtreme is a low-cost and powerful DX11 option. The Sapphire HD5850 Xtreme uses an original cooler design that is significantly quieter and cooler than the loud blower-style fan used on stock HD5850 designs. The Sapphire HD5850 has 1440 stream processors and 72 texture units with 1GB of GDDR5 memory, able to handle even the latest DirectX11 games. Although the HD5850 Xtreme edition comes with one less DVI port and one less CrossFireX connector, it is priced below $150 USD, offering huge savings compared to regular HD5850 video cards, while out-performing an NVIDIA card at the same price range.