Got to get an Xfire bridge, then Ill have Xfire numbers. Got some pics and info to post tonight, and Ill get started on single card runs. Stock cooler is pretty nice, 50% fan speed is un-audible, and idles 47 card one, 53 card two.
The Sapphire 4860 is a card of mixed opinions. Some feal its waste to have the card released after the 5 series has launched. Ill be running it through its passes in single and Xfire mode to see just where it lands.
The box, package, and card.
Fairly simple box desgin, same as all Sapphire boxes Ive seen.
Sapphire went kind of lite onthe packaging as well. You get a DVI-HDMI converter, DVI-VGA, 6pin power adapters, the disc and the manual. Doesnt even include an Xfire cable.
The card itself looks pretty neat. Nothing over the top, and not that long either. The fan is nice and large (and pretty quiet too). There are 2 6pin connectors at the tail. This should help with overclocking.
The card has DVI, HDMI, and Displayport connections at the front. Eyefinity is not supported however.
Here is a shot of the card opened up next to the heatsink.
The stock heatsink is pretty beafy with a copper base, and 4 heatpipes.
The 4860 uses a 55nm RV790GT GPU core at 700Mhz, and has 1gb of GDDR5 memory at 750Mhz for 3000Mhz effective.
Test setup
AMD Phenom ii 955 C3 at 3850Mhz
Gigabyte 790X-UD4P
2x2 OCZ Reapers at 1100Mhz 5-5-5-15
2x WD 500Gb AAKS Raid 0
Corsair 1000HX PSU
First step, overclocking the card.
Before installing the card, I removed the heatsink to apply some TX-3. The heatsink removal is very easy, only four screws and its off. The stock TIM aplication wasnt that bad, and wasnt the thick stuff either so it was easy to clean. Put a small blob of Tuniq TX-3 and closed her back up.
After installing drivers and opening CCC, the OC department is seriously laking. Only offers 10Mhz more then the stock 700/750.
So I moved on to rivatuner. No support for the card at all. Not even monitoring. So, I decided to give MSI Afterburner a shot. Off the bat it would monitor and adjust fan speed fine, but wouldnt change clocks. I had to go in to the config file of afterburner and unlock unofficial overclocking. Everything works fine with the program now. I havent tried voltage adjustment with it, because there was no reason to. The card maxed out the highest afterburner would go, 910/975 without a hitch. At 65% fan speed (still fairly quiet, less noise then an Xbox 360) the card didnt even hit 70C under load.
I dropped the core down to an even 900Mhz on the core, just to be sure it would last through all the benchmarks, and incase some people wont be able to get that high on theirs. I dont see why you wouldnt, but just playing it safe.
On to the results.
Game TestsCrysis
All settings set to very high, res at 1920x1080, game set to 64bit DX10 was not playable. About 20FPS average with stock clocks. So I tried all high settings, 1920x1080, 64bit DX9.
Stock Clocks - Min - 23.2 - Avg - 33
OCed 900/975 - Min - 27.5 - 41
Crysis Warhead
Again, tried very high (enthusiest) and had to turn it down to gamer (high). At 1920x1080, no AA DX9 this is what it got.
Stock Clocks - Min - 23 - Avg - 31.5
OCed 900/975 - Min - 30.7 - AVG - 40
Far Cry 2
Didnt think Id be abel to max the game out at 1080P, and I was kind of right. No OC you got to sacrafice the AA for stable play. OCed, 8xAA is fine. Settings used, Ultra high settings, 1080P 8xAA
Stock Clocks - Min - 17 - Avg - 25.2
OCed 900/975 - Min - 23 - Avg - 32.6
Devil May Cry 4
Dont own the game, just using the demo. All settings set to max, 1080P 8xAA
Stock Clocks - Min - N/A - Avg - 91.3
OCed 900/975 - Min - N/A - Avg - 117.3
Resident Evil 5
Again, a demo, but should be the same as the game. All max settings, 1080P 8xAA
Stock Clocks - Min - 48.1 - Avg - 59
OCed 900/975 - Min - 61.2 - Avg - 75.4
Dirt 2
Using the demo, not the real game here too. Settings Set To all Ultra 1080P 8xAA
Stock Clocks - Min - 33.9 - Avg - 39.6
OCed 900/975 - Min - 38.1 - Avg - 49.6
Synthetic TestsUnigine Heaven Benchmark
A new benchmark that has become one of my favorites. The CPU has very little affect to the scores, it is mostly GPU intensive, and therefore closest to real world game benching. Settings at DX10 High 1080P x16 AF 0xAA
Stock Clocks - 25.3 FPS / 638 Score
OCed 900/975 - 32.5 FPS / 819 Score
3DMark06
This bench speaks for itself. I dont really like it because it means little with real gaming performance, but there are those that like to see it, so here it is.
Stock Clocks - 15649
OCed 900/975 - 17291
3DMark Vantage
Same thoughts on this as 06. Heres the scores.
Stock Clocks - P8333
OCed 900/975 - P10403
Xfire ResultsAfter installing the second card, I noticed this one runs slightly warmer. At ~30% fan speed its about 5C warmer. Once I turn the fans up, they even out.
Also, with this card I am not able to run 900Mhz on the core. 875Mhz made it half way through 3dmark, so I lowered to 850Mhz and its been fine. Somewhere between there is the highest it will go. So, all xfire runs will be ran at 850Mhz core, 975Mhz memory.
Game TestsCrysis
With both cards, very high 4xAA at 1080P is plenty playable.
OCed 850/975 - Min - 16.8 - AVG - 36.1
Crysis Warhead
All Enthusiest, 1920x1080, 4xAA
OCed 850/975 - Min - 23.7 - AVG - 36.7
Far Cry 2
Devil May Cry 4
All Max Settings, 8xAA 1920x1080
OCed 850/975 - Min - N/A - AVG - 215
Resident Evil 5
All Max Settings, 8xAA 1920x1080
OCed 850/975 - Min - 79.2 - AVG - 88.8
Dirt 2
Ultra High Preset, DX10 1920x1080 with 8xAA
OCed 850/975 - Min - 66.4 - AVG - 85.1
Synthetic TestsUnigine Heaven Benchmark
High settings, 1080P 16xAF 0xAA
OCed 850/975 - 59.3 FPS / 1493 Score
3dMark06
OCed 850/975 - 18784
3dMark Vantage
OCed 850/975 - P14892
Final CommentsAfter all this testing, I am unsurprised. Not because the card didnt perform well, but because its exactly how I thought it would be. A single card at stock clocks isnt much to note. Its a fine card for up to 1680x1050 res, and is only a little better then a 4850. However, overclocking this card puts it on the same performance level of a 4890. Adding a second one and every game is more then playable at 1080P maxed out. Averaging 60FPS in FC2 maxed, and 40FPS in Crysis and Warhead is no easy feat for a $230 card combo. One thing is for sure, no single card at that price range would offer this performance.
Even as a single card, I can not think of any other card in the price range that can beat it. Even if the 4870 was the same price Id recomend this card because of the OC advantage it has. The 4870 average OC is about 820-830 on the core. This card being able to run 900Mhz and more closes the gap in performance from less SPUs, and will win in some cases.
Its also a very cool running card, and very surprisingly quiet. With fan at auto I never heard it once over my 4 120mm 1400RPM case fans. The never hit 70C either.
If it wasn't for software limiting this card to 975Mhz on the memory, this card could do way better. Even more so in Xfire. It is the biggest bottleneck holding the card back. Once there is better software support and you can get the ram to 1100-1200, it would definitely open up more.
So, if you arent interested in DX11, and dont have a need for eyefinity, this is a very good card to look at. Two in Xfire would offer all the performance you need for 1080P gaming for quiet a while.
