The Basics:

The next set of images will take a look at the card itself. The appearance is understated, and the graphics on the GPU cooler give it a sporty look. A large 11-bladed fan guides air down on to the GPU cooler with some of the air being allowed to wash around the card's edge, while the rest is exhausted out the back of the case.



On one end of the card we have a dual slot expansion bracket, with one slot used for connections and the other featuring air vents. As mentioned previously, the card features a VGA connection, an HDMI port, and a DVI connection. While having two DVI connections might be preferred, making room for the HDMI port onboard is definitely a welcome sacrifice to me. On the other end of the card we see a handful of electrical components, as well as a single 6-pin PCI Express power connection.



The image below shows an edge view of the card. The main thing to note is that the GPU cooler extends out over the memory chips, but it does not make contact with them. While some air will cool the bare chips, there are no RAM sinks installed, and there isn't any room to add your own. For a bit of visual appeal, the Sapphire "S" logo shown toward the left lights up with a blue LED when in use.



Overall the card is quite compact. While it does feature a two slot cooler, the PCB is a bit shorter than other cards I have used recently. The image below shows it side-by-side with other cards from the Radeon HD4850 family. The 512MB Vapor-X Radeon HD4850 is shown with a 512MB Toxic Radeon HD4850, and a 2048MB Radeon HD4850X2. The Vapor-X card is obviously the most likely to fit in a compact HTPC or small form factor case.