The Basics:

The card is protected in Sapphire's typical bubble bag, which reminds the user to make the necessary power connections. While the generic graphic on the bag indicates that there is one PCI Express power connection to be made, this card in fact has two 6-pin PCI Express power connections that will need to be plugged in.



Once out its bag we can appreciate the card and its tough appearance. The PCB, fan, and cooling shroud are all black, and the overall appearance is definitely unique. The shroud looks rugged, and as I said earlier it has the appearance of some type of armored equipment. The back side of the card's monochrome appearance is only broken up by a few stickers, and we can see that all memory modules are obviously installed on the front side.



In the images below we can see that the cooler makes this a two slot solution, and that the shroud runs the entire length of this full sized card.



In the below left image we can see an edge view of the card where a pair of 6-pin PCI Express power connections stick out at one end, and a pair of CrossFire tabs stick out at the other end. The below right image shows the end of the card, where we find a pair of Dual-Link DVI connections, a DisplayPort connection, and an HDMI port. This card supports ATI's Eyefinity Technology, which allows you to use multiple monitors not only for 2D applications, but now for a more immersive 3D experience.



For a sense of size, the image below shows an HD5750 and a HD5850 next to the rather beastly Vapor-X HD5870.