The Basics:

Take a good look at the Sapphire Radeon HD4770 512MB graphics card in the images on this page. Now take a look at every other Radeon HD4770 listed at Newegg.com. Physically they are all the same... same color schemes, same cooler, same PCB, same connection configurations. One thing Sapphire usually has going for it is a slightly enhanced design, but here it is obvious that using the reference design was necessary in order to remain competitive (notice how the prices are all about the same at that link, too).



The red PCB for the HD4770 is compact, and features an interesting cooler. It is a two slot design, and the bulk of the cooler's body seems to be a shield suspended over free space. Thin copper fins extend from the base of the cooler, wrap around the 8-bladed 80mm fan, and meet the cooler's shield along the edges. The memory modules onboard receive no direct cooling, but the air from the fan will wash over all of them.



Along the top edge of the card is a pair of CrossFire tabs to allow for up to a 3-way CrossFireX multi-GPU setup. Towards the back edge of the card is a single 6-pin power connector, an earlier indicator that this should be a more energy efficient unit than many that require two power connections.

The layout of the electrical components on the PCB is neat and orderly, and a large Sapphire branded plate is used for MOSFET cooling toward the back end.



The card's connections include a pair of Dual Link DVI connections surrounding a TV-out port. As seen in the collection of accessories, HDMI is only available via a dongle. While I do appreciate having two DVI ports instead one DVI and one VGA, it would be nice to find a way to squeeze the HDMI port on to the card.