Throughout our evaluation of various X700 Pro graphics adapters, we’ve analyzed pretty much every design there is to see in the market. In that regard, Sapphire’s X700 Pro is a hybrid offering. It’s not an Abit X700 Pro with a heavy-duty heatsink that covers the GPU as well as memory modules with a single design, and it’s not a Connect3D X700 Pro with the lack of RAMsinks. The card features a separate heatsink with four additional RAMsinks that are glued to the memory modules via an adhesive; we’ve seen this concept on 6600GT adapters from NVIDIA’s board partners, and it does work well. By opting for separate RAMsinks and a heatsink, manufacturers don’t have to spend additional resources in designing a heatsink and fan combo that cools the GPU and memory modules at the same time.

Sapphire remains true to its traditional blue PCB and offers a standard X700 Pro without factory-overclocked clock speeds. Similar to other X700 Pro graphics adapters, the Sapphire’s offering features 425MHz of core clock speed with eight pixel pipelines, memory clock speed of 430MHz with 128MB of onboard memory. It also has a 128-bit memory interface with GDDR3 as the primary standard for onboard RAM. Sapphire’s X700 Pro also comes in a 256MB flavor should you decide to spend extra money on getting a card that better handles textures under heavy load and high resolutions.

Other than that, the card is fairly standard and comes with options that you would expect from a card of this caliber. As we have stated many times, manufacturers must be able to offer incentives to users in exchange for their order. Hopefully, Sapphire will have a good bundle with at least a single full version to please buyers. That said, does it have what it takes be a champion? Read on and find out…

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