| Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 Video Card |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |
| Written by Tim White - Edited by Olin Coles | |
| Sunday, 01 February 2009 | |
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Sapphire 100255DDR4 ConclusionSapphire is ATi's premiere partner and they follow ATi's lead with artwork, but with thier unique spin. Sapphire does a good job and their marketing is never too dull or never too over the top. Their boxes are always easily recognizable and they have very good brand recognition. I do think it may be time for them to give the women warriors a break and come up with something fresh though. We're asked to rate the appearance of the product which can be very subjective, afterall beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I think in this case the simplicity of design and cleanliness of the heat sink application on the card is hard to argue with. The card looks good. With the large heat sink/fan it looks like it may be something more than it is. The HD 4670 appears to be constructed as good as any card I've seen. Sapphire has used all solid capacitors throughout except for one single other. The heatsink and fan are top rate and made very well. With most cards lately offering full coverage of the board by a shroud one might not like this card with some open areas on it. Given it's target audience I think the card will be fine, most wont tinker too much inside once the card is installed. This card runs solid. I put up a good fight against some stiff competition and faired well given that competition. However as I've stated above the pricing structure currently on the HD4600 line I'm afraid this card may price itself right out of contention. With this being the top of the HD 4670 line, NewEgg's $82.99 price tag seems appropriate. This saddens me just a little because this is a really great little card. It's price redeeming factors may very well be the silent and cool operation coupled with low power consumption and excellent HDMI options. The value mark for this card is tough to put a point on... I'll finish with these simple thoughts: If you strictly game and want the most bang for your buck, your money might better serve you with a 9600GT or a 9800GT. If you want something a little more sophisticated for say HTPC use and good gaming at resonable resolutions with energy savings and silence being important to you, this card will not disappoint you. Keep in mind my scores below are for this card based on it's position in the market, not it's position or stature in the overall graphics card market. Pros:
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