Sapphire Toxic Radeon X1900 XTX
Our Summary & Conclusion
Performance Summary: The Sapphire Toxic Radeon X1900 XTX was an exceptional performer throughout all of our testing. Because the card is due to ship in a "pre-overclocked" state, it was faster than a stock Radeon X1900 XTX in every benchmark we ran. And the Toxic Radeon's higher core and memory clocks also gave it an edge over the GeForce 7900 GTX in a few tests (3DMark06, FarCry, Splinter Cell), where a stock Radeon X1900 XTX fell short of the mark set by NVIDIA's current flagship.
Sapphire's Toxic Radeon X1900 XTX is appealing on a few different levels. First off, the card ships with a very complete accessory bundle that includes video editing and DVD playback software, two full-version games, and an assortment of cables that give users the ability to connect the card to a multitude of different display types. The Toxic's liquid cooling apparatus is also another plus in our book. The card's liquid cooler does a better job at keeping the GPU cool than a stock heatsink assembly, and it does so while generating much less noise overall. We also like the fact that the cooler can be relocated into a different slot position within a system, and that it doesn't have to be right up against the video card. The Toxic Radeon X1900 XTX also proved to be a very competent overclocker, and because it's powered by ATI's flagship Radeon X1900 XTX GPU and 512MB of RAM it's obviously a heck of a performer too.
With an MSRP of $569, the Sapphire Toxic Radeon X1900 XTX is not cheap by any means. But considering that "stock" X1900 XTXs are currently selling for about $530 to $580, and Sapphire will be offering a $30 mail in rebate bringing the final price down to $539, we think the Toxic Radeon X1900 XTX's price-premium is well justified. The Toxic card's quieter liquid-cooler and complete bundle easily make up for the increased cost. Based on the information we currently have from Sapphire, we think the Toxic Radeon X1900 XTX is one of the more attractive high-end video cards we've tested here on HotHardware. We're giving the Toxic Radeon X1900 XTX a strong 9 on the Heat Meter, and a rare HotHardware Editor's Choice award.
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