Sapphire Toxic X800 Pro ViVo

With all of our recent articles concerning NVIDIA's latest round of products, it seemed as if our analysis in the graphics space was getting a bit lop-sided.  Today, we're aiming to change that with a new card from Sapphire, dubbed the Sapphire Toxic X800 Pro ViVo.  This card alone could make up for some of the new mid range Radeon's missing fanfare.  From the shiny metallic alien-adorned box to the exotic looking card within, this product is definitely an eye-catcher.  Based on the Radeon X800 Pro VPU, the Toxic X800 Pro is a complete solution for both performance users and multimedia aficionados.

Sapphire is branding this, as well as some other new cards, as the "TOXIC" series.  They are essentially top-of-the-line products with lots of extra features, including a solid game bundle, oversized cooling options, hardware monitoring, and software controlled overclocking called Automated Performance Enhancement, or "APE" for short.  Let's start off with the specifications of the Toxic X800 Pro, and see what kind of "monkey business" Sapphire is up to.  

Specifications & Features of the Sapphire Toxic X800 Pro ViVo Don't you know that you're toxic?

Features: A.P.E. Extends memory operating frequency to pre-tested levels that far surpass the competition TMR-Temperature Monitoring Ready Technology allows for output to display (not included) of TOXIC cards temperatures Lethal Cooling provides the definitive cooling solution for the overclocker while remaining quiet 256MB of 'Xtreme performance GDDR3 memory accelerates the latest cutting edge 3D applications 256-bit quad-channel GDDR3 memory interface Twelve 'Xtreme parallel pixel pipelines Supports the AGP 8X and AGP 4x standard, providing a high-speed link between the graphics board and the rest of the PC Six programmable vertex shader pipelines Full support for DirectX(R) 9.0 and the latest OpenGL(R) functionality New SMARTSHADER™ HD technology allows for support for Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware as well as OpenGL(R) via extensions. SMOOTHVISION™ HD technology provides enhanced image quality by removing jagged edges and bringing out fine texture detail, without compromising performance 3Dc™ High quality 4:1 Normal Map Compression delivers beautiful scenes without the performance hit. Unique VIDEOSHADER™ HD engine uses programmable pixel shaders to accelerate video processing and provide better-looking visuals HYPER Z™ HD is optimized for performance at high display resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions. ViVo - Video capture and Video Output to big screen TV's

Accessories: DVI to VGA adaptor 7 Pin S-Video to HDTV(YprPb) cable S-Video cable S-Video to composite adaptor RCA composite cable ATX power cable splitter Sapphire Case Badge Software Bundle: User's Manual Sapphire Driver CD Redline Tweak Utility CD PowerDVD 5 (2 Speaker version) Power Director Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow Prince of Persia - Sands of Time Graphics Engine: ATI Radeon X800 PRO Video Memory: 256MB GDDR3 Engine Clock: 475MHz Memory Clock: 900MHz(450MHz DDR) RAMDAC: 400MHz Bus Standard: AGP8X/4X/2X Memory Interface: 256-bit DDR Max Resolution: 2048x1536 VGA Output: Standard 15-pin D-sub TV-out: S-Video and Composite DVI Output: DVI-I 2nd VGA Output: Yes

Sapphire has included what has to be one of the most complete bundles that we've seen recently.  All of the cables that one would normally need are there, including a power cable splitter, S-Video cables, RCA and component video, as well as a DVI-to-VGA adapter.  Unfortunately, the user's manual is far too sparse on information about properly setting up the card using these connections.  The pictures describing the power connection do not match at all, and little thought was given to installing and running the card in any other manner than standard VGA.  More experienced users will not be put off by this, which is almost surely the market that Sapphire is leaning to, but we still feel that more effort was needed in the documentation.  We should point out, however, than the online version of the manual was much more complete, and covered cabling and advanced settings much more thoroughly.

On the software side, there were not one, but two complete games: Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow and Prince of Persia - Sands of Time, both from Ubisoft.  Splinter Cell actually comes in a DVD-ROM format, which differs from what is available in stores.  To complement these games, we also found a 2 channel version of PowerDVD 5, a PowerDirector CD, and Sapphire's driver CD and Redline Tweak application.  The driver CD is straightforward enough; install the drivers and Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view the online manual.  There's also a link to install the Automatic Performance Enhancement (APE) software, which in and of itself sounds innocent enough to install.  Who wouldn't want better performance?  What isn't explained right away is what APE actually does, which is raise the memory speed from the default speed of 450MHz (900MHz effective) to 520MHz (1040MHz).  The VPU speed is not altered, but this can be remedied by using the Redline Tweak application. Best of all, even though APE is running the memory at higher than normal speeds, the Toxic X800 Pro is still warrantied by Sapphire under these conditions, so there's really no reason not to install it.