Sapphire X800GTO (Fireblade Edition)

- The Package

Sapphire as always has a very nice looking box and like most graphics cards we have a run down on key features on the front.

As you can see this particular one is the Fireblade Edition with 256MB, DVI, VGA, PCI Express and more. We can also see they give us a few bits and pieces about the bundle included inside.

Turning the box to the other side we have our product highlights and a small "Inside The Box" section. The nicest feature in regards to the back of the box is the window in the top right corner which gives us the ability to see the card without opening the box. As you can see we have a very fancy looking card and in a retail situation people could choose this one over other brands whose card you cannot see.

Opening the box up we have a large array of cables which include an RCA and S-Video cable to make use of the TV out along with a RCA/S-Video converter and a component out cable to make use of if your TV supports HDTV.

Aside from the cables we have our manual, copy of PowerDVD, installation CD, a voucher for 10 free hours of GuildWars as well as a Sapphire Select CD which gives you access to two full version games.

- The Card

We did get a little peak at the card through the box and the cooler along with the blue PCB which is very distinctive. The cooler is just like the standard X850XT cooler, we do have to mention thought that the cooler is quite loud even when it is being throttled down.

When installed inside a computer case, the sounds would be a lot more bearable but outside of it (like when we were testing the card) we think you would find it quite annoying.

Turning the card over we have a back plate which does two things - firstly hold the cooler on the front of the card together and also help with cooling the rear memory. We can see where the Rage Theater chip would go but as you can see its missing here so we don't have VIVO support.

The card is a double slot design with one part having the DVI and VGA connector along with the TV Out connector and the other side having holes which allows air to be pushed out of the case.

It is weird to see that a lower-end card needs to have such a big cooler but we will have to see if it helps when it comes to overclocking and after all, it is called "Fireblade", so we're expecting something pretty good from it.

The card is clocked at the default 400MHz on the core and 490MHz on the memory.