The Basics:
The most notable aspect of packaging for the
Sapphire Radeon HD4870 512MB graphics card has to be the Lara Croft like character seen on the left hand side.
Other than this eye catching graphic, the box provides plenty of information regarding the card's features and specifications, as well as details on some of the included software.
Sapphire seems to include a copy of FutureMark's 3DMark06, CyberLink's PowerDVD, and CyberLink's DVD Suite by default, but there are a couple other titles mentioned that I am not familiar with. One label indicates that "Ruby ROM" is included, while another makes reference to a 2GB flash drive being included that contains a "Sapphire Sampler". I am interested to see what is included with these two items.
Inside the box, the card is sealed in a thick bubble wrap bag and well protected with large sheets of egg-crate foam wrapped around it. Sapphire takes this opportunity to remind the users that this card must be connected to the appropriate power connections for proper operation. The configuration of this card has two 6-pin PCI Express power plugs that must be connected to an adequate power supply. Data on the Sapphire website indicates that each connection should be rated for 75W, meaning that the combined draw on the 12V rail(s) could be over 12A.
The image below provides a look at the sample provided for review, and the design looks very familiar. Except for the label identifying it as a "HD4870", upon a quick first inspection it looks very much like a card from the HD3870 series. A few physicial features will be noted that set it apart from the previous generation of cards, and when we get to testing we will see how different they are where it really matters.
