SAPPHIRE Technology, the pioneer of alternative cooling solutions for PC graphics, has just launched a new ULTIMATE Edition in its exciting new HD 3000 series, to deliver the fastest performing passive cooled graphics card in the World - ever!



The SAPPHIRE HD 3850 ULTIMATE Edition has 512MB of GDDR3 memory, running at 828MHz (1.66GHz effective) and has a core clock speed of 668MHz, delivering the same exciting levels of graphics performance as the standard model - but featuring a totally fanless and silent heatpipe cooler. It incorporates the latest ATI Avivo HD Technology for enhanced Video display and features a built in UVD (Unified Video decoder) for the hardware accelerated decoding of Blu-ray and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, reducing CPU loading to a minimum. The HDMI adaptor delivers true audio and video output on a single cable for direct connection of an HDMI ready display, making the SAPPHIRE HD 3850 ULTIMATE the ideal solution for gamers and video enthusiasts.

Like other models in the series, the SAPPHIRE HD 3850 ULTIMATE Edition features the new CrossFireX technology, with two high speed connectors on each card allowing 2, 3 or even 4 graphics cards to be daisy-chained together for enhanced performance when installed in a CrossFireX mainboard. As each card has two dual-link DVI connectors, this allows up to eight monitors to be used at the same time, or - with CrossFire enabled - two GPU's (and up to four with future driver releases) to provide a more powerful rendering solution.

All the new SAPPHIRE HD 3800 series combine a unified shader architecture with support for Shader Model 4.0 and the forthcoming DirectX 10.1 connected via the latest PCI-Express Gen 2.0 interface. The architecture shares the 320 stream processors and 512-bit internal ring bus memory controller of the previous high end SAPPHIRE HD 2900 models together with multiple rendering units and a programmable tessellation unit to deliver outstanding graphics performance. Now manufactured in a new 55nm process technology, the GPU in the HD 3000 series delivers this performance with lower power consumption and at lower cost than previous generations. A new feature known as ATI PowerPlay actively reduces power consumption depending on loading.

SAPPHIRE HD 3000 series graphics cards are Microsoft Windows Vista Premium certified and supported by the ATI Catalyst suite of software, ensuring customers have ongoing access to software updates for performance, stability and added features. Support for DirectX10.1 provides developers with access to enhanced programming techniques and new lighting effects.



Source: Sapphire
Images: xtreview and Fudzilla