Value and Conclusion

	Sapphire's HD 3870 Toxic retails at about $229, which is $40 more than the reference HD 3870.
	Single slot cooler Overclocked out of the box HDMI cable included Low idle power consumption HDMI+HDCP+Audio PCI-Express 2.0 support 3DMark full version included
	Very noisy fan under load Limited overclocking
8.8	Even though the Sapphire Vapor-X Cooling Technology is a nice feature I think the implementation of it could be better. Under load the fan is so noisy that you feel like throwing the card out of the system right after installation. Yes, the card runs quite cool but what does that help if you can't stand the noise. Another problem with the fan is that it tends to constantly change fan speed in short intervals making the noise even more obvious. If you are a bit handy with tweaking tools though you can slow down the fan quite a bit and make it a more pleasant experience. If you are looking at running a massive quad CrossFireX setup and want single slot cards for your benchmarking adventures and don't really care about the noise then this is the card you want. No other VGA manufacturer offers a single slot HD 3870 which will be required on many motherboards that have some of the PCI-E slots right next to each other. The inclusion of an HDMI cable is a nice plus in addition to the nice accessory package that Sapphire includes. Of course all those gimmicks have a price, but if you have use for a 3DMark license, an HDMI cable and PowerDVD then the extra price of about $40 over the reference design can be easily justified.

Update: Seraphic let us know that he purchased a card that came without the HDMI cable. His card card about 30 bucks cheaper though to offset the price of the missing cable. So before you buy, please check if the cable is included.