The performance of the Sapphire X850XT is great. We have already reviewed two X850XT from different manufacturers but this specific card reported the best frame rates, even with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering on.

The cooling system that the Sapphire card has adopted maintains the GPU temperatures at fairly low levels while the noise is not too loud, in comparison with Nvidia's 6800Ultra series.

Overclocking with the Sapphire X850XT is something you'd better forget. None of the benchmarks we ran showed any actual in-game difference. Probably the reason for this is that the card's clocks were already set at the highest possible levels. The extra 10~15MHz we increased on the core clock and the memory speed had no great affect on our tests. In the 3DMark tests, there was a small difference but as we said above, no actual in-game difference.

The bundle is also good, with all the required cables included, while the software is more than the usual. However, we believe that the games are a little outdated...

At the time of this review, the retail price on the US market for the specific Sapphire X850XT was approximately US$470 while in Europe it can be found for close to €435. If you would like a dual DVI-I connection, then there is no great difference, close to US$475 and €445. If we consider the excellent performance in our reviews, the price can be considered as good. Other cards, for example Nvidia's 6800Ultra, costs even more and their performance is lower.

Pros:
- Excellent performance with most of the game tests
- Fairly quiet cooler
- Reasonably priced

Cons:
- Overclocking

Performance:
Overclocking:
Bundle:
Value for money: