Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic 1GB Video Card Review

Temperature Testing

Since video card temperatures and the heat generated by
next-generation cards have become an area of concern among enthusiasts
and gamers, we want to take a closer look at how the Sapphire Radeon HD 5850
Toxic does at idle and under a full load against a reference designed card.

ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB Idle Temperature:

Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic 1GB Idle Temperature:

At idle the Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic does about 2C better than the reference designed card, but notice that the other zones of the video card are also cooler.

ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
Reference Video Card Load Temperature:

Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic 1GB Video Card Load Temperature:

We fired up FurMark and ran the stability at 640×480 which was
enough to put the GPU at 100% load in order to get the highest load
temperature possible. This application also charted the temperature
results so you can see how the temperature rises and levels off, which
is very nice. The Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB Toxic graphics card topped out at 67C, which is 5C cooler than the reference design even though it is factory overclocked and running higher voltages. This is proof positive that the cooler that Sapphire is using on the Radeon HD 5850 Toxic series is the real deal and better than the stock cooler. Not only does it cool better, but it gives you lower noise levels!