Sapphire 9800XT Atlantis

Sapphire has turned a blind eye to the Nvidia Geforce chipset and instead only sells ATI Radeon based graphics cards. It was therefore no shock at all to see it submit the Radeon 9800 XT Atlantis as its chosen model.

No alterations have been made to ATI's reference design, although Sapphire has put its logo on the heatsink cover. Like all the other 9800 XT cards in this test, barring the two-fan Asus, the standard ATI reference heatsink and fan are used.

Sapphire has supplied a decent selection of cables, adapters and software with the Radeon 9800XT Atlantis. Along with a power splitter cable and an S-video cable, you also get both an RCA-to-S-video and a DVI-to-VGA adapter.

Those who want to overclock their cards will be able to use Sapphire's Redline utility. It doesn't feature the colourful graphics sported by the likes of Gigabyte's V-Tuner, but gets the job done. Furthermore, like the Gigabyte offering, Sapphire tells us that use of this overclocking utility won't void the warranty, which is good to hear.

As is common with many other graphics cards, Sapphire has included a software DVD player with the 9800XT Atlantis, namely Cyberlink PowerDVD. It comes with just one game, Tomb Raider - Angel of Darkness, but you also get that little bit of paper from ATI entitling you to a copy of Half- Life 2 when it reaches the stores, along with the Valve Premiere Pack free download that includes Half-Life, Counter Strike and Team Fortress Classic.

With an RRP of £329, the Radeon 9800XT Atlantis is one of the cheaper high-end cards on the market. It's still by no means the cheapest model in this group test, but if you think you'll put the impressive hardware and software bundle to good use, it's definitely worth considering and wins a Highly Commended award.

Contact: Sapphire 0870 138 3554 (Komplett- sales)
www.sapphiretech.com