Following the storming introduction of the SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series, the company has now introduced two new models with its world-leading Vapor-X cooler technology delivering even greater performance, whilst working at lower operating temperatures and significantly more quietly.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5870 Vapor-X is based on the latest graphics architecture from the ATI division of AMD, the second generation of GPU to be built in its 40nm process. It supports the advanced graphical features of DirectX 11, and delivers spectacular video clarity, speed and visual effects, including over multiple monitors with the new ATI Eyefinity mode.

Sporting a new 150GB/s memory interface supporting fifth generation GDDR5 memory and a new architecture with a total of 1600 stream processors and 80 texture units the SAPPHIRE HD 5870 Vapor-X has twice the computing power of the previous generation. With enhanced clock speeds of 870MHz core and 1250MHz (5GHz effective) the SAPPHIRE HD 5870 Vapor-X model is the fastest card in its class, and SAPPHIRE’s World leading Vapor-X technology not only allows the card to run as much as 15 degrees C cooler** and 10dB quieter** than the standard model, it provides additional headroom for performance tuning (overclocking).

The new SAPPHIRE HD 5870 Vapor-X is lightning fast with existing DirectX10.1, DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0 games and applications, and will support stunning new levels of detail, transparency and lighting effects in new releases of software using DirectX 11. All of this comes with the modest active power consumption of less that 190W – and using Dynamic Power Management the card has a new super low-power idle mode at 27W.

At the same time, for the more budget conscious, SAPPHIRE introduces the SAPPHIRE HD 5750 Vapor-X, with the configuration of 720 stream processors and 1GB of GDDR5 memory offering users access to the same new generation technology, and full DirectX 11 support at a lower price point. Again the Vapor-X cooler runs cooler and more quietly than other solutions, increasing reliability and allowing enthusiast users significantly greater headroom for performance tuning.

Both cards incorporate the latest features in order to support Microsoft DirectX 11, including DirectCompute 11 instructions, hardware Tessellation and multi-threaded communications with the system CPU. These combine to provide new capabilities such as the interaction between transparent objects, new lighting and accelerated post processing effects as well as supporting ATI Stream for accelerating applications such as video transcoding.

Like the previous generation, the SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series has an on board hardware UVD (Unified Video decoder) considerably reducing CPU load and delivering smooth decoding of Blu-ray™ and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, as well as Mpeg files. In the SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series the UVD has been enhanced to be able simultaneously to decode two 1080p HD video streams and to be able to display HD video in high quality with Windows Aero mode enabled. HDMI capability has also been upgraded to HDMI 1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio support.

In addition to spectacular image clarity, speed and visual effects, the SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series supports a new multi-monitor mode known as Eyefinity. This allows a single GPU to display a choice of images over an array of several monitors. Each card supports up to three monitors, with an overall resolution of up to 7680 x 1600. This opens up exciting possibilities not just for multi-screen gaming, but also for information systems, multimedia systems and promotional displays.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series is supported by AMD's DirectX 11 WHQL certified graphics driver for Windows 7 and Vista which delivers support for all of the key DirectX 11 level features required for new gaming experiences and acceleration of next generation high performance applications.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5870 and HD 5750 Vapor-X models are shipping from 3rd November. Full retail editions will include a coupon for Dirt2 – the PC version of this exciting driving game which has full DirectX 11 support.