The VaporX Sapphire HD 7770 GHz OC Edition brings Quiet Overclocking to HD 7000 series
Unboxing the Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X edition
The Vapor-X Sapphire HD 7770 OC edition comes in a box with a fully-armed G.I. Jane type of picture that emphasises that Sapphire means business with this Vapor-X card. 1GB GGR5, high-speed HDMI and a substantial overclock stand out to catch the consumer’s eye at retail.
Clearly the box emphasizes the cool and cooling aspects of Vapor-X by having their mascott dressed for Arctic conditions. However, the box art design frankly pales in comparison with the Sapphire HD 7770 GHz OverClock edition; we have our first “win” for the OverClock edition:
The other side of the Vapor-X box is dedicated to another view of Sapphire’s mascott and to the card’s features. The potential buyer at retail can see what is included with the HD 7770 – assorted cables , the driver CD and the quickstart manual. It advises, “Stay Cool and chilled with the SAPPHIRE HD 7770 Vapor-X”
The end panels are pretty plain although the specifications are on one panel. Opening the box, we see that everything is well-packed and the Vapor-X HD 7770 card itself comes in an anti-static foam-protected envelope.
Here is everything out of the box.
We see a single molex to 6-pin PCIe connector which suggests that this card is very light on power usage. Included is a HDMI cable, a DVI to VGA adapter, a HDMI to mini adaptor and a CrossFire bridge for pairing up the performance of two HD 7770s.
Sapphire has created a well-designed, good-looking card with twin cooling fans. This is a significant difference from the the GHz OverClock edition which sports a large single fan in the center. There is a single DVI connector, DisplayPort connector and two mini HDMI connectors common to both cards
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Sapphire has added extra cooling to the card in the form of heatpipes to keep the overclock stable. There is a single 6-pin PCIe connection.
Turning the card over …
This card is easy to fit into any mid-tower and even into smaller cases as the card is physically short at about eight and one-quarter inches long. The card is packed well and looks great!
Let’s take a look at our test system before we benchmark the Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X edition against the Sapphire HD 7770 GHz OverClock edition.
