In this informal product review, the speaker explains why they chose to purchase an ATI Radeon HD 5770 (Sapphire edition) for roughly $150 as part of a Windows 7 upgrade. They reference Tom’s Hardware’s price‑tiered recommendations and note that the 5770 was the only card in the $150 bracket supporting DirectX 11, which they view as future‑proof for upcoming games. The card’s dual DVI and HDMI outputs allow three monitors from a single GPU, eliminating the need for an external USB video adapter. After consulting Newegg reviews, the Sapphire variant emerged as the highest‑rated, but the speaker bought the card on Amazon for a $10 price advantage and tax savings. They comment on the card’s aesthetic (female mascot, jet‑engine‑like cooler) and a newer, smaller manufacturing process (approximately 40 nm) that reduces power draw and heat. The unboxing reveals a manual, a DVI‑to‑VGA adapter, a power cable, a driver CD (which they ignore in favor of online drivers), and CrossFire connectors for multi‑GPU scaling. The overall tone is conversational and enthusiastic, aiming to inform viewers about the card’s features, purchase considerations, and installation basics.
Chapters
Alright, so I wanted to show you guys a new video card I just got, and I've been holding off, and I'm now upgrading my system to Windows 7. So I did a little research, and I wanted to spend about $150, and there's a really great site, Tom's Hardware, that does a breakdown every month of the best video cards to buy within $50 increments of each other. So like, best card for $50, for $100, $150, like in that ballpark, $200, and top-line cards. Anyways, this is in the $150 category. There were basically— it was a tie between 3 cards. But the reason I chose this one is this is a brand new card from ATI. It's a Radeon 5770. And the reason I chose it is it's the only card of those 3 that actually supports DirectX 11. So hopefully a lot of new games will be taking advantage of Microsoft's latest version of their graphics engine for video games. And that was one of the reasons I chose it. But another reason I chose it is this. So this card has, actually has 4 graphic ports, but the main ones I'm interested in is it's got 2 DVI ports and it's got an HDMI port. So I can actually drive 3 monitors with just this one video card, and that's kind of a big deal for me. I was, I was getting ready to buy an external USB video adapter to drive a third monitor, but now I can do it straight from this card. So Tom's Hardware showed me that this was the best card, the 5770, to get in that price range, but then I went over to Newegg, and there's a ton of different manufacturers that make this card, and started reading all the reviews, and found out that the Sapphire flavor of the 5770 was the one that was highest rated. So this is the one I ended up buying. And I actually didn't buy it at Newegg, unfortunately. I bought it at Amazon because they had it for $10 less and I don't have to pay tax, and I'm a happy Amazon customer. So although I do give Newegg a lot of business, this particular card I got over at Amazon. And it's pretty funny, it's sexy looking. Girl on the card, which, you know, it's gonna be sitting inside a machine, no one's ever gonna look at it, so kind of a waste, but still looks cool. This is kind of trippy, it's got kind of like this jet engine looking on the back, but whatever, still looks cool. And the other thing is, I think, don't quote me, but I think it's they use a new manufacturing process on the graphics chip. I think it's a 40mm or It's a smaller chip, it draws less heat, draws less power, that's another reason why I'm pretty excited about these newer cards. Um, so, anyways, last thing is, let's see, what else came in the box? We got— this isn't really an unboxing, but, eh, anyways, there's a manual, it's a 1DVI to VGA converter, power cable, so you need to draw some power off of your power supply, and the CD disc, which I never use, I always download the latest drivers. Off of the site as soon as I get a new card. And this little guy, which is the, uh, these are the Crossfire connectors. So if you decide you want more speed, you can buy two of these, throw them in your machine, and then with this connector you can link them both up. Anyways, just wanted to give you a little info on this new video card I got, and hope you gained some knowledge out of that.
