Reviews - Pro-Clockers! PC Reviews One MegaHertz At A Time

Introduction to the Sapphire FleX 6870 1GB GDDE5

Since day one, when reviews for Eyefinity started popping up, I have wanted to try my hand at it. Yet like many of you, I also am not able to afford the types of monitors or fancy adapters it takes in order to enjoy gaming nirvana with multi-monitors; however, leave it up to our good friends at Sapphire to make it a little less painful on the pocket. Enter the FleX Edition cards.

Adding to the HD 5770 model they released in 2010, Sapphire recently announced the arrival of two new video cards to the FleX line, utilizing the HD 5670 and HD 6870 chips. The HD 5670 was released for the business professional that was looking to enhance his/her business productivity. The Radeon HD 6870 FleX Edition however, is the one many of us would love to have in our rig. The HD 6870 is definitely the gamer's choice as it has the more powerful GPU as well as the faster memory.

So, just what is the FleX Edition all about? It is the first line of Eyefinity capable Radeon cards that does not require an 'active adapter' or DisplayPort capable monitor in order to run in Eyefinity mode. That’s right, all you need are three DVI monitors (or two DVI, one HDMI) and a FleX Edition graphic card! Though the 6870 cards do still retain the ability to do 5x1-P (five screen, portrait), provided you have the dough for such a configuration! We will be focusing on the more budget-friendly 3-screen method on our HD 6870, so with that said; on with the show!

Sapphire’s take on the FleX 6870

SAPPHIRE HD 6870 FleX can support three DVI monitors in Eyefinity mode and deliver a true SLS (Single Large Surface) work area without the need for costly active adapters. With the SAPPHIRE FleX solution, the first two monitors are connected to the DVI outputs, as usual. A third DVI monitor can be connected to the HDMI output with the passive cable adapter supplied. Thus three DVI monitors can be used in Eyefinity mode without any additional investment, and the board can support up to 5 displays maximum with disport port.