All of the major graphics card makers are working on unique and tailored versions using AMD's Cypress GPU. All current Radeon HD 5800 cards are of the reference design, but we now have some pictures of one of the first non-reference HD 5870 cards and it comes from Sapphire. The card sports the well known Vapor-X cooler, but pictures at Hexus.net reveal a new PCB.
The PCB is blue, a bit shorter, and have the power connectors at the rear, much like the older Radeon HD 4890. At the same time a picture published at XtremeSystems shows a Vapor-X card with AMD's reference PCB, confusing the least to say.
Either way, we hope to see Sapphire's creation soon and wonder how much better it can be when AMD's reference cooler for Radeon HD 5870 is one of the best we've seen. We expect similar solutions from other companies in the near future, and we will keep you posted on the ones we run into. Keep an eye out for our upcoming Radeon HD 5800 review.
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