SAPPHIRE 11179-09 Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: -It is an awesome card!
-Runs most of my games on ultra and on 60fps (when it wants to tho)
-good for the price

Cons: I't has been crashing recently (lots of .BSOD's, and on STOCK CLOCKS TOO!).
Might need to RMA it. but before i do that i would like to test it a some more.

I love a very good PSU, so i dought that is the problem

Other Thoughts: i thought it was a good buy, and it was..at first
but i will see if its really defective or not.

I have never RMA something on Newegg before, and it will so so nice if some one from new egg could help me :D

Pros: Supports DX11, Crossfire, Eyefinity, and I guess it has fairly good performance.

Cons: Not as amazing as I hoped, and ultimately was torpedoed by the infamous "Black Screen of Death."

Other Thoughts: So I wanted a video card upgrade to my system which would produce performance superior to my old gtx 260. Reviews seemed overwhelmingly positive for these cards, so I figured I'd get two of them and put them in Crossfire mode. Surely, I thought, that would give me a boost.

Well, it did, kind of. I noticed a wider range of graphical effects and everything looked a lot nicer as a result. However, frame rate didn't seem to be much better, despite these cards supposedly being twice as fast as the 260 in terms of clock speed. Maybe that's because of the additional special effects that this card could use thanks to DX11, but it was kind of disappointing.

What was really disappointing, though, was when the screen would turn black after booting to desktop. At first the problem would clear when I hard restarted the system, but then it got worse and the system would immediately show a black screen and go unresponsive mere moments after loading up Windows. After some research on the Internet, I discovered that this "Black Screen of Death" is actually a well known problem with this video card thanks to a flaw in its manufacture. So, I surmise that one or both of the cards I received had this problem, was returned by its user for that issue, was "refurbished," then I happened to purchase it some time later. Great.

The real kicker here is that apparently, since it's a refurbished product, it's not currently available for a return and refund. So, basically I bought two expensive paperweights that I can't simply send back so I can get something else that's better and works. I have to mess around with the manufacturer, who in all likelihood will send me cards that will also have the Black Screen issue (if my luck holds, anyway).

I am never buying a refurbished product from this store again. As for you the reader, don't take a chance on these things. Stay away and get something that's new.

Manufacturer Response:

We are sorry that you are having problems with your graphics card.

The problem that you describe can be caused by a variety of isses from corrupted / conflicting drivers to overheating (check the fan is spinning).

Please can you try fully uninstalling the driver from your system, and then run a driver cleaner. After this you can download the latest beta driver to minimise compatibility issues.

Pros: I didn't have to waste too much time figuring out what was wrong with it. Teaches me the value of buying new!

Cons: Advertised as fixed product but clearly was not fixed. The driver stopped responding the second I opened a browser, played a game, or watched a movie. It would Fail over and over. RMA'd it ASAP. Waste of time.

Other Thoughts: I am hoping the replacement will be here soon and it better work otherwise I will never buy refurbished again and will advocate to anyone I know that buying refurbished is buying damaged goods.

Pros: Good Deal. runs very fast and high detail settings

Cons: none on card itself.
poor service, paid for overnight shipping and same day shipping and it took 4 days! what a waste of money. I may still buy from newegg but will not pay for overnight again. I learned my lesson if I need something fast go to local computer store and pay more but get it right away!

Pros: Great card, nice upgrade for my old gForce 9600GS.

Cons: It ran a lil hot at first till I manually set fan to 100%. At 100%, fan is loud as hell, but bearable.

Pros: None so far

Cons: Video Card was dead upon arrival, luckily I have an older video card that I can use while I have it replaced.

Other Thoughts: Will update this review (hopefully the 'pros') after I (hopefully) received a working video card.

Manufacturer Response:

We are sorry to hear that you received a faulty card and we do hope that your RMA process goes smoothly.

Pros: -Fan is quiet, yet feels like it pushes a decent amount of air
-7.8 Windows Experience Index on Win8. Performs on-par with R7850
-No driver issues to speak of.
-HDMI and DVI ports for flexibility. Runs cleanly on dual 900p monitors.
-Squashes games, 60fps+ on Borderlands 2, Skyrim, Saints Row the Third, Portal 2, Far Cry 3. all settings set to high or ultra at 1600x900.
-Idles at 35-36C, runs below 70C under 95% load.

Cons: -Driver CD it came with was cracked. as soon as I got connected to the internet, downloading and installing the drivers took less than 5 minutes.

Other Thoughts: For a refurbished part, it's amazing

Arrived sealed and marked for passing inspection, no physical flaws. Card and fan worked from the get-go.

Pros: I wanted to wait a while and see how it ran before posting a review. Been running this now about 4 or 5 months i am guessing, no problems at all! Runs everything i can throw at it on high settings and beyond, Skyrim with mods, textures and ENB lighting at 3/4 of the way up on settings and it never drops under 30 fps (usually 40-50 fps)

Fallout 3? eats it up as high as it can go, again with a ton of textures and lighting

Runs fairly cool, (50-55c) and after some research this temp range is normal (highest i have ever seen was 57c)

Smaller card than most i looked at, fits in my cramped case just fine :)

Cons: Cons? none that i can list :)

Other Thoughts: I have poked around with MSI afterburner, but so far it has not needed any tweaking, runs just fine for me at stock settings.


I am considering an upgrade sometime this spring and will defiantly purchase another Sapphire card (78xx)

I bought this as a new card last summer and i just love it! Thanks Sapphire, you guys rock

Pros: Great Benchmarks, can run all modern Games on Ultra with Ease. Lowest FPS I saw using FRAPS was 30! Plus it runs very cool for it's performance.

Cons: NONE!

Other Thoughts: I was sketchy about the refurbished part but it didn't seem to matter when it came to performance.