SAPPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity

Pros: I got my 5870 today and installed it in my system. Before I did that, I ran 3DMark 06, and Vantage while my 4870 X2 was installed. Here are the numbers I got when I tested the 5870, and then compared the results to my earlier 4870 X2 results. In 3DMark 06 the 4870 X2 scored 23,379 Points and the 5870 scored 23,127 Points. The separation between the two cards was 1%. In Vantage, my 4870 X2 scored 17,190 points, while my 5870 scored 17,161 points. The difference here is 0.1%. All in all, the cards pretty much ran Identical. Thats great considering the 5870 has a single GPU. I also noted temperature and fan speed differences at idle. The 4870 X2 at idle was 68 degrees Celsius with a fan speed of 27%. The 5870 was 43 degrees Celsius with a fan speed of 21%. The 5870 is significantly cooler, and quieter. All cards were tested at there default clock speeds.

Cons: None... Great card

Overall Review: My system... Asus P6T6 Revolution mainboard, Intel i7 940 overclocked to 3.65Ghz, Corsair 1600 Mhz DDR3 Dominator Ram, Corsair 750 Watt Power supply, and of course the Radeon HD 5870.

Since these cards ran so close in speed, could I be Processor Limited?? Not sure. I do know the higher I overclock the processor, the better the frame rates in these tests.

Pros: Everything I threw at it, it runs very wellt. Like MW2, BatmanAA, BattleForge, AION, etc. with max quality setting (and optimal 3D quality setting in CCC) See huge differences compare to my former 8600gts

Cons: 1. Big in size, but fit perfectly well into my mid-tower case
2. Freaking loud when crank up the fan speed above ~45%
3. Couldn't OCed this card to 900/1300, gives my the weird stripes screen after about 5minutes into games, every games, even after turning fan speed to 80%+, doesn't seem like a heat problem
4. at stock clock and fan speed when play game, temp jumped to above 75C, (not much of a con, but i like keeping thing cool...especially at stock mode)
5. And the -2 eggs is because I believe my card is used/opened, after opening the newegg box, i pull the sapphire box out and the sticker that suppose to seal the box is not where it suppose to be, it goes off a little to a side and i can see the original sticker-print in the middle. didnt care much about that... but when i get into the card, i see that there is no seal on the anti-statitic bag, it looks like the bag is cut off, this is my first and only box so i don't know about others, then there are some scratches on the card.

Overall Review: To other consumers, please let me know if your boxes are similar to what i've described above, I've purchased a lot of items from newegg and everyone of them gave me that new and fresh feeling, but this one didnt. I feel like I'm being tricked and paid for an opened/used card at the price of a freshly new one. Really disappointing.