Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT Motherboard Review

Allan 'Zardon' Campbell October 25, 2012 Featured Announcement, Motherboard

Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
Multicore CPU support
Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
Powerful C++ API
Comprehensive performance profiling system
Flexible XML-based data structures

We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11.

All systems deliver good overall results, with the Core i7 970 system significantly out in front with an average of 74.4 frames per second. The Sapphire A85XT powered system today averages 65.2 frames per second, still perfectly smooth.

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Valve overhauls Season Passes / DLC on Steam, for the better

Over the course of 2024, Valve has introduced a ton of new and appreciated pro-consumer features to its Steam platform. From the revamped family sharing to increased integration with the Steam Deck and more, Valve has been putting in the work to continue improving the platform. The latest update sees a new, more transparent / user-friendly approach to DLC and Season Passes.

7 comments

najiro
October 25, 2012 at 10:04 am

Wow! Very nice review. Good job AMD! Really liking this a lot! This is more competitive compared the bulldozers and piledriver processors.
Xtreme
October 25, 2012 at 10:06 am

Its quite an ugly looking motherboard on a colour scheme level (not important to some I guess). thankfully they seem to be improving their bioses. been following their motherboards here since they started doing them….
Manucuna
October 25, 2012 at 10:07 am

Its quite an ugly looking motherboard on a colour scheme level (not important to some I guess). thankfully they seem to be improving their bioses. been following their motherboards here since they started doing them….
Eran
October 25, 2012 at 10:09 am

I like this new range of low end processors from AMD, they perform really well. anyone remember ATOM? yeah, not fondly. it was sh$t
Brian
October 25, 2012 at 10:11 am

That SATA arrangement seems unnecessary. I can only assume the engineering wiring on the multi layer PCB had to be routed a specific way making the layout impossible for level port positioning.

I suppose you could use the angled connectors, although they might still connect with a larger graphics card.

Who uses mSATA however? the drives are very expensive.
Davis
October 25, 2012 at 10:12 am

would make more sense if they did a mini itx version of it for media centers only.