Sapphire PURE Innovation - ATI's Chipset for the AMD Enthusiast

Overclocking

Maximum overclock data was added to Performance graphs beginning with the nForce4 SLI roundup several months ago. The overclocking performance graphs should allow for better comparison of the overclocking capabilities of tested boards. For more details on the specific overclocking abilities of a specific board, please refer to the Overclocking and Memory Stress Test section of individual board reviews. Since the Sapphire PURE Innovation and the dual GPU slot ATI Crossfire AMD are based on the same chipset, performance should be very similar and directly comparable.

The overclocking performance of the Sapphire PURE Innovation was impressive to say the least. A 245 Clock Frequency at stock multiplier is the highest overclock that we have ever seen with this reference processor. Reaching 245 when the best boards that we have tested did 238 and 240 is a strong indication of excellent voltage stability under stress in the Sapphire.

302 at lower multipliers is not the highest value that we have reached in past testing, but it does place the Sapphire ATI in the company of the few excellent overclocking Athlon 64 boards that have managed to reach a stable 50% or better frequency overclock at lower ratios.

ATI has made tremendous progress in board design, since we looked at the initial Bullhead board last November. In this Sapphire for AMD and the upcoming Crossfire AMD, ATI has produced motherboards that will definitely please the AMD enthusiast.