Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Atomic review

At last, it's happened - In response to the numerous Fatal1ty branded products currently on the market, Sapphire have become the first hardware manufacturer to start selling products endorsed by Blondie.  Wait, you mean that's not what the launch of Sapphire's 'Atomic' range of graphics cards is all about?  Oh... I suppose I'd better go and read the press release again...

Okay, sorry about that.  So, Sapphire's 'Atomic' parts, what are they all about?  Well, for starters, and as the name perhaps suggests, the first Atomic board we're seeing is a factory overclocked one, based around ATI's 512MB Radeon HD 3870 part.  But that's only half the story, for this initial Atomic card also features a rather unique cooler - Not only is it single slot, compared to the dual-slot cooler used by a reference Radeon HD 3870, but it also introduces a rather different form of cooling mechanism, known as Vapour Chamber Technology.  Does it work, and what else does the first in what will doubtless be a long line of Atomic-branded parts from Sapphire have to offer?  I certainly don't want to leave you all Hanging on the Telephone (sorry, I really will stop with the Blondie jokes now), so let's move straight onto our review of the Radeon HD 3870 Atomic.