So there I was, playing Day of Defeat like I do far too often, when my ICQ window pops up, promptly crashing Half-Life and disconnecting me from the server I had tried so hard to get on to. After a bit of cursing in Ich's general direction (and at myself for forgetting to close ICQ again), I was told that there was another video card on the way for me to review. Sweet! I love new stuff, especially new video cards, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Cursing at Ich again, I went back to playing DoD while I waited for the thing to arrive. A week and a lot of saved villages and stormed beaches later, here I am, sitting down next to my now quieter computer writing my 3rd graphics card review. This time, I'll be focusing on Sapphires Radeon 9700 Atlantis Pro Ultimate Edition.

The first thing you will immediately notice about this particular Radeon 9700 Pro is the sweetest looking graphics cooling system I have ever laid my hands on - a massive heatpipe! This thing looks killer with its sweet looking polished metal heatpipe, matching ramsinks, and cool black PCB. If you've been wondering why anyone would put a window in their case, here's your answer.

As with most typical Radeon 9700 Pro bundles, you get in the Ultimate's box all the cables and adapters you need for doing multi-monitor and TV-out things, a power-splitter for connecting the card to your power supply, your typical driver CD, a CD containing Sapphire's tweaking and overclocking utility "Redline", instruction and installation booklet, and Cyberlinks PowerDVD 4.0 XP. Unlike most bundles however, the Ultimate also comes with two very kick ass game - Return to Castle Wolfenstein GotY Edition, and Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix. Both are full version games with instruction booklets and in their own double CD jewel cases, not those lame paper envelopes bundled games usually come in.