Out of the box...

The bundle that ships with the 4850 Toxic is top notch. Since this is a Crossfire capable card, you'll get a Crossfire bridge so you can double your GPU power whenever you're ready. Using a PC for home theater is as common as using it for gaming and the included Component Video and DVI to HDMI adapter will help you bridge your PC to your home theater equipment very easily. But in case you still have use the D-sub VGA connector, they've thrown a DVI to D-sub adapter in there too. Of course you want to show everyone you're using an ATI card, so there's a case badge in there to do that too.

Every good bundle deserves some software right? Of course you'll get an installation CD which has the necessary drivers to get the video card up and running on a Windows desktop. In the time since this CD was pressed, a newer set of drivers has been released which I'll be using to benchmark the card.

The Ruby ROM DVD is a collection of game demos (Dungeon Runners, Call of Juarez and Stranglehold), some assorted wallpapers, a screen saver based on the game Stranglehold, and a couple of applications. The applications include Game Shadow and EarthSim.

As the name implies, EarthSim is a 3D application that lets you not only tour the Earth, but our solar system as well. Sapphire has included this limited functionality demo, but you can check out the full particulars at the EarthSim Website.

To help you better appreciate the power of your new GPU, Sapphire has included Futuremark's 3D Mark Vantage along with a registration code so you can upload your benchmark results and share with the growing Futuremark community. We'll be featuring some 3DMark Vantage benchmarks in this article as well.

The last two discs in the bundle are Cyberlink products PowerDVD v7 and DVD Suite. The PowerDVD package is geared for playing your DVDs and the DVD Suite it for DVD mastering. While these types of packages certainly aren't uncommon bundles with video cards, they can greatly ease the transition of your PC into the home theater role.