Although wrought with numerous delays, ATI finally launched their long-awaited Radeon HD 4870 graphics card on June 25, 2008. As it was the first graphics card to feature the spanking new GDDR5 memory, much was expected of the Radeon HD 4870. Fortunately, ATI finally delivered what they promised their fans for years - NVIDIA-thumping performance at a competitive price point. Today, we will be taking a look at an example of this card from ASUS - the ASUS EAH4870 graphics card. Link : ASUS EAH4870 Radeon HD 4870 Graphics Card Review
What's the power supply requirements for both of the 4850 and 4870 cards? How about the +12V PSU Rails for these?
Nice review, Dr wong!..Hmm, the only reason 4xxx series is suffering from high temp is due to their GPU bios not optimize thus resulting in higher temp. Btw in 2d mode, whats the core/memory clock of the gpu? Too bad i only can top up for a 4850 instead of 4870 Asus usually bundles their gpu with games so that soooo cool
Nice review and nice looking card Adrian Well of course it isn't Bro ATI/AMD have already pushed the core and memory near its limits we can see that by the temps. I see little headroom for O/Cing unless they go to liquid cooling and small movements on hysteresis regarding temperature.
Great Review Adrian. This card seems to fit my taste since I hardly overclocked my card either (even my HD3870 is running on stock). But as for now, I can't seems to get myself to purchase this card due to budget constrain.
Actually, overdrive only lets a maximum of 790Hz on the core... Nothing to do with temperatures. A 3rd party tool is needed to push higher (like AMD GPU clock tool). As for temps, again it is the way the it is set up in bios. Lacus said the same with the 4850 (Motoman made a thread on the 48XX card and did the same with his 4850). A mod to the bios to get the fan to spin faster at lower temperatures will get better performance. I have seen people around with OCs in the 800s on stock everything.
errr, Psykhotik. Modding the bios to make sure 2d mode is lower core/memory instead of higher ..not making it to spin faster btw Ati overdrive only locks the oc to certain level and it can be unlock using 3rd party applications
Yeah, ATI Overdrive only locks it to 790 MHz. In 2D mode, the core runs at 500 MHz with the memory at 750 MHz.
Actually I was talking more on the fan speed part. http://forums.techarp.com/graphics-cards-displays/24536-set-fan-speed-ati-48xx-cards.html 2D clocks is one thing to keep the idle down, but also I've read the profile that is used by ATI/AMD is such that the fan will never hit 100% until it reaches some overly insane temperature. Though there are two ways to play with the fan settings (one flashing, and the other software). AMD/ATi HD4850/4870 Fan Fix! - XtremeSystems Forums Though it really shouldn't matter with an aftermarket cooler that hooks up to a fan header.
Now since I am actively looking at this, I can't help but wonder what the GTX 260 is compared to the 4870. The 4870 is a beast (don't get me wrong). I mean, it was enough to force NVIDIA to rethink their pricing strategy. But has the GTX 260 been 'forgotten'? It seems to OC fairly well and at stock, it trades back and fourth with the 4870 on certain games and resolutions (as well as quality settings). And its power consumption is a lot better too.
Don't know about prices where you live but over here the 4870 is still seriously cheaper than GTX 260 to the point where buying the nvidia card would be madness. Power consumption is very important for me (nothing to do with the actual electricity bill). Lets see how the 55nm refresh turns out.
That's an excellent comment!! I'll pick 4870 over GTX 260 any day, at least here because it's cheaper than GTX 260.
Yeah. But still the way I see it, again it is a back and fourth thing between the two. Though the 4870 does do real well on higher IQ due to its bandwidth. Mmm... Need to read up more on these two cards.
ASUS EAH4870 Radeon HD 4870 Graphics Card Review Rev. 2.0 The review has just been updated! Although wrought with numerous delays, ATI finally launched their long-awaited Radeon HD 4870 graphics card on June 25, 2008. As it was the first graphics card to feature the spanking new GDDR5 memory, much was expected of the Radeon HD 4870. Fortunately, ATI finally delivered what they promised their fans for years - NVIDIA-thumping performance at a competitive price point. Today, we will be taking a look at an example of this card from ASUS - the ASUS EAH4870 graphics card. Link : ASUS EAH4870 Radeon HD 4870 Graphics Card Review Rev. 2.0
