|  | | HIS Radeon HD 4870 X2 Review | 
The factory clock settings of the GPU and GDDR5 memory respectively are 750MHz and 3.6GHz. Using the Catalyst Control Panel and its 'Auto Tune' feature to begin with, we prodded our way to find a tentative maximum overclock. When I say to tentative, I mean that I have never found the 'Auto Tune' feature to be completely reliable. Sure, it will find a minimally stable overclock but stable for five minutes doesn't count in my book. Stable means at least half an hour and I say that because, my thinking is that after 30 minutes of heat, if it doesn't lock up, it's not going to. So, prodding along we found a maximum ceiling of 790MHz on the core and 3.86GHz on the memory. Not a bad gain. Rerunning a few benchmarks we didn't see enough of a difference to even make it worth while to graph though.
So here we are. We have a $550 video card that plays two of our three games no better than its single GPU sibling, the HD4870. This is terrible right? Wrong. Let's look back at the Crysis benchmarks. Now if you plan on running some older games at lower resolutions, this is not a card for you. However, the more demanding games at higher resolutions and FSAA maxed out will really shine with the added power of the second GPU. Sure, I'm extrapolating a lot from the Crysis results but this is a good indicator of the longevity and frag power of the HD4870x2. Add in the HDMI 7.1 audio, Blue-Ray and HD Video support and you really have a card that no one would be ashamed of. Order up two and you can take things to an entirely new dimension.
We weren't especially crazy about how hot the card ran but the heat issues with the HD4800 series cards is nothing new. Again, I fully expect to see HIS apply some of their cooling talents to this monster card making it really stand out from the rest of the field of HD4870x2 cards out there. If you have the funds and the desire to run at the head of the pack the HD4870x2 is for you. HIS offers a fine example of this ground shaking card. You can find the HIS HD4870x2 on sale now at NewEgg here. Thanks go out to HIS for sponsoring this review.
You can read the entire article at Overclocker Cafe. | | 11 Comments | | | Kick ass card. Period. (but useless for the true gamer in one way) | | | | and hows that?
i think is a damn fine card for gamers, but the price dosent justify the small performence boost, id still just buy a regular 4870 | | | | This review is the piss of a sick farmyard animal. There's so many things wrong with it I'll just leave it. | | | | To say ATI is not a pain would be a lie, they are definately not for the plug and play types......but if you are someone who can fix your PC and know every in and out of it,you can really make these cards shine for a cheap price. Unix i agree with you i do not like this review one bit........ but that is just my opinion...... | | | | the review was crappy, but i dont see ati cards as being problematic, no more then nvidia cards, ive had no problems at all, nor has anyone i know who owns one, they really dont differ in ease of use from nvidia, both nvidia and ati cards have some issues, nvidias releases crappy drivers just as often as ati does | | | | Ati has always released craptastic drivers, and are more problematic than NV... not that i figure they are severe if you are intuitive ...... but powersaving,microstutters, fan fixes,constant dx10 game fixes,blah,blah,blah....... it may not be severe but they are still there...... and quite honestly i am an ATI fanboi.....but all that aside performance vs $$$ it is well worth it to fix a few minor glitches. But Blind i was speaking from the perspective of a person who goes buys and when it doesn't work properly takes it back.......and buys the more expensive NV card as well I really do love ATI..... | | | | i think for the most poart ati cards work just fine out of the box, ive never had any problems with mine, i know they have a few minor glithes, i see just as many people complaining about problems with nv drivers as people complaining about problems with ati drivers, id say its pretty balanced, but ati is definetly the better bet, especially once havoc is out | | | | Physics for ATI just seems to be a pipe dream for the near future. Maybe a year after i7 comes out. | | | | It is my understanding that Havok is gonna be software strapped to a processor core not a GPU , and that FX of it will be an add on that will be updated a Gens progress on GPU. | | | | exactly why i want havoc and not shitty phsix, psysics on gpu us a bad idea, even as gpu's progress so will games, running physics on the gpu while you are running an already gpu intensive game is stupid, running it on a spare cpu core however is the way to go, especially as quad cores are getting more and more powerfull. | | | | Xactly ,Blind ,and i cannot wait for it myself..... I would like Physx supprot as well....just cause i want my cake and eat it too!! but i will lay down my bets on Havok winning this deal... | |
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