The 55nm RV770 is one of the best arrows in AMD’s GPU quiver, so it’s a good thing the part has proven to be both versatile and powerful. As deployed in the Radeon HD 4870, the RV770 has a full complement of 800 stream processors—just like the Radeon HD 4850—but in this design, the GPU is paired with GDDR5 memory.
GDDR5 memory boasts a very high data rate (ranging from 3.6Gb/s to 6.0Gb/s, compared to GDDR3’s 1.0Gb/s to 2GB/s). This enables AMD to deliver nearly the same memory bandwidth through a relatively narrow and inexpensive 256-bit bus as it would with a much wider and costlier 512-bit bus.
High-end Radeon HD 4870 cards feature 1GB of GDDR5, but HIS’s budget-oriented model is outfitted with 512MB. That might leave you a little constrained, as game developers have come to expect that gamers will own videocards with large frame buffers. Nonetheless, as you can see from our benchmarks, a halved memory allotment didn’t cause undue punishment in the games we tested.
This card is priced $20 higher than the EVGA GeForce GTX 260, but delivers far better performance in Far Cry 2 and Crysis. It also came within spitting distance of our top budget performer, EVGA’s GeForce GTX 275, which costs $30 more.
The RV770 tends to run hot at high clock speeds, but HIS’s IceQ 4+ heatsink/fan design keeps temperatures manageable without polluting your environment with noise. This chip has never exhibited a great deal of headroom for overclocking, but HIS managed to squeeze out a few extra cycles: The core runs at 780MHz (compared to 750MHz stock) while the memory hums along at 1,000MHz (compared to 900MHz stock).
Finally, if you enjoy a bit of bling inside your PC, you’ll dig this card, as the plastic shroud over the cooler reacts to ultraviolet light. Install a cold-cathode UV light in your case, and the entire shroud will emit a deep blue glow.
Heatsink keeps temps down. Plastic shroud reacts to UV light!
Only 512MB of GDDR5; might be constraining for some games.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/author1
[2] http://dl.maximumpc.com/galleries/pennywise09/AMD_ICEQ4HIS_full.jpg
[3] http://.com
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/penny_wise_performance_foolish
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/powercolor_radeon_hd_4830
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/powercolor_radeon_hd_4850
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/evga_geforce_9800_gt
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/evga_geforce_gtx_260_core_216
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/evga_geforce_gtx_275
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/files/verdict-images/AMD_ICEQ4HIS_verdict.jpg
[11] http://hisdigital.com
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/amd_radeon_hd_3850
[13] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/asus_radeon_eah4890_top
[14] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ati_radeon_hd_2900_xt_benchmarks
[15] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/buildapc
[16] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews/hardware
[17] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/hardware
[18] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/radeon_hd_4870
[19] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/reviews
[20] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/videocard
[21] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine/2009
[22] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine/2009/july_2009
[23] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews
[24] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews/hardware/videocards
[25] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine
Print