Posted 12/08/08 at 08:53:20 AM by Paul Lilly

The holidays are shaping up to be happy for gamers on a mainstream budget. According to X-Bit Labs, AMD said it had reduced the price of its ATI Radeon HD 4870 videocard and that at least one online vendor will be selling the 512MB model  for $199.

"The price of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 is dropping and we expect that the 512MB and 1GB boards should be available on Newegg today for around $199 and $239 respectively, offering an even more compelling value," a spokesperson for ATI/AMD said.

A cursory glance on Newegg backs the spokesperson's claim (not that we ever doubted him) with two 512MB models -- Sapphire and HIS -- already marked down to the promised price point, and even less if you want to try your hand at the mail-in-rebate game. The 1GB models haven't yet dropped quite as low, not before MIR anyway (we were right to be skeptical).

This year has been a good one for PC gamers as AMD and Nvidia have repeatedly cut prices and taken other measures, such as die shrinks (Nvidia) and giving graphics partners the green light to overclock (AMD), to try and one up each other.

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Posted 06/25/08 at 10:11:24 PM by Paul Lilly

From the same company who brought enthusiasts sub-zero CPU temperatures through its Vapocill cooling sytem, and, more recently, was chosen by HP to handle cooling duties for the Blackbird 002, Asetek now sets its sights on the Radeon HD 4870 and becomes the first to offer a liquid cooling solution for ATI's new flagship videocard. Not settling for simply being first, Asetek looks to set the bar high by touting a GPU temperature reduction by as much as 26 degrees, while operating at a fairly quiet 30 dBA, all in a single-slot cooling package.

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