Radeon 4870: Does It Matter Who Made Yours?
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Once you’ve found the GPU that best fits your needs, does it really matter which vendor sells you the card? We recently compared the prices, features, and performance of two third-party Radeon HD 4870 designs—Palit’s HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition and Sapphire’s HD 4870 Toxic Edition—against AMD’s reference design to determine which vendor offered the best value--or if there was any difference at all.
AMD is now following Nvidia's lead by transitioning away from offering its own video cards at retail, so that it will no longer compete head-to-head with its add-in-board (AIB) partners. However, both companies will design a reference board for each new GPU and give that design to their partners as a model from which to build (they might even build the entire card and sell it to the AIBs, whose only contribution then would essentially become adding the logo to the cooling shroud). Reference designs are invariably conservative with relatively low clock speeds and less-than-premium coolers. However, these reference designs are often the only implementations available to consumers during the first few months after the introduction of a new GPU.
Third-party vendors are later given the choice of sticking with these reference designs or differentiating their products in some other way. You buy a video card for the GPU more than anything else, but third-party vendors often depart from the GPU manufacturer’s reference design by pairing it with different types and amounts of memory, by overclocking the GPU and/or the memory, by attaching a different cooler, and by offering different outputs on the mounting bracket (with HDMI and DisplayPort being the most common). Third-party vendors also often bundle software—usually a game and/or an application—with their cards. Based on those criteria, which of these three manufacturers delivers the best bang for the buck? We look at each manufacturer’s design decisions first and then compare each board’s performance head-to-head.
Ed: One of the reasons we were interested in non-reference graphics cards was because they're so rare. Back in the days of Nvidia's TNT2 Ultra, manufacturers like Guillemot (remember them?) could use especially low-latency memory and super-high core clocks to set their boards apart. Customization was far more rampant. But today's cards are incredibly complex. And with so many different GPUs and models available, most board vendors just stick to the reference PCB. Today, you can choose between bone stock cards, cards centering on the reference design, but with altered cooling (Sapphire's board represents this group here), and completely custom PCBs that try improving on the lowest common denominator with more layers, better electronic circuitry, more efficient cooling, and so on (Palit's entry, in today's story). If there's a premium to be paid for the more advanced board, is it worth it? Do you get any additional performance? These are the questions Michael will be answering.
nice one, this is good to know as the 4870 runs so hot..and obviously better cooling will lengthen the life of, well probably any card.
cheers,
bill
p.s. stuff & nonsense: http://www.eupeople.net/forum
Nice write-up.
I have a Sonic Dual 4870, and I am blown away by it. The fans are not too noisy on mine at all, the overclock is a nice bonus, and the temps are ridiculously low, which can only be a good thing. Plus it only cost me £150 + vat... Bargain.
Interestingly enough, you can change the fan speed.
The default overclocks in themselves are of mild interest. I would like to see these cards overclocked to see if the extra cooling helps at all.
nice one,,,,
Thank you..
i have a Gigabyte Radeon 4870.. i changed the fan speed in the bios to keep it at 50 degrees celcious at idle.
did not notice any increase in noise.
I purchased some time ago a Visiontek HD3870. It died for excessive heat, given the known heat problem of this card this i not a surprice. What instead surpri ed me a lot is the denial of repair form Visiontek. To my opionion what matters at the end is support, price and bundle offer. Support is at first place, so please share you support experiences to give people visibility of what a vendor can effecctively offer. I persinally prefer to spend few more bucks but be sure to have the card repaired if something goes wrong, without silly excuses. my personal suggestion is: do not puchase Visiontek!!
Mastro59 is a moron, he either installed an aftermarket heatsink, bought a used card of ebay, or doesn't have a receipt.
My personal suggestion : mastro59 should grow up.
Anonymous is a bit harsh on mastro there, i think mastros post had a good point and he didn't really bash anyone without a reason here.
Anonymous 26/12 is a moron because Mastro59 clearly states that he purchased his 3870 with the expectation that the after care service would be an honourable affair. In some such cases the manufacturer would replace the card or the gpu to enhance its reputation as a quality manufacturer and Mastro would just cover the transportation costs but some manufacturers dont give a hoot once theyve sold the card.
If a company produce a bad card and they are blowing up left right and centre, rather than do a mass recall or take on the cost of mass repair, they will simply follow a policy of denial of liability until it blows over and that Visiontek 3870 is whats commonly called a duffer in the trade.
This article is dated 28th December, but has a rev. 1 version of the Palit card. I bought mine on the 9th and am sure rev. 2 was out for at least a bit before then.
One of the gripes about the card was the smaller fan was a little noisy and always on at full speed.
I think the fan is different on rev2, but it certainly is now speed controlled like the larger fan.
The big change is at the back, instead of 2xDVI + 1xDP, it now has: 1xDVI, 1xDP, 1xVGA, 1xHDMI and comes with 1xHDMI->DVI adaptor.
The VGA port sits alone on the second slot, the rest of the space is now used for exhaust. TBH, not a lot of air seems to come out, but it's something.
These changes polish up the card further and make it even better.