Conclusion

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 has a good cooling solution with both of its graphics chips running at full clock speed when the performance is needed. It gets clocked down when running in 2D mode and it comes with 2 x 1 GB of fast graphics memory for high-resolution environments with lots of visual detail. AMD has certainly done a very good job.

This is how we rank the four individual test candidates we received. MSI is loud, but it has the strongest fan profile with the lowest temperatures. Asus has with the best overclocking potential and allows very high clock speeds for the GPU and memory. Sapphire convinced us with its low price and great accessories. HIS is all-purpose and has some of everything.

Because of accessories and price, Sapphire is our best-buy recommendation. Asus is also recommended. If you ignore the Smart Doctor, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 Top has great fan profiles and is awesome in terms of overclocking.

We give also give a recommendation to MSI, which solved the temperature problems through more aggressive thermal profiling. The GPU temperature is lowered to 43°C in 2D mode, while the temperature threshold in 3D is lowered to 80 degrees. As shown with the Radeon HD 4870, many readers prefer low temperatures and are willing to accept high noise levels to get them. If you don’t want to manipulate the fan profiles in the BIOS or by using different tools, you should take a close look at the X2 from MSI, which has a high fan speed as standard.