Which Brand of ATI 4870 is good?

fatcat

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I have heard that HIS make good cards. I am currently using a Sapphire and it's doing fine but I had a few problems with their products in the past. I had a 1950XT and a HD3850 that didn't last too long. Also to be noted, Sapphire customer service plainly sucks. It took 2 months to get a replacement for my 1950XT, in my book it's unacceptable. I understand that things have to be processed and all but 8 weeks for RMA outch.......
 



XFX has a very good reputation earned over the years with their nVidia cards. When it comes to ATI cards, however, they are newbies and I'm not sure I'd trust them yet.
 

wake4x4paintball

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yeah i was waiting for XFX reviews on newegg cuz it juz released recently so i dont trust them yet....
XFX looks good cuz more memory speed than all... and good core speed...

I was thinking about HIS cuz it included iceq for less cooling and turbo for more faster....

I currently have 1950x Pro from HIS for 2 years....no plms with it....

YA i saw on newegg for visiontek got award too and more reviews/Rating..


By the way is Palit good too.. It is new brand recently ...
 
I just got an asus 4870 Dark Night version. It runs COOL for an ATI card. But the fan is a little loud at 50%. Not THAT loud im just picky about noise. It's about 48C in a warm apartment. It has a 3 year warranty but who the heck keeps a gaming cards longer than that? I've had many ASUS products in the past and they are great. I had to return a DVD burner and thier warranty replacement processes is easy and nice.
 

werxen

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i run a saphire 4850 with an aftermarket zalman gpu heatsink and it runs cool + quiet. the overclock is pretty good, but not where id like to see it. especially in the ram department. still a good card for what i paid ($170 i think?)
 

ubascouser

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Just orderd a powercolor 4870 1gig factory overclocked from ebuyer (£221) with next day delivery.All the reviews ive read were good and they stated its at least 14% cooler than the stock cards it should be here tomorrow so ill let you no_Oh and just to let you no im upgrading from my ageing foxconn 8800gts 320mb.
 

OmegaStalker

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Force 3D Radeon HD4870 Freezer DHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! one of the BEST HD4870s on the markets it runs sooooo very sexyily cold! http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/VGA/Force3D_HD4870/index.htm.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148210!!!
Sorry for the enthusiam wanted to stress my point of view :):p
 
I think the Sapphire Vapor-X Toxic Edition is one of the best HD 4870s right now, and not only that it is cheaper than some 4850s. It is $209 with a $30 rebate which brings the price to $179 plus shipping on newegg!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102796

toxic.jpg


The Vapor-X Wick technology is what makes this card one of the better 4870s. It is like built in water cooling but with out the pump. I have not seen a single review for this card where as load temp exceeded the lower 50's at the stock settings. And the card comes overlocked as is.

Here is how the Vapor-X cooling works:
The Vapor-X cooler works similar to heatpipe technology, but it is much more advanced, and it uses clean water and a process called water vaporization. In the process of cooling water gets vaporized by heating, and vapor fills the vacuum chamber. The vacuum chamber has low air pressure, which enables water to evaporate much faster. An important role is played by three layers in the vapor chamber, a vaporization wick, a condensation wick and a transportation wick. The GPU and memory are in direct contact with the vacuum chamber and they represent the heat source that heats the vaporization wick. The created vapor then moves freely in all directions toward the colder part of the chamber where it comes in contact with cold parts of cooler air and becomes plain water again. The condensation wick then takes that water and the transportation wick routes it back to the vaporization wick thus completing the cooling cycle.
Here is a video of the 1GB Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzV8Ay9hJW0&feature=channel_page
 

wake4x4paintball

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anyone bought XFX ati video card yet?

Rwayne yea this video card look tight but why there no reviews on it? if you can find reviews send links here....

which cards have less problems? i still have few weeks left to figure out before im going buy it.
 
I would not expect anything fantastic out of the XFX 4870 just because it uses the ATI 4870 reference fan heatsink on it which probably 80% or more of all 4870s use. So it is just going to be your BASIC 4870, however it is going to have a warranty on it better than any other ATI card on the market.

And knowing XFX I am sure it is just a matter of weeks before they start releasing over clocked versions of it.

Pay attention to XFX's non-reference 4850 and watch for reviews to come out on it.

XFX4850.jpg

(pictured above the non-reference XFX HD4850)

The heatsink on the XFX 4850 is something that XFX came up with so it may be good. It would not surprise me if they slapped that heatsink on a future 4870 then overclocked it.

Check the links on my previous post. There are plenty of reviews on the Sapphire Toxic.

Just to let you know I ordered A Sapphire Toxic 4870 a few days ago and should be receiving it sometime this week. I will give you an update once I get it installed and try it out.

Good luck hunting for a card.
 

wake4x4paintball

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yea juz let me know if u like it when u got it and installed.

Im thinking about that card i juz read reviews and bechmarks.. not bad..

good prive.... is 512mb should be good for a year? or get 1gb?
 
For resolutions 1680 x 1050 and lower (basically a 22" monitor) then 512MB is more than adequate. However once you go beyond that then your card can start taking advantage of more ram.

The reviews on the Sapphire Toxic edition are good, but not as good as the standard Sapphire 4870 which has a similar looking heatsink but without the vapor X cooling.

To me it is an absolute NO BRAINER choosing between the two because the Toxic Edition is:
■A faster Card because of it's Over Clock
■A Cooler Card because of the Vapor X Cooling and Copper Pipes
■It comes with about $50 of free software on 5 Discs
■The futuremark rating software is a part of that bundle
■Plus right now it is cheaper than the standard 4870 which is slower and runs warmer.


Standard Sapphire 4870 $184 after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102810

Sapphire TOXIC Edition Vapor-X 4870 $179 after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102796
 

zigonneux

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I won't you recommand any brands at all.

BUT a good company will make a website where it will be easy to find your drivers that are often upgrade.

Make a phone call or send an e-mail and you will see if you can get a good service about request of a product.

Also check many stores websites (at least 3 of them and big ones) to have the review of many users on the product you're looking for.

Hope this will help you to make your choice.
 

wake4x4paintball

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is the memory clock speed important cuz i looked at sapphire toxic there only 1000 mhz....

other brand like HIS 1800mhz other one at 4000mhz

i read many reviews on toxic it look badass

i have 19inch and 21inch monitor so i guess i stay with 512mb?
and also i prob will buy another 4870 few months later so i can crossfire it
 

ubascouser

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Just installed my new card powercolor 4870 1 gig and i must say its a big improvement on my 8800gts played crysis warhead all settings on gamer and x2 aa and at 1400x900, fps was between 45 and 22 sometimes hitting 60.Also tried world at war all settings maxed out and hitting a steady 70 not dropping below 60. company of heroes all settings maxed out hitting a steady 118.Also on idle with 50% fan its at 50c havent checked yet under full load but put the fan on full at idle and dropped to 44c and my case setup isnt the best all in all im happy with this card now ive just got to test armed assault ill let you no on that one.
 
That is a very good observation. I did not realize it until you mentioned it but the card vendors are listing the clock speeds differently.

What you have to understand is that there is a multiplier of 4 on the memory clock. The sapphire toxic has memory clock of 1,000MHZ. However if you check their website it says the effectiveness speed is 4GB per second. In other words 1000Mhz x (a memory multiplier of 4) = 4 Gigabytes per second

Here is another example:
A 4870 by HIS. It has a memory clock speed of 950MHz and an effectiveness rate of 3.8 Gbps.
(950MHz x 4 = 3,800 MHz / 100 = 3.8 Gigabytes per second.)
The DDR5 ram is what jumps the effectiveness rate of the memory up so much. DDR5 memory is a MAJOR advantage that the 4870 has over all other cards right now.
memoryclock.jpg


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131140
 

wake4x4paintball

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so i think i will get sapphire toxic i looked on website it pretty tight...
thx for help me out but keep update when you get yours and let me know if u liek it and fast?