Palit HD 4870 1GB Sonic Dual Edition Review

Shripad

Cooling, Temperatures, Noise and overclock.

The Palit HD4870 1GB Sonic Dual Edition carries 3rd party cooling solution. So how does it really perform?
The answer to that question is “Simply amazing”.

The maximum full load temperature I have seen on this card is 67°C. And this was with my room air conditioner turned off and room temperature looming at 28°C. The cooling solution does its job very nicely.
Coming to overclocking. The card carries 1GB of DDR5 RAM. So I was not expecting anything spectacular clocking from the RAM itself. The card managed to be 100% stable at clock speeds of 845Mhz core and 1140Mhz Memory. This is lower than what I was able to clock my HD4870 512MB variant. But its still good overclock. And even at these clock speeds, the card never even touched 70°C.
The fan speed does change with increase in temperatures. And it starts to spin faster. But this cooling solution was much quieter than the stock cooling solution of HD4870. Overall I must say I was impressed by it.

cranky · #1 (**permalink**) By cranky on 7 Oct 08, 02:22 PM

Nice review, though I think I missed the price somewhere.

I really wish you could test at higher resolutions, which is where the 1GB framebuffer would come into its own. I don't see the point of a huge memory and running only 1680x, the memory would help much more at 1920x and 2560x. I understand this depends on the monitors you have available for the test, which is why it's even more surprising as you had 1920 in one of the tests and then none.

This is obviously not a solution for me, AFAIK, but I'll wait for more tests at max resolutions.

Shripad · #2 (**permalink**) By Shripad on 7 Oct 08, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sangram

Nice review, though I think I missed the price somewhere.

I really wish you could test at higher resolutions, which is where the 1GB framebuffer would come into its own. I don't see the point of a huge memory and running only 1680x, the memory would help much more at 1920x and 2560x. I understand this depends on the monitors you have available for the test, which is why it's even more surprising as you had 1920 in one of the tests and then none.

This is obviously not a solution for me, AFAIK, but I'll wait for more tests at max resolutions.

Yup, I do have 1080P ready monitor. but its 16:9 resolution TV

Thats why you can see 1920x1080 resolution in 1 gaming test. And 1 1920x1200 test was done when friend's dell landed here at my place for a day. Couldnt complete all tests that day as even this motherboard was to ship out the next day.

If someone sends me a 24incher for review and for keepers, i will start including high resolution results

its really difficult to keep moving test rig to the televiosion set and back in my room.

As far as the price goes. This is not yet available in India in retail afaik. I couldnt find it in stock with anyone. All say it is expected soon. US retail pricing is same as any other HD4870 1GB card. around $300.

Desecrator · #3 (**permalink**) By Desecrator on 7 Oct 08, 03:41 PM

Nice review as always Shripad.

PS: Hope u've recovered from the illness.

Jasku · #4 (**permalink**) By Jasku on 7 Oct 08, 03:54 PM

fantastic review, wonder how much this card would retail locally?!..

Edit- feel bad that i have the stock cooled 4870

ultimabasher · #5 (**permalink**) By ultimabasher on 7 Oct 08, 05:35 PM

Nice review mate.

Hey shripad, when are you going to review 4870x2??

panther · #6 (**permalink**) By panther on 7 Oct 08, 05:41 PM

Great purchase, wow!! i am coming at you place to see with my eyes.. what was the damage?

fcry64 · #7 (**permalink**) By fcry64 on 7 Oct 08, 06:52 PM

good review m8..

ArZuNeOs · #8 (**permalink**) By ArZuNeOs on 7 Oct 08, 07:02 PM

nice review boss

What is the damage

satanofgamers · #9 (**permalink**) By satanofgamers on 7 Oct 08, 07:28 PM

as usual awesome review.... any idea at wht price will it retail here ????

saintsinner · #10 (**permalink**) By saintsinner on 7 Oct 08, 11:46 PM

Well reviewed. I have the 512MB version. I find it a tiny bit noisy as only one fan is temprature controlled. and yea, the 2 bios function is really cool. mine runs on turbo

kin_of_evil · #11 (**permalink**) By kin_of_evil on 8 Oct 08, 08:10 AM

Nice review!! Any details on the price?

timbak · #12 (**permalink**) By timbak on 9 Oct 08, 03:52 PM

Nice review. Hope the price is as good as the performance.

d@rK nEmEsIs · #13 (**permalink**) By d@rK nEmEsIs on 12 Oct 08, 12:31 AM

superb review man one of my friend won a 4870(not this one) in our college techfest lucky him.

gamervivek · #14 (**permalink**) By gamervivek on 12 Oct 08, 03:32 AM

NCIXUS.com - Buy Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition 775MHZ 512MB GDDR5 2XDVI Display Port PCI-E Video Card - AE=4870S+0452.

wow just wow.

	TechEnclave Work in Progress Reviews and Previews
Palit HD 4870 1GB Sonic Dual Edition Review Discussion under Reviews and Previews, part of the Work in Progress category on TechEnclave; Cooling, Temperatures, Noise and overclock. The Palit HD4870 1GB Sonic Dual Edition carries 3rd party cooling solution. So how does ...