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Today we are taking a look at the HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo, which is not based on the new Radeon HD 4890 GPU but rather the older Radeon HD 4870. Recently these graphics cards have become quite affordable, and given the level of performance that they deliver we believe they are a steal... There really is nothing better than a true bargain; that satisfaction you get from buying something that proves its worth. Of course everyone’s definition of a true bargain differs, and while some might say that the Phenom II X4 940 is a bargain at less than $200 US, others might not. That said, I believe most would agree that the GeForce GTX 260 is a real bargain at just $180 US, regardless of what else might be out there.  If you agree with us then chances are you also believe that the Radeon HD 4870 (1GB) is a bargain at $180 US, and really anyone would struggle to argue that it’s not! Still, much of the attention has shifted away from the Radeon HD 4870 towards the new Radeon HD 4890, which has been designed to deliver more performance. The reality is however that the Radeon HD 4890 is really nothing more than an overclocked Radeon HD 4870. Sure the GPU is now called the RV790 XT and it features a few more transistors, or at least that is what we are told, but the core configuration and memory bus remains the same as the original RV770 XT. The core has been overclocked by 13%, while the memory speed has also been increased by 8%, though this means at best users can expect a 13% performance increase when comparing the new Radeon HD 4890 to the older Radeon HD 4870. This best case scenario was rarely seen in our testing, as the Radeon HD 4890 was generally just 4-8% faster. Still, an increase in performance is an increase in performance, and there is nothing wrong with that! Of course if you are paying through the nose for the increase then there is something wrong, and Radeon HD 4890 users will have likely paid up to a 40% price premium to own ATI’s fastest ever single GPU graphics card. Therefore, while we feel few can argue about the value of the Radeon HD 4870, the new Radeon HD 4890 is a totally different story. For now at least we believe the Radeon HD 4870 is ATI’s best value high-end graphics card, and at $180 US it compares to the GeForce GTX 260 competition very well. Additionally, availability is very good, with loads of great examples to choose from such as today’s test subject from HIS, the Radeon HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo (1GB). The HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo is a factory overclocked graphics card, and typically we are not great fans of these graphics cards as they often come at a price premium that we struggle to justify. Not to mention they are usually poorly overclocked, offering no real performance advantages anyway. This HIS example does come at a $35 US premium over standard Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards, and features a rather weak overclock that sees the core clock increased by just 2.6%. So how does it stack up? |
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