My Mini Review of Gainward 4870 512MB GDDR5 Golden Sample!!

Hi there


Well these cards have intrigued so I decided to give one a test today:-


Intel Core i7 CPU @ 3.60GHz
Intel X58 Mainboard
3072MB of Cellshock DDR3 @ 1800MHz 8-8-8-16 Timings
Seagate 160GB HDD
Gainward 4870 GS @ standard, Turbo and overclocked speeds
Vista 64-Bit Ultimate
Catalyst 8.8 Drivers
All testing carried out on open bench in ambient temperature of 20c


Here are some pictures of the card:-




First of all some points about this card:-
1. Twin Fan Heatpipe Cooling solution and it has low noise.
2. Dual DVI with HDCP
3. Display Port
4. Dual BIOS (Normal & Turbo)


With the switch on the back set to normal clock speeds are 750MHz core and 3800MHz memory. Here are some benchmark results with the card set too normal:-
3D Mark 2006 = 16,399 Points (Maximum GPU Temp 57c)
3D Mark Vantage = 9507 / 8312 / 16719 (Maximum GPU Temp 57c)
Crysis, DX9, Very High 1680x1050 = 44fps
Crysis, DX10, Very High 1680x1050 = 22fps


Here are results with switch on the back of the card set to Turbo, now bare in mind flicking the switch at the back has to be done with the machine off and a reboot is required as the cores are re-detected:-
3D Mark 2006 = 16,884 (Maximum GPU Temp 58c)
3D Mark Vantage = 9815 / 8616 / 16850 (Maximum GPU Temp 59c)
Crysis, DX9, Very High 1680x1050 = 47fps
Crysis, DX10, Very High 1680x1050 = 24fps


For the final overclock I used ATI tool to scan the card for artifacts and at Turbo speeds no artifacts were detected. The card was artifact free upto 785MHz Core and 4300MHz memory so not one of the best overclocks but this is with no voltage mods. The card actually ran fine in 3D Mark at 810MHz and 4400MHz memory but at these speeds ATI Tool had yellow dots. Here are the results from 785MHz Core and 4300MHz Memory:-
3D Mark 2006 = 17,168 (Maximum GPU Temp 59c)
3D Mark Vantage = 9941 / 8743 / 16879 (Maximum GPU Temp 59c)
Crysis, DX9, Very High 1680x1050 = 48fps
Crysis, DX10, Very High 1680x1050 = 25fps



All in all I am very impressed with the card and the cooler keeps the whole card cool including the VRM's and believe it or not you can put your hands anywhere on the card, even the back off it and you won't get burnt, it just remains warm to the touch so the cooler is clearly doing a great job.

Noise wise well the second smaller fan on the card is audible but only just, I reckon in a closed case you would be very pressed to hear the card at all, even under load. Also there are no all of a sudden loud dust blowing spin ups with this card like you see with reference models.

I just wished Gainward had increased voltages in the Turbo mode BIOS as the cooler is good for it as its a good 15-20c better over the stock cooler without the noise. If you don't mind noise then yes the stock cooler is still king with fan speed at 100%. At idle the Gainward card hovered around 43-45c.

I definetely rate it as the best 4870 on the market, its a got a superb cooler thats quiet, overclocked out of the box and one of the very few cards to have Display Port.




Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4870 "Golden Sample" 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail



The ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series GPUs bring the power of graphics ‘supercomputing’ to gamers, setting a new standard for visual computing. Redefine the way you play and take HD gaming to the extreme with best-in-class performance. The new TeraScale graphics engine delivers an immersive, cinematic gaming experience. Add this GPU to your PC and watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity. Do it all with break-through efficiency that doesn’t compromise performance.

- ATI Radeon HD 4870 GPU @ 775MHz (Turbo Mode)
- Twin Fan Silent Heatpipe Cooling Solution
- 512MB GDDR5 Memory @ 4000MHz (Turbo Mode)
- Dual BIOS Design (Turbo switch on blanking plate)
- Two DVI Connections
- One Display Port Connection
- 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) and high performance anisotropic filtering
- PCI Express 2.0 support
- ATI CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology
- Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support
- Shader Model 4.1
- ATI Avivo HD video and display technology
- Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD) for Blu-ray and HD Video
- Built-in HDMI with 5.1 surround sound support
- On-chip HDCP


Price: £173.99+VAT (£204.44 inc VAT)


BUY NOW!

Nice review

Good review, good card, i like the cooling and the display port is a nice touch, i think the turbo switch is a bit of a gimmick though, just OC on the fly in windows rather than having to turn the power off to get an OC which is a very modest one at that, and why the hell would you want to switch from high clocks to lower ones anyway, i could understand it if the volts went up and down with the switch but they dont.

First high end gpu to support display port?

Up until now, I've only seen low end cards.

Damn you Gibbo I was about to buy the Gainward 280 ARRR

Can't do me a favour and swap it with the 280 on this week only

Would this run ok @ 1920x1200 would it run better than the 280 at that res

gj gibbo, nice idea to review the sought after products as they arrive but i'm damn jealous of u having a nehalem setup to play with

Interesting that the crysis fps drops by 50% in dx10 mode! driver issue or are the gfx that much better in Very High?

hornett said:

Damn you Gibbo I was about to buy the Gainward 280 ARRR

Can't do me a favour and swap it with the 280 on this week only

Click to expand...

Hi there

The Gainward GTX 280 is also on weekly Special at about £50 cheaper than our competitors.

creed said:

gj gibbo, nice idea to review the sought after products as they arrive but i'm damn jealous of u having a nehalem setup to play with

Interesting that the crysis fps drops by 50% in dx10 mode! driver issue or are the gfx that much better in Very High?

Click to expand...

HI there

Yes Crysis preferres NVIDIA hardware, still to try a GTX 280 in the i7 setup yet. FOr most games ATI has the upper hand and still wins on value for money.

hornett said:

Would this run ok @ 1920x1200 would it run better than the 280 at that res

Click to expand...

Hi there

A GTX 280 is the most powerful single GPU graphics card there is.

We have the Gainward on special offer at just £247 Inc. VAT for This Week Only.

At 1920x1200 the GTX 280 will be faster yes, I could afford to spend £250 then I would get the GTX 280, but the ATI will not dissapoint at that those resolutions either.

I have my credit card ready just busy getting my post count up. But the 280 is in my basket ready to go. You just threw me a curve ball posting this

hornett said:

I have my credit card ready just busy getting my post count up. But the 280 is in my basket ready to go. You just threw me a curve ball posting this

Click to expand...

HI there

You now seem to have 250 or more post.

Great review gibbo, i might get one of these.

Gibbo said:

HI there

You now seem to have 250 or more post.

Click to expand...

Cheers Gibbo yay new card on the way

As there is no DX9 very high for Crysis, I think you are looking at DX9 High. This is running the benchmark tool, right? If that is the case, then it defaults to high when running DX9

ffallic said:

As there is no DX9 very high for Crysis, I think you are looking at DX9 High. This is running the benchmark tool, right? If that is the case, then it defaults to high when running DX9

Click to expand...

Hi there

Yep using the benchmark tool, also all the test were done in 64-bit mode.

looks like my next upgrade from a 2900xt is now set! nice mini review

Been looking at this card myself today. heats and noise always concerns me with stock coolers looks like this eliminates both those problems.

Looks like i may have finaly found my 8800gtx replacement.
Cheers for the review Gibbo that alone as sold me the card..
You should do more of them you may talk other like myself into buying products they was thinking about.

Hi Gibbo, thanks for the great review!

Quick question, what were the overall system temps were like? The coolers vent air into the case not out the back right? Did this have any significant impact on heat buildup?

Thanks
________
HONEY OIL

Looks nice, probably my next card.