Palit Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB Video Card Review

Conclusion

Before I go on with this conclusion, let’s put one thing straight: the HD4870 X2 2GB is the absolute undisputed king of the single-card hill and probably will be for some time. It steamrolled over every single one of Nvidia’s offerings like a runaway freight train and made the GTX 280 look like nothing more than an also-ran in the grand scheme of things. But just remember: this isn’t a card for those of you with 19” or 20” LCD monitors. It is for the privileged few with massive monitors of the beastly 24” and 30” variety along with those of you who want e-penises the size of the Eiffel tower. Does it perform up to expectations? Hell yes and then some

When it comes to overall performance, there is nothing like experiencing this dual GPU monster rip through the framerates and seeing scores like these will make even the most jaded hardware reviewer giggle like a giddy schoolgirl. I could go on and on about how well this card did in our tests but the benchmarks shown here today more than speak for themselves. There is nothing like having a card that costs LESS than a HD4870 Crossfire setup but in most cases performs BETTER at some higher resolutions…and with beta drivers at that. And that leads us to another positive point about the HD4870 X2: its price. For once we see a performance crown holder which does not command an astronomical price for the admission fee. It also provides the perfect escape for those of you who don’t have a pair of high-powered PCI-E 2.0 slots and would rather stick to a single-card solution while not breaking the bank. Sorry folks, no matter how impartial we try to sound there is no hiding the fact that we love this card and what it can do for the right system.

Notice I said that this card needs the right system? I mean it. The HD4870 X2 does not deserve to be put in a non-overclocked system with an under-24” monitor. This means that if you are playing at a slightly lower resolution, you have the very real possibility of this card being severely CPU limited if you don’t overclock the balls off your processor. Just remember this when you are searching through the internet for more information about this card; in many cases, a stock processor can and will hamstring ATI’s new wunderkind. Heck, even our overclocked QX9770 at nearly 4Ghz showed it wasn’t up to the task of running with this card in a game or three.

As with all good things, there are a few stumbling points with this card and many of them either spring from the unpredictability and general characteristics of a dual GPU setup or beta drivers. The first thing we should point out is that this card outputs a load of heat which will be dumped right back into your immediate environment. While playing your favorite game in your skivvies may not be an issue for many of you, the noise the HD4870 X2’s fan puts out in order to keep temperatures under control may have some of you cringing. It is nothing a good sounds system won’t drown out but if you put value in a quiet system, this may not be the right card for you…or at least until someone releases an aftermarket cooler for it. Other than that, the only area we see the need for improvement is in the driver department since at some times this card is pretty far ahead of a HD4870 Crossfire setup but in others it falls behind by a fair margin. We usually see this with beta drivers on new ATI hardware so we wouldn’t be surprised to see this fix by the time the WHQL driver comes out. There also seems to be scant few games out there that can take advantage of the 2GB of memory at the settings we tested but that could all change as more games come out with high texture memory requirements. I could also mention the lack of proper warranty support from the majority of ATI partners but I have beaten that dead horse past death’s gate and back again. Just remember, when push come to shove this IS a dual GPU solution which will have all the limitations of Crossfire to go along with. So, while CF support in nearly every game seems good right now, there may be games in the future which will not have the proper profiles when they are first released.

Final mention has to be given to the power consumption of the Palit HD4870 X2 since it is one area we have to commend ATI on. It seems like they have finally gone ahead and released a driver that properly implements their PowerPlay features which has been promised for some time now. While me saying this may be of little solace to those of you looking at overall power consumption and rolling your eyes, performance per watt is extremely high nonetheless. That being said, hopefully PowerPlay will be a feature in the next WHQL driver update for the whole ATI family.

All in all, the Palit Radeon HD4870 X2 is a heck of a card which combines not only bleeding-edge performance but a surprising amount of performance per dollar. It is all bundled up into a product which once again adds ATI’s name to the very top of the extreme performance category. Even though it is not without its minor imperfections, it embodies the new spirit of ATI which is once again on the road to offering enthusiasts what they want most: performance like no other.



Pros:

- All the power HD4870 Crossfire and then some on a single card
- Amazing high resolution performance
- Surprising value @ approx. $550
- Good idle power consumption


Cons:

- Acoustics at high load may be too much for some
- 2-year warranty