ATI HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Video Card Review

A Closer Look at the HD 4670

Before we go on, I know many of you probably just skipped to this section in order to take a look at the card and will quickly be moving on to the benchmarks. Therefore, I may as well reiterate that this is an engineering sample and while the actual retail cards will look the same there is one thing you need to remember: not all cards will come with the two DisplayPort connectors you see here. There will also be numerous custom designs since ATI is letting their partners have free reign over the layout of these cards.


One of the first things which will strike you when you firs see this card is how SMALL it is. We have all become accustomed to the sizes of current cards but the HD4670 is completely dwarfed by the likes of the GTX 280, HD4870X2 or even the HD4850. This makes it perfect for Small Form Factor applications.


Due to the low-power nature of the RV730XT core on this card, the cooler is rightfully tiny but still covers a good portion of the card. ATI’s engineers also too the ram modules’ close proximity to the heatsink to extend the copper base in order to cover all of the top-mounted ram chips.


As we mentioned, this is an engineering sample so the two DisplayPort connectors on the backplate are more of a proof of concept rather than what we will find on retail cards. Meanwhile, the DVI connector can also be set up with the usual ATI DVI to HDMI connector or the HDMI connector can be hard-wired directly onto the card itself.

As with all other ATI cards of this generation, the HD4670 is compatible with Crossfire X technology with which you can daisy-chain two, three or even four of these cards together for increased performance.


Once the heatsink is removed we are able to see the off-center core placement as well as four of the eight ram ICs. Due to its low power consumption, the HD4670 uses a 2-phase power design which draws directly from the PCI-E bus instead of a PCI-E connector. Meanwhile, the back of the card holds four more ICs as well as the heatsink retention plate.


The memory on this card is made up of eight 64MB Hynix H5RS522CFR GDDR3 ram modules which are rated to operate at 2.0Ghz DDR. If you are looking for more specifications of this memory you can find the product page here: http://www.hynix.com/datasheet/pdf/g...FR(Rev1.4).pdf