what is your view on this 4870 card? Update

[kipliq]

newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102801

I read the reviews and a few people killed the cards after 30 days. Is this due to junk PSU?

I currently run a corsair VX 550. I'm looking for a quiet 4870 card , was about to purchase the 4850 but I don't want to upgrade my computer for the next 5 years. I usualy run a 5 year turn around on my computers. Don't play many new games other then wow, sims 2 and call of duty.


Update - I'm just purchased my new card! Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4870 VAPOR-X 1GB DDR5 , stopped from being very cheap and just decided to order it. I figure this should last me 5 years like my old x850xt lol I hope. Hoping this card is cool and quiet in my case.

 

[OCGuy]

What size monitor do you use?

 

[kipliq]

22" thinking of upgrading to a 28" or a LCD tv later this year. I saw a few 28" LCD on sale for around 300.00 at costco.com.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Whoa, okay, I have that exact card running on that exact PSU. It's only been a week but so far no problems at all.

It's reasonably quiet and I like the cooler design (it actually exhausts some air out the back instead of just blowing it around inside the case). Too bad you're upgrading now - two weekends ago when I ordered it, they had free shipping and a free copy of STALKER: Clear Sky (which I now love!). Interestingly enough, Clear Sky is the one game I've tried so far that I can't run at max settings (close, but in order to get good performance I had to turn AA/AF down and reduce the sun rays).

 

[kipliq]

Hey AstroManLuca
The game will not matter much, don't care. Does the card run cool? What are your temps? I have a smaller case so I would like quiet and cool. The x850xt is pretty quiet, turned the fan down but it's a hot card running around 50 on idle and 80 on games.

 

[starfireone]

A great card. Have one in a system of mine. Going strong for about what I think 4 or months now. What a lot of people don't think about is these cards run hot and these need plenty of cool air flow. If you have poor and next to no cool air flow in your case, yes you will most likely see the card go bad in a few weeks or month. The trick is extra decent fans in your case to help keep it cool.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I don't know the temps during gaming but at idle it's in the low 50s.

Why are you considering a 4870 if you don't care much about gaming and you only play old games? There are some fanless cards out there (mostly cheap crap, a few 4670s and 9600GTs, and a 4850 and a 9800GT if you want something faster) if you want quiet. I'm guessing they will probably run pretty hot but obviously they'll be totally silent. In that case, like starfireone says, you're depending upon case airflow.

Aftermarket coolers can also keep things quiet.

 

[kipliq]

i have a BS -03 that is blowing air on to my current card. I switched it from exhaust to intake. The card will have air comming from the out side I have a 120mm fan blowing on to my cpu and the BS 03 120mm fanblowing on to the videocard area. I figure I have the cooling down. I have a PC a05b, not sure if you have seen the case. The air flow is reversed.

 

[kipliq]

Do you know the length of this card? 10"?

 

[AstroManLuca]

OMG man. Are you my clone or something? I also have the Lian-Li PCA05B.

That 4870 fits in the case no problem. Covers up some of my SATA ports but that's okay because they are right-angle ports.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: kipliq
Do you know the length of this card? 10"?

Card is about 9.5" I think...fits in my LL A05B (fairly small case) no problem.

 

[saiga6360]

This card is a great performer but really loud on load. I recommend the Vapor-X version instead.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

card is the best bang/buck you can get right now for your resolution

 

[adairusmc]

I have had the same card in my tri-fire setup for months now, no problems at all.

 

[nOOky]

I have that card. OC's fairly well, and I haven't noticed any excess fan noise while gaming.

 

[evolucion8]

I own that card since november and I haven't had a single issue, is quite silent except that sometimes when the system is cold booting or during intensive gaming, the fan ramps up to 5,000RPM for a second and then it would go back to normal, sometimes it happens 5 times in less than 30 seconds, sometimes it happens only once. Is quite weird, but the card never exceeds 70C in full load and idles at 52C in a room temperature of 85F. The fan becomes noisy after 3,200RPM and after 3,500 is quite loud, at 5000RPM sounds like a leaf blower. It overclocks with the CCC to 840MHz Core and 4,200MHz RAM, but in some games freezes so I set it to 780Mhz core and 4GHz RAM and works like a charm.

 

[cbn]

Originally posted by: kipliq
newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102801

I read the reviews and a few people killed the cards after 30 days. Is this due to junk PSU?

I currently run a corsair VX 550. I'm looking for a quiet 4870 card , was about to purchase the 4850 but I don't want to upgrade my computer for the next 5 years. I usualy run a 5 year turn around on my computers. Don't play many new games other then wow, sims 2 and call of duty.

I like this card but wonder if two 40nm HD4770s (available this month or more likely next month) will destroy a single HD4870 in benchmarks at approximately the same price? (assuming the person already has one of the more expensive X-fire capable motherboards)

P.S. I am sure your 550 watt PSU would easily handle two HD4770s as much as it could handle one 4870 (re: HD4770 is 40nm and HD4870 is 55nm)

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Just learning
P.S. I am sure your 550 watt PSU would easily handle two HD4770s as much as it could handle one 4870 (re: HD4770 is 40nm and HD4870 is 55nm)

TSMC 40nm apparently don't show much in the way of power savings.

 

[cbn]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: Just learning
P.S. I am sure your 550 watt PSU would easily handle two HD4770s as much as it could handle one 4870 (re: HD4770 is 40nm and HD4870 is 55nm)

TSMC 40nm apparently don't show much in the way of power savings.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index....view&id=12866&Itemid=1

Isn't 80 watts pretty good? (This card almost doesn't need a 6 pin power connector)

 

[thilanliyan]

80w is good but it may not be all or even mostly down to the new process.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inq...878/tsmc-40nm-revealed

I don't know how true that is but hopefully it's not very accurate so that we can benefit from 40nm cards as well.

 

[cbn]

Originally posted by: thilan29
80w is good but it may not be all or even mostly down to the new process.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inq...878/tsmc-40nm-revealed

I don't know how true that is but hopefully it's not very accurate so that we can benefit from 40nm cards as well.

I hope that is not true.

Wouldn't a "leaky" 40nm hurt durability?

I just looked up the power consumption of HD4830 and it is 110 watts. So if the power consumption was strictly due to the new 40nm process would that be close to proportional? (ie, 680 55nm stream processors @ 575 MHz using 110 watts (including DDR3 memory) ----> 680 40nm stream processors @750 Mhz using 80 watts (including DDR5 memory)

 

[kipliq]

should i purchase the card now or should I wait till prices drop? or will it drop in a month?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: kipliq
should i purchase the card now or should I wait till prices drop? or will it drop in a month?

Go for it and be happy that you can enjoy it now instead of maybe saving $15 in a month or so. Happy gaming..!

 

[SSChevy2001]

The Sapphire Vapor-X is supposed to be very silent compared to other 4870s.
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=AT-487VP1G

 

[cbn]

Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
The Sapphire Vapor-X is supposed to be very silent compared to other 4870s.
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=AT-487VP1G

That looks like a really good deal (better than what the OP posted) Ewiz shipping is fast too.