Diamond Radeon HD 4870 512MB Video Card

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Max Slowik
Kurtis
Diamond
Jul. 4, 2008

Specifications

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Introduction

Diamond's had a rough history. So rough, that if you follow their history from the '90s, you'll find that there's practically nothing left of the original company besides the brand. That might not be a bad thing--I'm not saying their business or hardware was flawed, though you could argue that--but the pressure has forced them to evaluate the way they run their business.

NVIDIA has a hard-core following, because partners like XFX and eVGA support their community. Lifetime warranties, overclocker-friendly policies, and active community tools like forums, knowledgebases, and live chat are what keep people buying from them, no matter what. ATI partners don't seem to have the same kind of interest, or dedication, maybe. Diamond's definitely leaning in that direction.

The 4870 is an excellent card, but for now, all the models are functionally identical, and there are yet to be factory-overclocked cards, let alone custom-cooled models. Variation ranges from changing the sticker to adding spiffy adapters. If you buy Diamond, you're not buying a different card, you're buying better service, only they're not charging extra.

The Card & Bundle

The departure from other unmistakably Asian companies is visible right on the box. And I don't mean the box's relative T&A famine, limited multilingual marketing material, or American-style (vague) self-promotion, but the green, highly-visible "USA Customer Support" brandished beneath the Stars and Stripes. Now, don't take this the wrong way: I believe that customer service, no matter what country it's in, is staffed by the same brand of phone monkey. Their operating close to home just makes a lot of things faster and easier.

Their retail box is very clear about what kind of slot you're going to use and which video-out options you're getting, and uses idiot-proof pictorials just in case (phone monkey-proof?). Inside it's got the card, a component-out cable, a single VGA adapter, an HDMI adapter, and a CrossFire bridge, along with the quick-start guide and drivers in a stiff envelope.

Diamond doesn't change a thing with this card; the clocks, cooling, even the sticker is stock. The sticker has a pseudo-metal look to it that I could take or leave, it makes it look like workstation hardware, but it's by all accounts better than a rendering of a fake woman's cleavage.

While the support's there--I used their tech support's live chat and received an immediate answer to my question--I think they're shorting their users with their warranty. Which was what I asked about: how long's the warranty (1 year) and what does it cover (accidents, failure, but not changing the heatsink, or even overclocking with ATI's Overdrive let alone third-party utilities, not that they have any way to know). I mean, I could look that up, but just getting a response right when you're at their website is genius. Well, not genius, but it satisfies my desires to not have to read stupid technical crap and find the tiniest link ever to get answers.

Which isn't to say that their page is bad: it's probably the best ATI partner's page I've had the pleasure to navigate and pluck specifications since, well, the last Diamond card I've reviewed.

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Page 1: Introduction, The Card & Bundle
Page 2: Specifications and Setup
Page 3: DirectX 10 Titles
Page 4: DX9, OpenGL, and Synthetics
Page 5: Video, Power, and Overclocking
Page 6: Conclusion

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2 User Comments

1 - Posted by alganonim on July 6, 2008 - 4:17 am

Ports : Dual DVI,HDTV-out with VIVO ??? VIVO is for Video In, Video Out , I'm sure there's no 4870 model with VIVO so far, call it TiVO if you must ...

2 - Posted by Max Slowik on July 7, 2008 - 3:22 pm

That's pulled straight from their website, and it's gotta be a typo of "Avivo", the video playback processing engine of all HD ATI cards.

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