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PALIT Radeon HD 4870 512MB Sonic Dual Video Card
Video, Power, and Overclocking
HQV
130
130
130
128
0
Score (130 = highest)
149.5
HQV
100
100
100
100
0
Score (100 = highest)
115
Identical to a 4850, and practically all current-generation performance video cards, a 4870 excels with video. The previous subjective shortcoming's of ATI's video processing, namely delays with moire compensation, are now gone. 
Power Consumption
(Show All Graphs)
45
56
67
80
0
Watts (lower is better)
149.5
104
120
121
130
0
Watts (lower is better)
149.5
Interestingly enough, the Sonic Dual doesn't consume more power in overclocked mode. This means that it's all software-based, and doesn't make use of over-volting to achieve its higher frequencies. This doesn't mean that it's a power-friendly card, with its demanding idle and load power requirements. I've got a bone to pick with this heatsink. It kept the card cool, very cool--at least 15 degrees less than the stock heatsink under load bringing things into a much more comforting 65-70 degree range. But it's that there are two fans with two very discordant audio profiles. The 70mm fan runs nearly independently of the GPU fan, and is always audible and high-pitched. It will be heard over any ambient noise, and it's particularly audible next to the fluctuations of the thermally-controlled 80mm fan; the shifting pitches are more distracting than any single fan operating at similar noise levels. Even taking manual control of the fans, setting their speed to 25%, the small fan is almost as present; it just won't be tamed. 
Overclocking
(Show All Graphs)
815
750
0
MHz (higher is better)
1219
1060
950
0
MHz (higher is better)
1219
Depending on who you ask, the overclocking setting put the GPU at 775MHz and the memory at 1000MHz, but even with multiple switch-flips and reboots, GPU-Z and Catalyst Control Center reported the speeds at 750MHz and 950MHz, which means that only the memory is overclocked and even then by a slight 50MHz. This goes a long way to explaining why this card doesn't perform noticeably better than a stock 4870. But I didn't let that stop me. This card did not-too-shabbily, hitting 815MHz on the core and 1060MHz on the memory, or about 12%, all around, over the factory "overclock".
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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