Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition

[Rob Williams]

Looking for one of the best HD 4870's that money can buy... without spending more than what you would on a competitor's model? Look no further than Palit's Sonic Dual Edition. This is also the first review to utilize our latest methodology revamp, so comments are welcomed.

It's no secret that the HD 4870 is one of the best overall GPUs on the market right now, but with so much selection from vendors, it's hard to choose the "best" one. Palit has a definite winner with their Sonic Dual Edition though. It's pre-overclocked, runs 20°C cooler than the reference design and carries no cost premium.

You can read the full review here and discuss it here.

Hello,
I heard this Palit card is the same as gainward 4870 gs and it has a big problem which concerns first versions: the 70mm fan isn't regulated and works full everytime; in this case, it's very noisy. Do you know if your palit is first or new version? even if i know that you woult tell if it was the case, i would like to know because i'd like to buy this awesome card!

thx

[Rob Williams]

I didn't know there were two versions of the card, but in no way did I find this card loud. You can see the system specs here, but not once during benchmarking did I find the card to be noticably loud - but I do at times with the reference version of the card. If I'm able to make time, I'll install the card again later and put my ear closer to it, or turn off everything else in the room, to see if it makes a difference.

I am doubtful the cards going to be close to as bad as the reference card though, much less any worse.

ok, if you noticed nothing, then you have the right version. I'm from france and some reviews tells to be careful about thoses cards. You can ask to Palit (or Gainward, it's the same firm) and maybe warn readers and fans! ;-)
thanks for your answer and the very good test

I have the Visiontek HD4870 512MB DDR5, and using the "Adapter" tab within the "Advanced" feature of Window "Display Properties" identified the video card having 512MB. However, the ATI Catalyst Control Center (v.8.12) shows only 222MB hypermemory. How can I tell whether the video card really has the full 512MB available?

I have the Visiontek HD4870 512MB DDR5, and using the "Adapter" tab within the "Advanced" feature of Window "Display Properties" identified the video card having 512MB. However, the ATI Catalyst Control Center (v.8.12) shows only 222MB hypermemory. How can I tell whether the video card really has the full 512MB available?

CLARIFICATION: I have two of these cards, but one uses the HD 4870 Reference Design (with only a single "leafblower-esque" fan) and the other looks just like the Palit sonic edition (with two fans). The Reference Design unit reads 512MB with ATI Catalyst Control Center (v.8.12). The unit that looks just like the Palit sonic edition (with two fans) is the one that is reports 222MB hypermemory using the ATI Catalyst Control Center (v.8.12). Both Vistiontek cards came in packaging advertising 512MB DDR5.

[Rob Williams]

I'd recommend downloading GPU-Z to check for the memory size:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

If it says 512MB, you should be good. If not, then the card might have to be RMA'd. You could also benchmark each card by itself with an application like 3DMark Vantage and see if the scores are equaled (assuming the VisionTek card also uses reference clocks).

[Kougar]

Hypermemory is not actualy memory... it's "borrowed" memory from the system ram. Just because the GPU has 512MB doesn't mean it won't use hypermemory as well; GPU's have done this ever since AGP was around.

I don't have an ATI card to find out exactly what panel you are looking at, but my guess would be it is simply stating how much hypermemory is "reserved" by the card. As Rob said GPU-Z will tell you pretty quick how much real memory it has.

Being relatively new to the i was wondering if anybody could refer me to a site that has a guide to what the most appropriate settings would be.

What I'm asking for is a straight up guide as to what settings are best.

Games that self adjust the settings seem to consistently under-estimate my systems capability.

I'd just lile a simple and clear set of advice on configuration for my rig.\


Thanks in advance
jb

[Rob Williams]

Well, for the most part, the most important settings in a game include texture details, anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. The first thing you want to do when loading up a game is to change the resolution to the maximum that your monitor will support. From there, crank all of the settings up to max, and then work from there. If the game doesn't run well with "Ultra" texture detail, for example, decrease it to "High" and try again.

If you think the card is up to the task, then start raising the anti-aliasing. 4x is probably going to be the max for most games on that card. The resolution matters too. If you are playing on a 20" monitor or lower, you could probably max out the settings for any game out there no problem (save for Crysis). At 24", most games should still run great, but at max detail settings, anti-aliasing might be a problem.

Just experiment. Crank the settings to max and then work your way down to see what works the best. It will be different for each game title.