Monday, August 18th 2008

Gainward Non-reference Radeon HD 4870 Fresh out

Gainward, a subsidiary of Palit Microsystems presented a set of pictures of its non-reference HD 4870. It will share this design with the Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic. Gainward sought aggressive cooling and overclocking for this card. The card will continue to feature 512 MB of GDDR5 memory. This card features dual-BIOS, a BIOS maintains 750 MHz / 950 MHz core and memory parameters, while a second high-performance BIOS ups these frequencies to 775 MHz / 1000MHz. Presumably this mechanism brings about redundancy with the BIOS, a boon for overclockers as accidental damage to the card due to tweaking the BIOS could be easily resolved.
As you can see from the first picture, the card features a DisplayPort on the card apart from two DVI connectors, there is no air-outlet on the bracket-plate. The second picture shows the cooler, it features two fans of dissimilar sizes. An 80 mm fan blows air over the GPU / memory area while a smaller 70 mm fan blows air directly over the VRM area. Under the hood of this cooler is the cooler which consists of a GPU-block from which three aluminum heatpipes project. These pipes convey heat through the fins on which the fans blow air.

On to the electronics of this card, you can see a non-reference PCB, the two 6-pin PCI-E power inputs are angled and pushed on to the side (a-là Radeon HD 2900 XT) unlike the reference PCB. The PCB fuels the card with 4 phases for the GPU and 2 phases for the memory. Speaking of memory, the card uses GDDR5 chips made by Qimonda.
Source: Expreview
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27 Comments on Gainward Non-reference Radeon HD 4870 Fresh out

#1
[I.R.A]_FBi
i think i just skeeted. this is secksee.
Posted on Reply
#2
jbunch07
agreed. i do like this.
very nice indeed.
Posted on Reply
#3
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
Aluminum pipes though, thats a ding for me. and the core isnt as high as I think they could get. Maybe its just the new architecture though.
Posted on Reply
#4
jbunch07
yea the aluminum pipes are somewhat disappointing, i think its a good design though.
Posted on Reply
#5
Wile E
Power User
I sure hope the 4850 Sonic shares the same power circuits. 4 phases are gonna be beastly on these things.
Posted on Reply
#7
[I.R.A]_FBi
i hope this is the gainward 4850, minus the gddr5 of course
Posted on Reply
#8
Darknova
I want that VRM heatsink....that thing looks like it will cool well and that's the one huge downside of current aftermarket coolers.

Looks like a really good card though :D
Posted on Reply
#9
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
it looks like a good card/cooler.

2x DVI + HDMI is a good output set - and aluminium fins or not, 70mm+80mm will keep those temps down.
Posted on Reply
#10
tkpenalty
DarknovaI want that VRM heatsink....that thing looks like it will cool well and that's the one huge downside of current aftermarket coolers.

Looks like a really good card though :D
Err it uses mosfets fyi...

Six phase.... mem phases on left, 4 VGPU on right. Awesome.

Gainward are clearly showing their new love for AMD.
Posted on Reply
#11
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
That's actually Palit cashing in on ATI-love that's in the air. People almost want to sleep next to their ATI cards these days.
Posted on Reply
#12
Darknova
tkpenaltyErr it uses mosfets fyi...

Six phase.... mem phases on left, 4 VGPU on right. Awesome.

Gainward are clearly showing their new love for AMD.
Hmm...I'd prefer the VRMs that the 4870 uses, more stable voltage supply, BUT I do concede that VRMs need a large amount of cooling, and currently we're severly lacking in that department (aftermarket).
Posted on Reply
#14
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Thanks for the edit, W1z.

This card uses DisplayPort and there's a pic of the cooler without the hood/fans The memory chips look bare :eek::





^See that switch? When the system is powered-off, you can use the switch make the card boot from another BIOS. So the card holds a backup BIOS, if you wish, or an OC'ed and a stock BIOS.
Posted on Reply
#16
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Rehosted. How about now?
Posted on Reply
#17
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
they showed fine for me initially, and now as well.
Posted on Reply
#18
mdm-adph
[I.R.A]_FBii think i just skeeted. this is secksee.
Your use of four year old slang troubles me. :p

But a cool card, though, long as the price isn't too high.
Posted on Reply
#19
[I.R.A]_FBi
mdm-adphYour use of four year old slang troubles me. :p

But a cool card, though, long as the price isn't too high.
it isnt a slang, its a way of life ;)
Posted on Reply
#20
jbunch07
btarunrThanks for the edit, W1z.

^See that switch? When the system is powered-off, you can use the switch make the card boot from another BIOS. So the card holds a backup BIOS, if you wish, or an OC'ed and a stock BIOS.
now that is a nice feature!
Posted on Reply
#21
Elijah86
Thats one clean looking card.
Posted on Reply
#22
tkpenalty
DarknovaHmm...I'd prefer the VRMs that the 4870 uses, more stable voltage supply, BUT I do concede that VRMs need a large amount of cooling, and currently we're severly lacking in that department (aftermarket).
Thats argueable. VRMs basically drain much more power just to achieve that and waste MUCH more heat.
Posted on Reply
#23
dsdavis6
hmm this may well make my 8800gt redundant if its reasonably priced
Posted on Reply
#24
mdm-adph
[I.R.A]_FBiit isnt a slang, its a way of life ;)
Yeah, so was "2 legit 2 quit." ;)
Posted on Reply
#25
erocker
*
No heatsinks on the GDDR5?
Posted on Reply
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