Palit HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition 512 MB

[W1zzard]

Palit is one of the first AMD board partners to release a custom Radeon HD 4870 version. Their new HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition comes with a completely revamped cooling assembly that features two fans to keep the card cool. Also included is a DisplayPort connector and a Turbo switch which lets you select the operating frequencies of the card. The mandatory "overclocked out of the box" is included as well.

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[btarunr]

Turbo switch adds redundancy to the BIOS too. Saves people from bad BIOS flashes. If I mess up a flash, I can always boot the card from the other BIOS and fix the BIOS I messed with. Decent price for the card.

 

[oli_ramsay]

Such an awesome card, shame it took so long for a non-reference 4870 to come out. I would have loved to of snapped this up.

EDIT: Noticed on page 29 in the overclocking section, there's a typo which says 4850 instead of 4870.

 

[ShadowFold]

Yea I wish the non-refs came out sooner too Not that I regret my 4850 but having to buy a cooler for it just to OC was kinda retarded..

 

[wolf2009]

WOW, really noisy !

 

[W1zzard]

fixed the 4850 typo on the oc page

 

[WarEagleAU]

I really like it but I must say Im a bit disappointed in the cooling apparatus. It should be exhausted to the outside, which I prefer most cards to do. In my case, I dont have as much airflow and cooling as Id like and this would really make it heat up. Overall though I am very impressed. Price is mighty nice as well.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. I am still quite impressed though.

 

[flclisgreat]

turbo button FTW. now for non reference 4870 x2's please

 

[nafets]

Interesting card.

Wiz, any chance you could make the two BIOSes available? When you get a chance.

Also, if you have time, what are the Gpu-Z VDDC slave temps for the Palit HD4870 while at LOAD (OC'ed or not). I'm interested in what implications Palit's non-reference design has for VRM efficiency and cooling.

Currently most, if not all reference HD4870's have quite high heat output in the VRM area, and this is a large concern when using aftermarket cooling, or even with the stock cooling.

Good job on the review though!

 

[MilkyWay]

the noise really spoiled the card, why isnt there any memory cooling either even little sinks would be great for distributing heat

i feel if my 8800gt makes a lot of noise this will just as bad

the card is defo an improvement over the stock design, good for oc and is defo a lot cooler

just underwhelming tbh with the cooler yeah it looks and cools good but why stick a 70 and 80 fan why not 2x70s or 2x80s

still should be my choice of card unless something can best it

 

[tkpenalty]

I'm going for this card, not for the non-ref cooling, but for the PCB itself. Its superior to the reference design in many ways;

Ref design = 3 phase digital + 1 Digital phase mem

PALiT/Xpertvision etc = 4 Phase (Analogue) + 2 Phase (Analogue).

This overall results in less heat being produced and a card thats much easier to cool. Sure, digital phases provide more stable power (not really), but you're cramming all that heat output into tiny chips-a PIA to cool.

AcceleroS1 + PALIT HD4870 + two silent 120mm fans

 

[W1zzard]

palit does not use the vt1165 voltage controller chip so it is not possible to monitor to vrm temps

 

[largon]

I like those mounting holes for each set of four GDDR5 chips...

Ref design = 3 phase digital + 1 Digital phase mem

Reference HD4870 has 1+1 phase (vDD&vDDQ) memory power - just like the PALiT, but with diff. type components ("digital").


edit:
What's the model of the phase controller?
It looks like an ON Semi NCP53-series chip...

 

[nafets]

palit does not use the vt1165 voltage controller chip so it is not possible to monitor to vrm temps

I should have figured this. Doh!

Also, are the mounting holes around the GPU core at the same locations as a reference HD4870? IE...Would most aftermarket coolers (S1, HR-03GT...) work with the Palit HD4870?

If so, I might consider ditching my reference HD4870 for the Palit HD4870, just for the redesigned PCB layout and VRMs...

 

[W1zzard]

the mounting holes look the same

 

[jbunch07]

Great review as always!
This card looks great...chances are ill go with this one.

 

[Darkrealms]

Nice review as always W1zzard, thanks.

Hope these go on sale or start under the $299 mark (on the chart in the review). I just picked up my GTX260 for under $240 and this card doesn't beat it by that much : (

 

[MadClown]

nice review, i know what card im getting now =D

 

[EnglishLion]

Sorry, but I really can't see how that review gets a 9.1 rating?

It's much noiser especially at idle which is when noise is most annoying and most unnecessary and yet the overclocking boost is minimal. The turbo mode barely pushes fps up at all and requires a reboot to be used.

To me it seems much better to avoid it and buy a cheaper stock card. Or based on the noise levels of the Powercolor 4850 PCS in those charts, maybe opt for the Powercolor 4870 PCS and hope that they've done as good a job on cooling the 70 as they have the 50.

I would say there are much better 4870 cards one can buy!

 

[Mistral]

This may seem like an odd question but... has anyone tried the Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo on this card?

 

[DaMulta]

Sorry, but I really can't see how that review gets a 9.1 rating?

It's much noiser especially at idle which is when noise is most annoying and most unnecessary and yet the overclocking boost is minimal. The turbo mode barely pushes fps up at all and requires a reboot to be used.

To me it seems much better to avoid it and buy a cheaper stock card. Or based on the noise levels of the Powercolor 4850 PCS in those charts, maybe opt for the Powercolor 4870 PCS and hope that they've done as good a job on cooling the 70 as they have the 50.

I would say there are much better 4870 cards one can buy!

I bet the card does very well v-modded, and water cooled. Then you could flash different bios es on the card and not worry about locking it totally out. For people that take it to the extreme and flash crazy speeds(wilie)it would be really helpful.

 

[Wile E]

I bet the card does very well v-modded, and water cooled. Then you could flash different bios es on the card and not worry about locking it totally out. For people that take it to the extreme and flash crazy speeds(wilie)it would be really helpful.

Yes, it would be immeasurably helpful. Do you have any idea how hard it was to flash this 8800GT back after a I tried a 1GHz bios mod on it. lol.

 

[flclisgreat]

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PLT-4870SC

little below msrp eh?

 

[Skywalker12345]

i also ghad to buy i 4850 aftermarket cooler on my card and ran me another 50 bucks, i should have just gotten a 4870