XFX GTX 280 XXX and MSI HD 4870: not only overclocking

XFX GTX 280 XXX

The box for XFX GTX 280 XXX is made in a color tint typical for this company. On the front side of the box, the manufacturer displays the core frequency of the video card - 670 MHz, as well as reports that the card comes bundled with the game "Assassins' Creed". The prefix "XXX" shown only on the white bottom of the box means that the video card is already "overclocked".

The package bundle of XFX GTX 280 XXX includes the following items:

• 6-pin power supply adapter for PCI-Express video cards;
• DVI -> D-Sub adapter;
• S-Video/Component out adapter;
• a cable to apply S/P-DIF sound signal to the internal connector of the video card;
• drivers CD;
• CD with the game "Assassin’s Creed";
• a poster "Do not disturb. Playing games";
• brief user's manual.

There is not 8-pin power connector in the bundle, as is the case with all the formerly tested video cards by XFX. If the video card is powered from two cables with 6-pin power connectors, it won't work. In this regard, it is interesting to look into the user's manual:

Judging by the info in the manual, it turns out that:

• XFX GTX 280 XXX can be powered by two cables with 6-pin connectors (the video card won't work, as it is for any other GeForce GTX 280 video card, - that's been verified);
• you can't use a power adapter with two 4-pin connectors and one 6-pin PCI-E connector (such a connector comes bundled with the video card);
• nor you can use an adapter from two 6-pin PCI-E-connectors to one 8-pin connector (we ran the tests just with such a connector taken from the package bundle of an ASUS video card).

Admit it, looks somehow strange - it turns out that "ill-fated" owners of outdated power supply units not equipped with 8-pin power connectors for PCI-E video cards will either have to buy a new PSU or give preference to another manufacturer of video cards. If we ignore the user's manual for the video card by XFX, then we can plug in the video card via a power supply adapter, but if there isn't one, then plug in the 6-pin cable to the 8-pin cable, with two not used pins closed.

XFX GTX 280 XXX is manufactured following the reference design and makes almost no difference from the formerly examined Leadtek GTX 280, except the labels and increased frequencies. Note that the sticker on the XFX card closes access to the screws, so you won't be able to dismantle it without spoiling the exterior.

MSI Radeon HD 4870 OC

The box for MSI HD 4870 is made in gloomy tints and decorated with the image of a creature resembling an Orc from the famous game Warcraft.

The package bundle for MSI HD 4870 includes the following items:

• DVI -> D-Sub adapter;
• DVI -> HDMI adapter;
• S-Video > RCA adapter;
• S-Video/Component out adapter;
• CrossFire bridge;
• Drivers and utilities CD;
• user's manual.

The package bundle lacks power supply adapters, however, that is unlikely to be an issue because the video card uses two 6-pin power connectors which are there in almost all modern power supply adapters.

MSI HD 4870 is manufactured following the reference design and makes no difference from the formerly examined HIS HD 4870, except the sticker and the "smart" firmware. So we won't spend time for exploring its interior and move on to the most interesting part.

Heating MSI HD 4870, control over the fan speed and overclocking

The tests have shown that MSI HD 4870 heats up not so immensely as the formerly tested HIS HD 4870, even despite the factory overclocking from 750/3600 MHz to 780/4000 MHz. That was caused by the higher rotational speed of the fan in the cooling system. During the idle time, the fan of MSI HD 4870 is rotating at 1530 RPM, sometimes accelerating to 1934 RPM, while in the formerly examined HIS HD 4870 it was rotating at 1075 RPM. If we measure the fan's speed as percentage of its maximum possible speed, then during the idle time it went up from 22% to 27-31%. As a result, the temperature of the GPU in the 2D mode dropped from 78 to 64 C. There is a difference in heating between MSI HD 4870 and HIS HD 4870 under load as well. While running nine consecutive tests Firefly Forest from the benchmarking suite 3DMark'06 at 1600õ1200 with the 4X FSAA and 16X AF enabled, MSI HD 4870 heated up to 74 C, the fan's speed was about 2625 RPM (or 40% of the maximum possible speed), while HIS HD 4870 under similar conditions heated up to 84 C with the fan's rotational speed being 1886 RPM (or 30% of the maximum).

The increased speed of the fan is not a credit of the new drivers Catalyst 8.7. Even with new drivers, HIS HD 4870 heated up to 80 during the idle time. That means the cause is in the modified firmware of the MSI video card and not in the new drivers. Due to this modification, MSI HD 4870 turned somehow "louder" than its reference "sisters", but that has affected its temperature performance. If you like this modification, here is the BIOS from MSI HD 4870. For your convenience, we included the ATI Flash 3.60 utility into the archive, so you only have to find a DOS bootable floppy. However, the rotational speed of the fan can be controlled with not only the firmware, but also with Catalyst drivers.

To this end, you should enable the "ATI Overdrive" feature in the video card's control panel and create a profile through adding only the "ATI Overdrive" settings into it, as is shown in the figure. Then, go to the folder C:UsersProfile nameAppDataLocalATIACEProfiles, if you use Windows Vista, or to the folder C:Documents and SettingsProfile nameLocal SettingsApplication DataATIACEProfiles, if you are a user of Windows XP. In this folder, save the profile file created, which should be amended with a text editor; the best tool for that is the "Notepad".

Looking for the highlighted part of the text and change the string "Automatic" with "Manual", with the number at the very end of the highlighted part of the text used to set the desired rotational speed of the fan in percents. However, such a trick not only allows dropping about 10-20 degrees thus giving up the quietness, but is fraught with a danger. The thing is, the manually set speed of the fan will not be dynamically adjustable depending on the load upon the video card. It is easy to guess that is the fan rotates at insufficient speed, the video card may overheat and damage.

If you want to overclock the video card and thus raise the speed of the fan, you will be disappointed. You can control the rotational speed of the video card through drivers only with the ATI Overdrive feature enabled. But once you start up the only available utility for overclocking the most recent video cards Radeon HD 48x0 - AMD GPU Clock Tool - and change the clock speeds, the ATI Overdrive feature gets immediately disabled, and the fan's control system switches to the automatic mode.

Therefore, while "overclocking" we cooled the video card with an additional 120-mm fan. The vide card overcame 820 MHz for the GPU and 4600 MHz for the video memory. Therefore, we were able to "overclock" the video card even more than the manufacturer could do that.

XFX GTX 280 XXX is also factory-overclocked - to the maximum. From the recommended 601/1296 MHz for the graphic processor and 2214 MHz for the video memory, the XFX video card has been overclocked to 669/1458 and 2484 MHz for the GPU and the video memory, respectively. Further attempts to overclock failed. That is no wonder, because frequencies set by XFX for XFX GTX 280 XXX are high enough for such video cards of the GeForce GTX 280 series.

Benchmarking and conclusions

We'll tested the video cards with the following configuration:

To test GeForce video cards, we used Catalyst 177.41 drivers, for Radeon - Catalyst 8.7. We start introduction to the results with 3DMark test suites.

In 3DMark tests, overclocking helped MSI HD 4870 to win the first place. However, there is no special difference between the video cards based on the results of these two tests. A more vivid demonstration of the speed difference between the video cards can be seen from gaming tests which we ran with 4X FSAA and 16X AF enabled.

At Call of Duty 4 under Windows XP, the first place was gained by XFX GTX 280 XXX, the second - by the "regular" GeForce GTX 280. Overclocking did not help MSI HD 4870 win the rivals, however, shortened the lag from the leaders substantially.

Under Windows Vista, the alignment of forces has not changed: at Call of Duty 4, XFX GTX 280 XXX and GeForce GTX 280 take a lead.

At Need for Speed Pro Street Racing under Windows XP, again XFX GTX 280 XXX and GeForce GTX 280 take a lead, but overclocking helped MSI HD 4870 approach closely to the "regular" GeForce GTX 280.

Under Windows Vista, the situation has not changed. Once again, we draw your attention to the fact that MSI HD 4870 when overclocked shows results close to those for GeForce GTX 280.

At Crysis under Windows XP, XFX GTX 280 XXX and GeForce GTX 280 showed much better results than the rivals. Perhaps it was the relatively small video memory capacity that played an evil trick with Radeon video cards. Once we get Radeon HD 48x0 with video memory greater than 512 MB, we will certainly verify that.

Under Windows Vista, the alignment of forces has not changed, except that with Catalyst 8.7 in Radeon HD 4870 image disappears at 1920x1200.

At Call of Juarez under Windows XP, XFX GTX 280 XXX and GeForce GTX 280 take a lead, but the overclocked MSI HD 4870 is close on the heels. In practice, the difference between them is unlikely to be seen.

Under Windows Vista, the overclocked MSI HD 4870 took a lead over the "regular" GeForce GTX 280 in two resolutions: 1600x1200 and 1920x1200. This case is a vivid demonstration of the fact that Radeon cards are optimized for some resolutions, although they are certainly there for GeForce cards as well.

At Race Driver: GRID under Windows XP, XFX GTX 280 XXX takes a lead at almost all the resolutions, but at 1920x1200 it yielded to the overclocked MSI HD 4870. In its turn, overclocking did not bring MSI HD 4870 any essential gains, although the results have somehow improved.

Under Windows Vista, the leadership of XFX GTX 280 XXX is not so evident - Radeon cards compete against them almost on par.

Final Words

The video cards reviewed today are certainly interesting, each in its own way. In many tests, XFX GTX 280 XXX has demonstrated a much higher speed than the "regular" GeForce GTX 280, due to the effective factory overclocking. MSI HD 4870 has not demonstrated a substantial performance gain, but due to the modified firmware it turned much colder as compared to the "regular" Radeon HD 4870. But the tradeoff for that is in the increased noise level, and due to better overclocking the card will certainly serve for a longer time than its hotter "colleagues".