Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic: exclusive, with unusual features
Author:
Date: 25.10.2008 |
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Tests of the cooling system and overclocking
We'll be testing the cooling system of Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic with FUR Renderer Benchmark 1.4.0 in the mode of testing the video card for stability at 1920x1200 and 8X FSAA enabled. The video card was heated up to the point when the GPU temperature stopped going up.
We should admit that the temperature readings of the cooling system tested proved to be simply fantastic. The warming up of Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic under load did not exceed 67 C, while the heating of the formerly tested reference Radeon HD 4870 reached the 84 C mark. The noise characteristics of Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic did not prove to be so good as the temperature characteristics. It was the second fan to blame for, whose rotational speed was not adjustable automatically depending on the heating of the video card and is always set to the maximum. In the end, the noise from the potentially quiet video card was distinct among the other items of our test bench. Solution to this problem was simple enough.
We disconnected the second fan of the cooling system for Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic from the board and plugged it in via an ordinary speed regulator for the fan of the motherboard. Once we reduced the speed of the second fan, Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic proved to be very quiet, and its temperature response remained to be as good as before the modification.
The heating of the GPU during the tests did not exceed 67 C, and the temperature of the power supply subsystem remained as low as it was with the second fan rotating at its full speed before the modification.
As regards the overclocking, Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic overclocked to 790 MHz for the GPU and 4400 MHz for the video memory. Recall that Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic can operate in the two modes: Normal, and Turbo. Below is a table of clock speeds set for each of the modes, as well as those attained during overclocking:
| Mode |
Normal |
Turbo |
Overclocking |
| GPU, clock speed, MHz |
750 |
775 |
790 |
| As compared to the GPU clock speed of the reference Radeon HD 4870 (750 MHz), performance gain, % |
0 |
3,3 |
5,3 |
| Video memory, effective clock speed, MHz |
3800 |
4000 |
4400 |
| As compared to the effective clock speed of the video memory for the reference Radeon HD 4870 (3600 MHz), performance gain, % |
5,6 |
11,1 |
22,2 |
As you can see, even in the Normal mode the clock speeds of Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic are higher than those for the reference Radeon HD 4870. The clock speeds in the Turbo mode, in our view, could have been higher, but to be fair we should admit that they are close to those which we attained with overclocking.
The Tests
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Test configuration
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| CPU |
Intel Core 2 Quad X6850 3.0 @ 3.67 GHz |
| Motherboard |
ASUS P5E3 (Intel X38) |
| RAM |
Corsair Dominator DDR3 2 x 2 GB 1333 MHz 6-6-6-18 1T |
| Operating system |
Windows Vista |
| Power supply unit |
HIPER 880 W |
As contenders to this new product by Palit, Radeon HD 4870, Radeon HD 4850, and GeForce 9800GTX were selected. All the three mentioned video cards were running at reference frequencies recommended by AMD/NVIDIA. Of course, GeForce GTX 260 is missing in the list, but unfortunately we were unable to add it to the results of our tests. Foe tests, we used the drivers Catalyst 8.9 and ForceWare 175.19. We mark Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic in the Turbo mode as Palit HD 4870 T 775/4000, and for the Normal mode - as Palit HD 4870 Sonic S 750/3800. We start examining the results with 3DMark tests.
At 3DMark 06, there is not much difference between the three variations of Radeon HD 4870 video cards. To be fair, we should admit that Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic proved to be the winner in the Turbo mode.
At 3DMark Vantage, performance, the difference between the tested video cards is more evident. The winner is Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic in the Turbo mode, and GeForce 9800GTX proved to be the weakest.
At 3DMark Vantage, high, the winner is again Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic in the Turbo mode. Again, the weakest was GeForce 9800GTX. To be fair, we note that Radeon HD 4850 also lags well behind the leader, but the difference among the three variations of Radeon HD 4870 is not so dramatical.
At 3DMark Vantage, extreme, the alignment of forces remained the same as in the previous two modes.
At Call of Duty, all the three Radeon HD 4870 demonstrate much better results than Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce 9800GTX. The positive effect in this case was played by not only the higher clock speeds than those in the three Radeon HD 4870, but also the faster video memory GDDR-5 versus GDDR-3 in Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce 9800GTX.
At Call of Juarez, the situation is similar. The winner was Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic in the Turbo mode, with Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce 9800GTX proved to be the losers.
At Crysis, the situation is similar: the faster GDDR-5 video memory proved to be really useful in this game either. The winner is Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic in the Turbo mode.
The game Need for Speed Pro Street Racing was no exception, and the three Radeon HD 4870 video cards proved to be winners at it. Note that it is one of the few games where Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce 9800GTX demonstrate approximately similar results. In most cases, Radeon HD 4850 beats GeForce 9800GTX.
At Race Driver: GRID, Radeon HD 4870 shows superb results and overclocking enhances its leading positions. In this game, like in all the previous games, the winner is Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic in the Turbo mode where the higher clock speeds gave additional score points.
Final Words
We believe Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic will appeal to the amateurs of all the non-trivial. This video card is unusual all throughout: it is based on the unique design by Palit, is equipped with a proprietary highly efficient cooling system, with the Display Port connector which is rarely seen in video cards by other manufacturers, as well as two BIOS codes, which is also unusual (although similar precedents were found earlier as well, e.g. in Galaxy video cards). But those who prefer quietness would have to spend a bit more time and enable the second fan of the cooling system of the video card, as we did. This flaw by the manufacturer is easy to fix, so won't be too strict. We recommend Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic to those who are ready to spend a bit of time and efforts to acquire a quiet and fast video card. Evidently, the cooling system of Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic is better than that in the reference, and the increased clock speeds add more performance to it. Finally, we bring in approximate prices for the tested video cards and the video cards of the GeForce GTX260 series in the Moscow retail:
| Video card |
Approximate price, rubles (1$ ~ 26 rubles)
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| Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic |
7500
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| Radeon HD 4870 |
8200
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| GeForce GTX 260 |
8500
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| Radeon HD 4850 |
4800
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| GeForce 9800GTX |
5500
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