DH Writes:
"With their version of the 4870 1GB card Gainward have taken a very solid product and improved on the design in a number of ways. Firstly the card is faster than the reference version which is always a big bonus, secondly it is cooled more effectively and finally it has a more desirable set of display outputs which are not only future proof but better suited for the needs of all consumers.
The Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB Golden Sample wins our Gold Award due to its excellent gaming and media performance as well as significant improvements over the reference design."
Rasterization is the predominant technique used for real-time rendering in video games. Despite the growing use of ray tracing for lighting, rasterization is still used to render the bulk of the scene. Rasterization is faster, efficient, and often produces near-realistic results with some caveats.
Learn how to master the Pictos and Luminas system in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This in-depth guide covers how to acquire, equip, and optimize your builds for maximum combat efficiency.
This guide focuses on all early-game Pictos, how to obtain them, and why they matter. Pictos play a core role in optimizing your characters' combat potential and synergy with Luminas.
Hmm, between the 512 MB Radeon and the Gainword 1 gig card, there does not seem to be a whole lot of performance difference in almost all cases. The card does seem to scale nicely in Crossfire for most games though. But, if you plan on doing that right away, you might as well just pick up a 4870 X2 instead.
What's really the highlight of this card is the non-reference cooler, it really seems to make a big difference in temperatures for this card. A 20 degree drop in temperatures is a big difference compared to the reference card, and should ensure a longer life for the card and better reliability. That should save the user money by not having to purchase an aftermarket cooler, and leaves some overclocking headroom. They hit 790 mhz no problem (which is the limit in the ATI overclocking tool in Catalyst control center, you need to use other 3rd party tools to go higher then that).
Also, they have all four major kinds of display outputs on the back of the card (VGA, DVI-I, HDMI and Display Port). This saves you on connectors and adaptors, but you won't be able to use all four at once anyway. Really, having DVI-I only on the back and using adapters is all you need, since the normally unused pins in the DVI plug are used to send out the audio signals to HDMI anyway. Less plugs looks nicer in my opinion.
The only problem I can see with this card is that it might not work with aftermarket full-cover water blocks for the water coolers out there. The new GDDR5 on these cards doesn't seem to work nice with memory heatsinks alone, for those looking to go the GPU-only block route, so if you do decide to watercool, make sure you've got air going over that card to cool the memory down and mosfets down.