+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

job with cooling.

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

job with cooling.

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

job with cooling.

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

I can get it up to about about 62c. But almost everything else doesn’t break 60c and it idles just below 50c at about 40% fan speed. One might complain that the fan might be too loud, but I don’t think it is, and if you have your sound on, you won’t even hear it.

Lastly, I really like ATI’s CCC, their graphics card control options. It’s easy to use and gives you a lot of control to take your card further for all kinds of games.

In the end, if your thinking of buying this card, go for it, it’s been worth every penny and when it’s price comes down further, I’ll be buying a second one to put into CrossfireX. Get myself some more frames per second in Crysis.

Note: if you have the money, check out the HD 4870 X2 - talk about power!

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

this is a very good card.

Joe Ruder

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

this is a very good card.



Joe Ruder

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

as the HD 4870 to display on their expensive HDTV's - for instance, to take advantage of a Home Theater PC or to play computer games on the big screen - often have to deal with an image/video phenomenon known as Black Crush. Black Crush is a result of the PC world and the Video world (including DVD's, blu-ray's, cable TV) using two different languages (for lack of a better term) to describe the brightness or darkness of the pixels that comprise the images displayed on your television, and because of this, images sent from a PC to an HDTV over a DVI or an HDMI connection do not appear properly. For instance, where in a movie you might expect to see a *gradient* of blacks, you will only see solid black: the darker details are crushed flat and all of the shades of black below a threshold (16) appear as a homogeneous pitch-black blob. In dark scenes and many older films (even on DVD), Black Crush completely kills image quality, and even on newer films with better lighting techniques, the defect is still present. Black Crush also diminishes image quality when looking at digital photos, surfing the web, or playing games. (If you want to read up on the technical details of Black Crush, run a web search on 'RGB color space', 'PC levels, and 'video levels'.)

With the HD 4870, you can use a (special?) DVI->HDMI converter (included in the box!) with any HDMI cable (not included; available on Amazon for < $10) to connect your PC to your HDTV, and the ATI Catalyst software, possibly in conjunction with the DVI->HDMI converter, will *automatically* corrects the output levels of the HD 4870 so that PC levels are converted to Video levels, which in essence means that the PC and the HDTV will be communicating in the same language, which completely prevents Black Crush. While there are several options for handling Black Crush on NVIDIA cards and other ATI cards, I've never seen anything that fully corrected the issue; generally, such methods prevent Black Crush in DVD and Blu-Ray movies, but NOT on the desktop, in the web browser, or while playing computer games. For some HDTV users, Black Crush is a non-issue: a lucky few have HDTV's that can perform both "PC" and "Video"-speak, thus correcting Black Crush on these well-thought-out HDTV's is a simple matter of changing a setting in the television's menu system. PLEASE NOTE: I make a big deal of the Black Crush problem because it can ruin an otherwise excellent Home Theater setup, and I, and many others I've heard from on various A/V forums and HTPC sites, have been eagerly awaiting a true, across-the-board solution to Black Crush, and we've finally received one.

=3D PERFORMANCE=
If you're considering purchasing the HD 4870, you're almost certainly a gamer interested in the card's 3D performance. A web search will turn up in-depth reviews and benchmarks, but suffice it to say the HD 4870 is a powerful little devil; for example, if I run Mass Effect at 1920 x 1080 with all settings on high, the HD 4870 gives an average of near 60 FPS (with dips into the 40's), whereas before I was getting half that. As of 07/2008, the HD 4870 can render any 3D game at impressive frame rates, with the exception of Crysis. The Visiontek HD 4870 runs Crysis well enough, but no card currently on the market will run Crysis on Very High in DX10 at 1920 x 1080 while maintaining a good frame rate (> 30, ideally vsync-locked at a constant 60 FPS), so don't hold that against the HD 4870.

=PRICE & VALUE=
Currently, the fastest single-core GPU on the market is the NVIDIA GTX 280, which beats the HD 4870 in most games and benchmarks that I've seen. The GTX 280 is more expensive than the HD 4870, somewhere between $425 - $500. If you've got the cash, and don't have to worry about Black Crush issues (especially if you use a traditional LCD or CRT PC monitor and NOT an HDTV - Black Crush is a non-issue for these folks), then the NVIDIA GTX 280 might be the better choice.

Those of us with Crossfire-ready motherboards can run TWO HD 4870 GPU's at one time and may want to buy one HD 4870 now, and a second HD 4870 in six to twelve months when the price drops and more games are available that over-stress a single HD 4870. From the comparison reviews I've read online, two HD 4870's in Crossfire outperform the GTX 280 by a wide margin on most tests, and even outperform the famous NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2. Buying a second HD 4870 when they drop down to $150 or so and running the pair in Crossfire is a cost-effective strategy for staying abreast of the coming Winter onslaught of GPU-hungry PC games.

However, if you have money to spare, you ought to buy a GTX 280. If you have an SLI-enabled motherboard, which is NVIDIA's analogue of Crossfire, you can run two NVIDIA GTX 280's on one PC, which will beat two HD 4870's in Crossfire, so for the SLI-capable, buying one GTX 280 now and a second GTX 280 in twelve months is my recommendation if you can afford it.

=CONCLUSION=
I highly recommend the Visiontek HD 4870 to anyone who is either a PC gamer, or an HTPC enthusiast suffering from the evil Black Crush.

=SPECIAL NOTE=
The new generation of ATI and NVIDIA GPU's are power hungry and require special PCI-express power connectors that may not be found on your power supply unit. The PCI-express power connectors stem from your PSU, just like any SATA or IDE drive power connect, only they are shaped differently and supply larger amounts of power. Verify that your PSU already has these connectors, or that your PSU has enough wattage to run your chosen card(s), and then purchase some PCI-e connector adapters that can convert several IDE connectors into one PCI-e connector. If you haven't bought a high wattage PSU lately, you may have to upgrade.

The requirements for each of the setups I've discussed in this review are as follows:

SINGLE HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:
* two (2) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors
* PSU of at least 500W

CROSSFIRE (DUAL) HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:
* four (4) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors
* PSU of at least 600W

SINGLE GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:
* two (2) x PCI-e power adapters: one (1) x 6-pin, one (1) x 8-pin
* PSU of at least 550W

SLI (DUAL) GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:
* four (4) x PCI-e power connectors: two (2) x 6-pin, two (2) x 8-pin
* According to NVIDIA's dedicated SLI website, all PSU's currently certified for running two GTX 280's in SLI are at least 1000W, but I did not find a minimum cutoff. I would guess that 850W or 900W would be enough, but please verify this with NVIDIA before purchasing.

Finally, please note that the 8-pin PCI-e connectors sometimes come as 6+2 connectors that may or may not fit the GTX 280's 8-pin male adapter. NVIDIA's website provides a list of compatible 6+2 PSUs.

...and as always, Amazon rocks.

=THE END=
-RTA

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

as the HD 4870 to display on their expensive HDTV's - for instance, to take advantage of a Home Theater PC or to play computer games on the big screen - often have to deal with an image/video phenomenon known as Black Crush. Black Crush is a result of the PC world and the Video world (including DVD's, blu-ray's, cable TV) using two different languages (for lack of a better term) to describe the brightness or darkness of the pixels that comprise the images displayed on your television, and because of this, images sent from a PC to an HDTV over a DVI or an HDMI connection do not appear properly. For instance, where in a movie you might expect to see a *gradient* of blacks, you will only see solid black: the darker details are crushed flat and all of the shades of black below a threshold (16) appear as a homogeneous pitch-black blob. In dark scenes and many older films (even on DVD), Black Crush completely kills image quality, and even on newer films with better lighting techniques, the defect is still present. Black Crush also diminishes image quality when looking at digital photos, surfing the web, or playing games. (If you want to read up on the technical details of Black Crush, run a web search on 'RGB color space', 'PC levels, and 'video levels'.)



With the HD 4870, you can use a (special?) DVI->HDMI converter (included in the box!) with any HDMI cable (not included; available on Amazon for < $10) to connect your PC to your HDTV, and the ATI Catalyst software, possibly in conjunction with the DVI->HDMI converter, will *automatically* corrects the output levels of the HD 4870 so that PC levels are converted to Video levels, which in essence means that the PC and the HDTV will be communicating in the same language, which completely prevents Black Crush. While there are several options for handling Black Crush on NVIDIA cards and other ATI cards, I've never seen anything that fully corrected the issue; generally, such methods prevent Black Crush in DVD and Blu-Ray movies, but NOT on the desktop, in the web browser, or while playing computer games. For some HDTV users, Black Crush is a non-issue: a lucky few have HDTV's that can perform both "PC" and "Video"-speak, thus correcting Black Crush on these well-thought-out HDTV's is a simple matter of changing a setting in the television's menu system. PLEASE NOTE: I make a big deal of the Black Crush problem because it can ruin an otherwise excellent Home Theater setup, and I, and many others I've heard from on various A/V forums and HTPC sites, have been eagerly awaiting a true, across-the-board solution to Black Crush, and we've finally received one.



=3D PERFORMANCE=

If you're considering purchasing the HD 4870, you're almost certainly a gamer interested in the card's 3D performance. A web search will turn up in-depth reviews and benchmarks, but suffice it to say the HD 4870 is a powerful little devil; for example, if I run Mass Effect at 1920 x 1080 with all settings on high, the HD 4870 gives an average of near 60 FPS (with dips into the 40's), whereas before I was getting half that. As of 07/2008, the HD 4870 can render any 3D game at impressive frame rates, with the exception of Crysis. The Visiontek HD 4870 runs Crysis well enough, but no card currently on the market will run Crysis on Very High in DX10 at 1920 x 1080 while maintaining a good frame rate (> 30, ideally vsync-locked at a constant 60 FPS), so don't hold that against the HD 4870.



=PRICE & VALUE=

Currently, the fastest single-core GPU on the market is the NVIDIA GTX 280, which beats the HD 4870 in most games and benchmarks that I've seen. The GTX 280 is more expensive than the HD 4870, somewhere between $425 - $500. If you've got the cash, and don't have to worry about Black Crush issues (especially if you use a traditional LCD or CRT PC monitor and NOT an HDTV - Black Crush is a non-issue for these folks), then the NVIDIA GTX 280 might be the better choice.



Those of us with Crossfire-ready motherboards can run TWO HD 4870 GPU's at one time and may want to buy one HD 4870 now, and a second HD 4870 in six to twelve months when the price drops and more games are available that over-stress a single HD 4870. From the comparison reviews I've read online, two HD 4870's in Crossfire outperform the GTX 280 by a wide margin on most tests, and even outperform the famous NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2. Buying a second HD 4870 when they drop down to $150 or so and running the pair in Crossfire is a cost-effective strategy for staying abreast of the coming Winter onslaught of GPU-hungry PC games.



However, if you have money to spare, you ought to buy a GTX 280. If you have an SLI-enabled motherboard, which is NVIDIA's analogue of Crossfire, you can run two NVIDIA GTX 280's on one PC, which will beat two HD 4870's in Crossfire, so for the SLI-capable, buying one GTX 280 now and a second GTX 280 in twelve months is my recommendation if you can afford it.



=CONCLUSION=

I highly recommend the Visiontek HD 4870 to anyone who is either a PC gamer, or an HTPC enthusiast suffering from the evil Black Crush.



=SPECIAL NOTE=

The new generation of ATI and NVIDIA GPU's are power hungry and require special PCI-express power connectors that may not be found on your power supply unit. The PCI-express power connectors stem from your PSU, just like any SATA or IDE drive power connect, only they are shaped differently and supply larger amounts of power. Verify that your PSU already has these connectors, or that your PSU has enough wattage to run your chosen card(s), and then purchase some PCI-e connector adapters that can convert several IDE connectors into one PCI-e connector. If you haven't bought a high wattage PSU lately, you may have to upgrade.



The requirements for each of the setups I've discussed in this review are as follows:



SINGLE HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:

* two (2) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors

* PSU of at least 500W



CROSSFIRE (DUAL) HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:

* four (4) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors

* PSU of at least 600W



SINGLE GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:

* two (2) x PCI-e power adapters: one (1) x 6-pin, one (1) x 8-pin

* PSU of at least 550W



SLI (DUAL) GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:

* four (4) x PCI-e power connectors: two (2) x 6-pin, two (2) x 8-pin

* According to NVIDIA's dedicated SLI website, all PSU's currently certified for running two GTX 280's in SLI are at least 1000W, but I did not find a minimum cutoff. I would guess that 850W or 900W would be enough, but please verify this with NVIDIA before purchasing.



Finally, please note that the 8-pin PCI-e connectors sometimes come as 6+2 connectors that may or may not fit the GTX 280's 8-pin male adapter. NVIDIA's website provides a list of compatible 6+2 PSUs.



...and as always, Amazon rocks.



=THE END=

-RTA

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

as the HD 4870 to display on their expensive HDTV's - for instance, to take advantage of a Home Theater PC or to play computer games on the big screen - often have to deal with an image/video phenomenon known as Black Crush. Black Crush is a result of the PC world and the Video world (including DVD's, blu-ray's, cable TV) using two different languages (for lack of a better term) to describe the brightness or darkness of the pixels that comprise the images displayed on your television, and because of this, images sent from a PC to an HDTV over a DVI or an HDMI connection do not appear properly. For instance, where in a movie you might expect to see a *gradient* of blacks, you will only see solid black: the darker details are crushed flat and all of the shades of black below a threshold (16) appear as a homogeneous pitch-black blob. In dark scenes and many older films (even on DVD), Black Crush completely kills image quality, and even on newer films with better lighting techniques, the defect is still present. Black Crush also diminishes image quality when looking at digital photos, surfing the web, or playing games. (If you want to read up on the technical details of Black Crush, run a web search on 'RGB color space', 'PC levels, and 'video levels'.)





With the HD 4870, you can use a (special?) DVI->HDMI converter (included in the box!) with any HDMI cable (not included; available on Amazon for < $10) to connect your PC to your HDTV, and the ATI Catalyst software, possibly in conjunction with the DVI->HDMI converter, will *automatically* corrects the output levels of the HD 4870 so that PC levels are converted to Video levels, which in essence means that the PC and the HDTV will be communicating in the same language, which completely prevents Black Crush. While there are several options for handling Black Crush on NVIDIA cards and other ATI cards, I've never seen anything that fully corrected the issue; generally, such methods prevent Black Crush in DVD and Blu-Ray movies, but NOT on the desktop, in the web browser, or while playing computer games. For some HDTV users, Black Crush is a non-issue: a lucky few have HDTV's that can perform both "PC" and "Video"-speak, thus correcting Black Crush on these well-thought-out HDTV's is a simple matter of changing a setting in the television's menu system. PLEASE NOTE: I make a big deal of the Black Crush problem because it can ruin an otherwise excellent Home Theater setup, and I, and many others I've heard from on various A/V forums and HTPC sites, have been eagerly awaiting a true, across-the-board solution to Black Crush, and we've finally received one.





=3D PERFORMANCE=


If you're considering purchasing the HD 4870, you're almost certainly a gamer interested in the card's 3D performance. A web search will turn up in-depth reviews and benchmarks, but suffice it to say the HD 4870 is a powerful little devil; for example, if I run Mass Effect at 1920 x 1080 with all settings on high, the HD 4870 gives an average of near 60 FPS (with dips into the 40's), whereas before I was getting half that. As of 07/2008, the HD 4870 can render any 3D game at impressive frame rates, with the exception of Crysis. The Visiontek HD 4870 runs Crysis well enough, but no card currently on the market will run Crysis on Very High in DX10 at 1920 x 1080 while maintaining a good frame rate (> 30, ideally vsync-locked at a constant 60 FPS), so don't hold that against the HD 4870.





=PRICE & VALUE=


Currently, the fastest single-core GPU on the market is the NVIDIA GTX 280, which beats the HD 4870 in most games and benchmarks that I've seen. The GTX 280 is more expensive than the HD 4870, somewhere between $425 - $500. If you've got the cash, and don't have to worry about Black Crush issues (especially if you use a traditional LCD or CRT PC monitor and NOT an HDTV - Black Crush is a non-issue for these folks), then the NVIDIA GTX 280 might be the better choice.





Those of us with Crossfire-ready motherboards can run TWO HD 4870 GPU's at one time and may want to buy one HD 4870 now, and a second HD 4870 in six to twelve months when the price drops and more games are available that over-stress a single HD 4870. From the comparison reviews I've read online, two HD 4870's in Crossfire outperform the GTX 280 by a wide margin on most tests, and even outperform the famous NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2. Buying a second HD 4870 when they drop down to $150 or so and running the pair in Crossfire is a cost-effective strategy for staying abreast of the coming Winter onslaught of GPU-hungry PC games.





However, if you have money to spare, you ought to buy a GTX 280. If you have an SLI-enabled motherboard, which is NVIDIA's analogue of Crossfire, you can run two NVIDIA GTX 280's on one PC, which will beat two HD 4870's in Crossfire, so for the SLI-capable, buying one GTX 280 now and a second GTX 280 in twelve months is my recommendation if you can afford it.





=CONCLUSION=


I highly recommend the Visiontek HD 4870 to anyone who is either a PC gamer, or an HTPC enthusiast suffering from the evil Black Crush.





=SPECIAL NOTE=


The new generation of ATI and NVIDIA GPU's are power hungry and require special PCI-express power connectors that may not be found on your power supply unit. The PCI-express power connectors stem from your PSU, just like any SATA or IDE drive power connect, only they are shaped differently and supply larger amounts of power. Verify that your PSU already has these connectors, or that your PSU has enough wattage to run your chosen card(s), and then purchase some PCI-e connector adapters that can convert several IDE connectors into one PCI-e connector. If you haven't bought a high wattage PSU lately, you may have to upgrade.





The requirements for each of the setups I've discussed in this review are as follows:





SINGLE HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:


* two (2) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors


* PSU of at least 500W





CROSSFIRE (DUAL) HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:


* four (4) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors


* PSU of at least 600W





SINGLE GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:


* two (2) x PCI-e power adapters: one (1) x 6-pin, one (1) x 8-pin


* PSU of at least 550W





SLI (DUAL) GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:


* four (4) x PCI-e power connectors: two (2) x 6-pin, two (2) x 8-pin


* According to NVIDIA's dedicated SLI website, all PSU's currently certified for running two GTX 280's in SLI are at least 1000W, but I did not find a minimum cutoff. I would guess that 850W or 900W would be enough, but please verify this with NVIDIA before purchasing.





Finally, please note that the 8-pin PCI-e connectors sometimes come as 6+2 connectors that may or may not fit the GTX 280's 8-pin male adapter. NVIDIA's website provides a list of compatible 6+2 PSUs.





...and as always, Amazon rocks.





=THE END=


-RTA

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

as the HD 4870 to display on their expensive HDTV's - for instance, to take advantage of a Home Theater PC or to play computer games on the big screen - often have to deal with an image/video phenomenon known as Black Crush. Black Crush is a result of the PC world and the Video world (including DVD's, blu-ray's, cable TV) using two different languages (for lack of a better term) to describe the brightness or darkness of the pixels that comprise the images displayed on your television, and because of this, images sent from a PC to an HDTV over a DVI or an HDMI connection do not appear properly. For instance, where in a movie you might expect to see a *gradient* of blacks, you will only see solid black: the darker details are crushed flat and all of the shades of black below a threshold (16) appear as a homogeneous pitch-black blob. In dark scenes and many older films (even on DVD), Black Crush completely kills image quality, and even on newer films with better lighting techniques, the defect is still present. Black Crush also diminishes image quality when looking at digital photos, surfing the web, or playing games. (If you want to read up on the technical details of Black Crush, run a web search on 'RGB color space', 'PC levels, and 'video levels'.)







With the HD 4870, you can use a (special?) DVI->HDMI converter (included in the box!) with any HDMI cable (not included; available on Amazon for < $10) to connect your PC to your HDTV, and the ATI Catalyst software, possibly in conjunction with the DVI->HDMI converter, will *automatically* corrects the output levels of the HD 4870 so that PC levels are converted to Video levels, which in essence means that the PC and the HDTV will be communicating in the same language, which completely prevents Black Crush. While there are several options for handling Black Crush on NVIDIA cards and other ATI cards, I've never seen anything that fully corrected the issue; generally, such methods prevent Black Crush in DVD and Blu-Ray movies, but NOT on the desktop, in the web browser, or while playing computer games. For some HDTV users, Black Crush is a non-issue: a lucky few have HDTV's that can perform both "PC" and "Video"-speak, thus correcting Black Crush on these well-thought-out HDTV's is a simple matter of changing a setting in the television's menu system. PLEASE NOTE: I make a big deal of the Black Crush problem because it can ruin an otherwise excellent Home Theater setup, and I, and many others I've heard from on various A/V forums and HTPC sites, have been eagerly awaiting a true, across-the-board solution to Black Crush, and we've finally received one.







=3D PERFORMANCE=



If you're considering purchasing the HD 4870, you're almost certainly a gamer interested in the card's 3D performance. A web search will turn up in-depth reviews and benchmarks, but suffice it to say the HD 4870 is a powerful little devil; for example, if I run Mass Effect at 1920 x 1080 with all settings on high, the HD 4870 gives an average of near 60 FPS (with dips into the 40's), whereas before I was getting half that. As of 07/2008, the HD 4870 can render any 3D game at impressive frame rates, with the exception of Crysis. The Visiontek HD 4870 runs Crysis well enough, but no card currently on the market will run Crysis on Very High in DX10 at 1920 x 1080 while maintaining a good frame rate (> 30, ideally vsync-locked at a constant 60 FPS), so don't hold that against the HD 4870.







=PRICE & VALUE=



Currently, the fastest single-core GPU on the market is the NVIDIA GTX 280, which beats the HD 4870 in most games and benchmarks that I've seen. The GTX 280 is more expensive than the HD 4870, somewhere between $425 - $500. If you've got the cash, and don't have to worry about Black Crush issues (especially if you use a traditional LCD or CRT PC monitor and NOT an HDTV - Black Crush is a non-issue for these folks), then the NVIDIA GTX 280 might be the better choice.







Those of us with Crossfire-ready motherboards can run TWO HD 4870 GPU's at one time and may want to buy one HD 4870 now, and a second HD 4870 in six to twelve months when the price drops and more games are available that over-stress a single HD 4870. From the comparison reviews I've read online, two HD 4870's in Crossfire outperform the GTX 280 by a wide margin on most tests, and even outperform the famous NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2. Buying a second HD 4870 when they drop down to $150 or so and running the pair in Crossfire is a cost-effective strategy for staying abreast of the coming Winter onslaught of GPU-hungry PC games.







However, if you have money to spare, you ought to buy a GTX 280. If you have an SLI-enabled motherboard, which is NVIDIA's analogue of Crossfire, you can run two NVIDIA GTX 280's on one PC, which will beat two HD 4870's in Crossfire, so for the SLI-capable, buying one GTX 280 now and a second GTX 280 in twelve months is my recommendation if you can afford it.







=CONCLUSION=



I highly recommend the Visiontek HD 4870 to anyone who is either a PC gamer, or an HTPC enthusiast suffering from the evil Black Crush.







=SPECIAL NOTE=



The new generation of ATI and NVIDIA GPU's are power hungry and require special PCI-express power connectors that may not be found on your power supply unit. The PCI-express power connectors stem from your PSU, just like any SATA or IDE drive power connect, only they are shaped differently and supply larger amounts of power. Verify that your PSU already has these connectors, or that your PSU has enough wattage to run your chosen card(s), and then purchase some PCI-e connector adapters that can convert several IDE connectors into one PCI-e connector. If you haven't bought a high wattage PSU lately, you may have to upgrade.







The requirements for each of the setups I've discussed in this review are as follows:







SINGLE HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:



* two (2) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors



* PSU of at least 500W







CROSSFIRE (DUAL) HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:



* four (4) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors



* PSU of at least 600W







SINGLE GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:



* two (2) x PCI-e power adapters: one (1) x 6-pin, one (1) x 8-pin



* PSU of at least 550W







SLI (DUAL) GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:



* four (4) x PCI-e power connectors: two (2) x 6-pin, two (2) x 8-pin



* According to NVIDIA's dedicated SLI website, all PSU's currently certified for running two GTX 280's in SLI are at least 1000W, but I did not find a minimum cutoff. I would guess that 850W or 900W would be enough, but please verify this with NVIDIA before purchasing.







Finally, please note that the 8-pin PCI-e connectors sometimes come as 6+2 connectors that may or may not fit the GTX 280's 8-pin male adapter. NVIDIA's website provides a list of compatible 6+2 PSUs.







...and as always, Amazon rocks.







=THE END=



-RTA

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

as the HD 4870 to display on their expensive HDTV's - for instance, to take advantage of a Home Theater PC or to play computer games on the big screen - often have to deal with an image/video phenomenon known as Black Crush. Black Crush is a result of the PC world and the Video world (including DVD's, blu-ray's, cable TV) using two different languages (for lack of a better term) to describe the brightness or darkness of the pixels that comprise the images displayed on your television, and because of this, images sent from a PC to an HDTV over a DVI or an HDMI connection do not appear properly. For instance, where in a movie you might expect to see a *gradient* of blacks, you will only see solid black: the darker details are crushed flat and all of the shades of black below a threshold (16) appear as a homogeneous pitch-black blob. In dark scenes and many older films (even on DVD), Black Crush completely kills image quality, and even on newer films with better lighting techniques, the defect is still present. Black Crush also diminishes image quality when looking at digital photos, surfing the web, or playing games. (If you want to read up on the technical details of Black Crush, run a web search on 'RGB color space', 'PC levels, and 'video levels'.)









With the HD 4870, you can use a (special?) DVI->HDMI converter (included in the box!) with any HDMI cable (not included; available on Amazon for < $10) to connect your PC to your HDTV, and the ATI Catalyst software, possibly in conjunction with the DVI->HDMI converter, will *automatically* corrects the output levels of the HD 4870 so that PC levels are converted to Video levels, which in essence means that the PC and the HDTV will be communicating in the same language, which completely prevents Black Crush. While there are several options for handling Black Crush on NVIDIA cards and other ATI cards, I've never seen anything that fully corrected the issue; generally, such methods prevent Black Crush in DVD and Blu-Ray movies, but NOT on the desktop, in the web browser, or while playing computer games. For some HDTV users, Black Crush is a non-issue: a lucky few have HDTV's that can perform both "PC" and "Video"-speak, thus correcting Black Crush on these well-thought-out HDTV's is a simple matter of changing a setting in the television's menu system. PLEASE NOTE: I make a big deal of the Black Crush problem because it can ruin an otherwise excellent Home Theater setup, and I, and many others I've heard from on various A/V forums and HTPC sites, have been eagerly awaiting a true, across-the-board solution to Black Crush, and we've finally received one.









=3D PERFORMANCE=




If you're considering purchasing the HD 4870, you're almost certainly a gamer interested in the card's 3D performance. A web search will turn up in-depth reviews and benchmarks, but suffice it to say the HD 4870 is a powerful little devil; for example, if I run Mass Effect at 1920 x 1080 with all settings on high, the HD 4870 gives an average of near 60 FPS (with dips into the 40's), whereas before I was getting half that. As of 07/2008, the HD 4870 can render any 3D game at impressive frame rates, with the exception of Crysis. The Visiontek HD 4870 runs Crysis well enough, but no card currently on the market will run Crysis on Very High in DX10 at 1920 x 1080 while maintaining a good frame rate (> 30, ideally vsync-locked at a constant 60 FPS), so don't hold that against the HD 4870.









=PRICE & VALUE=




Currently, the fastest single-core GPU on the market is the NVIDIA GTX 280, which beats the HD 4870 in most games and benchmarks that I've seen. The GTX 280 is more expensive than the HD 4870, somewhere between $425 - $500. If you've got the cash, and don't have to worry about Black Crush issues (especially if you use a traditional LCD or CRT PC monitor and NOT an HDTV - Black Crush is a non-issue for these folks), then the NVIDIA GTX 280 might be the better choice.









Those of us with Crossfire-ready motherboards can run TWO HD 4870 GPU's at one time and may want to buy one HD 4870 now, and a second HD 4870 in six to twelve months when the price drops and more games are available that over-stress a single HD 4870. From the comparison reviews I've read online, two HD 4870's in Crossfire outperform the GTX 280 by a wide margin on most tests, and even outperform the famous NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2. Buying a second HD 4870 when they drop down to $150 or so and running the pair in Crossfire is a cost-effective strategy for staying abreast of the coming Winter onslaught of GPU-hungry PC games.









However, if you have money to spare, you ought to buy a GTX 280. If you have an SLI-enabled motherboard, which is NVIDIA's analogue of Crossfire, you can run two NVIDIA GTX 280's on one PC, which will beat two HD 4870's in Crossfire, so for the SLI-capable, buying one GTX 280 now and a second GTX 280 in twelve months is my recommendation if you can afford it.









=CONCLUSION=




I highly recommend the Visiontek HD 4870 to anyone who is either a PC gamer, or an HTPC enthusiast suffering from the evil Black Crush.









=SPECIAL NOTE=




The new generation of ATI and NVIDIA GPU's are power hungry and require special PCI-express power connectors that may not be found on your power supply unit. The PCI-express power connectors stem from your PSU, just like any SATA or IDE drive power connect, only they are shaped differently and supply larger amounts of power. Verify that your PSU already has these connectors, or that your PSU has enough wattage to run your chosen card(s), and then purchase some PCI-e connector adapters that can convert several IDE connectors into one PCI-e connector. If you haven't bought a high wattage PSU lately, you may have to upgrade.









The requirements for each of the setups I've discussed in this review are as follows:









SINGLE HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:




* two (2) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors




* PSU of at least 500W









CROSSFIRE (DUAL) HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:




* four (4) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors




* PSU of at least 600W









SINGLE GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:




* two (2) x PCI-e power adapters: one (1) x 6-pin, one (1) x 8-pin




* PSU of at least 550W









SLI (DUAL) GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:




* four (4) x PCI-e power connectors: two (2) x 6-pin, two (2) x 8-pin




* According to NVIDIA's dedicated SLI website, all PSU's currently certified for running two GTX 280's in SLI are at least 1000W, but I did not find a minimum cutoff. I would guess that 850W or 900W would be enough, but please verify this with NVIDIA before purchasing.









Finally, please note that the 8-pin PCI-e connectors sometimes come as 6+2 connectors that may or may not fit the GTX 280's 8-pin male adapter. NVIDIA's website provides a list of compatible 6+2 PSUs.









...and as always, Amazon rocks.









=THE END=




-RTA

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

as the HD 4870 to display on their expensive HDTV's - for instance, to take advantage of a Home Theater PC or to play computer games on the big screen - often have to deal with an image/video phenomenon known as Black Crush. Black Crush is a result of the PC world and the Video world (including DVD's, blu-ray's, cable TV) using two different languages (for lack of a better term) to describe the brightness or darkness of the pixels that comprise the images displayed on your television, and because of this, images sent from a PC to an HDTV over a DVI or an HDMI connection do not appear properly. For instance, where in a movie you might expect to see a *gradient* of blacks, you will only see solid black: the darker details are crushed flat and all of the shades of black below a threshold (16) appear as a homogeneous pitch-black blob. In dark scenes and many older films (even on DVD), Black Crush completely kills image quality, and even on newer films with better lighting techniques, the defect is still present. Black Crush also diminishes image quality when looking at digital photos, surfing the web, or playing games. (If you want to read up on the technical details of Black Crush, run a web search on 'RGB color space', 'PC levels, and 'video levels'.)











With the HD 4870, you can use a (special?) DVI->HDMI converter (included in the box!) with any HDMI cable (not included; available on Amazon for < $10) to connect your PC to your HDTV, and the ATI Catalyst software, possibly in conjunction with the DVI->HDMI converter, will *automatically* corrects the output levels of the HD 4870 so that PC levels are converted to Video levels, which in essence means that the PC and the HDTV will be communicating in the same language, which completely prevents Black Crush. While there are several options for handling Black Crush on NVIDIA cards and other ATI cards, I've never seen anything that fully corrected the issue; generally, such methods prevent Black Crush in DVD and Blu-Ray movies, but NOT on the desktop, in the web browser, or while playing computer games. For some HDTV users, Black Crush is a non-issue: a lucky few have HDTV's that can perform both "PC" and "Video"-speak, thus correcting Black Crush on these well-thought-out HDTV's is a simple matter of changing a setting in the television's menu system. PLEASE NOTE: I make a big deal of the Black Crush problem because it can ruin an otherwise excellent Home Theater setup, and I, and many others I've heard from on various A/V forums and HTPC sites, have been eagerly awaiting a true, across-the-board solution to Black Crush, and we've finally received one.











=3D PERFORMANCE=





If you're considering purchasing the HD 4870, you're almost certainly a gamer interested in the card's 3D performance. A web search will turn up in-depth reviews and benchmarks, but suffice it to say the HD 4870 is a powerful little devil; for example, if I run Mass Effect at 1920 x 1080 with all settings on high, the HD 4870 gives an average of near 60 FPS (with dips into the 40's), whereas before I was getting half that. As of 07/2008, the HD 4870 can render any 3D game at impressive frame rates, with the exception of Crysis. The Visiontek HD 4870 runs Crysis well enough, but no card currently on the market will run Crysis on Very High in DX10 at 1920 x 1080 while maintaining a good frame rate (> 30, ideally vsync-locked at a constant 60 FPS), so don't hold that against the HD 4870.











=PRICE & VALUE=





Currently, the fastest single-core GPU on the market is the NVIDIA GTX 280, which beats the HD 4870 in most games and benchmarks that I've seen. The GTX 280 is more expensive than the HD 4870, somewhere between $425 - $500. If you've got the cash, and don't have to worry about Black Crush issues (especially if you use a traditional LCD or CRT PC monitor and NOT an HDTV - Black Crush is a non-issue for these folks), then the NVIDIA GTX 280 might be the better choice.











Those of us with Crossfire-ready motherboards can run TWO HD 4870 GPU's at one time and may want to buy one HD 4870 now, and a second HD 4870 in six to twelve months when the price drops and more games are available that over-stress a single HD 4870. From the comparison reviews I've read online, two HD 4870's in Crossfire outperform the GTX 280 by a wide margin on most tests, and even outperform the famous NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2. Buying a second HD 4870 when they drop down to $150 or so and running the pair in Crossfire is a cost-effective strategy for staying abreast of the coming Winter onslaught of GPU-hungry PC games.











However, if you have money to spare, you ought to buy a GTX 280. If you have an SLI-enabled motherboard, which is NVIDIA's analogue of Crossfire, you can run two NVIDIA GTX 280's on one PC, which will beat two HD 4870's in Crossfire, so for the SLI-capable, buying one GTX 280 now and a second GTX 280 in twelve months is my recommendation if you can afford it.











=CONCLUSION=





I highly recommend the Visiontek HD 4870 to anyone who is either a PC gamer, or an HTPC enthusiast suffering from the evil Black Crush.











=SPECIAL NOTE=





The new generation of ATI and NVIDIA GPU's are power hungry and require special PCI-express power connectors that may not be found on your power supply unit. The PCI-express power connectors stem from your PSU, just like any SATA or IDE drive power connect, only they are shaped differently and supply larger amounts of power. Verify that your PSU already has these connectors, or that your PSU has enough wattage to run your chosen card(s), and then purchase some PCI-e connector adapters that can convert several IDE connectors into one PCI-e connector. If you haven't bought a high wattage PSU lately, you may have to upgrade.











The requirements for each of the setups I've discussed in this review are as follows:











SINGLE HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:





* two (2) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors





* PSU of at least 500W











CROSSFIRE (DUAL) HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:





* four (4) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors





* PSU of at least 600W











SINGLE GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:





* two (2) x PCI-e power adapters: one (1) x 6-pin, one (1) x 8-pin





* PSU of at least 550W











SLI (DUAL) GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:





* four (4) x PCI-e power connectors: two (2) x 6-pin, two (2) x 8-pin





* According to NVIDIA's dedicated SLI website, all PSU's currently certified for running two GTX 280's in SLI are at least 1000W, but I did not find a minimum cutoff. I would guess that 850W or 900W would be enough, but please verify this with NVIDIA before purchasing.











Finally, please note that the 8-pin PCI-e connectors sometimes come as 6+2 connectors that may or may not fit the GTX 280's 8-pin male adapter. NVIDIA's website provides a list of compatible 6+2 PSUs.











...and as always, Amazon rocks.











=THE END=





-RTA

+ 0 likes

VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card

...

as the HD 4870 to display on their expensive HDTV's - for instance, to take advantage of a Home Theater PC or to play computer games on the big screen - often have to deal with an image/video phenomenon known as Black Crush. Black Crush is a result of the PC world and the Video world (including DVD's, blu-ray's, cable TV) using two different languages (for lack of a better term) to describe the brightness or darkness of the pixels that comprise the images displayed on your television, and because of this, images sent from a PC to an HDTV over a DVI or an HDMI connection do not appear properly. For instance, where in a movie you might expect to see a *gradient* of blacks, you will only see solid black: the darker details are crushed flat and all of the shades of black below a threshold (16) appear as a homogeneous pitch-black blob. In dark scenes and many older films (even on DVD), Black Crush completely kills image quality, and even on newer films with better lighting techniques, the defect is still present. Black Crush also diminishes image quality when looking at digital photos, surfing the web, or playing games. (If you want to read up on the technical details of Black Crush, run a web search on 'RGB color space', 'PC levels, and 'video levels'.)













With the HD 4870, you can use a (special?) DVI->HDMI converter (included in the box!) with any HDMI cable (not included; available on Amazon for < $10) to connect your PC to your HDTV, and the ATI Catalyst software, possibly in conjunction with the DVI->HDMI converter, will *automatically* corrects the output levels of the HD 4870 so that PC levels are converted to Video levels, which in essence means that the PC and the HDTV will be communicating in the same language, which completely prevents Black Crush. While there are several options for handling Black Crush on NVIDIA cards and other ATI cards, I've never seen anything that fully corrected the issue; generally, such methods prevent Black Crush in DVD and Blu-Ray movies, but NOT on the desktop, in the web browser, or while playing computer games. For some HDTV users, Black Crush is a non-issue: a lucky few have HDTV's that can perform both "PC" and "Video"-speak, thus correcting Black Crush on these well-thought-out HDTV's is a simple matter of changing a setting in the television's menu system. PLEASE NOTE: I make a big deal of the Black Crush problem because it can ruin an otherwise excellent Home Theater setup, and I, and many others I've heard from on various A/V forums and HTPC sites, have been eagerly awaiting a true, across-the-board solution to Black Crush, and we've finally received one.













=3D PERFORMANCE=






If you're considering purchasing the HD 4870, you're almost certainly a gamer interested in the card's 3D performance. A web search will turn up in-depth reviews and benchmarks, but suffice it to say the HD 4870 is a powerful little devil; for example, if I run Mass Effect at 1920 x 1080 with all settings on high, the HD 4870 gives an average of near 60 FPS (with dips into the 40's), whereas before I was getting half that. As of 07/2008, the HD 4870 can render any 3D game at impressive frame rates, with the exception of Crysis. The Visiontek HD 4870 runs Crysis well enough, but no card currently on the market will run Crysis on Very High in DX10 at 1920 x 1080 while maintaining a good frame rate (> 30, ideally vsync-locked at a constant 60 FPS), so don't hold that against the HD 4870.













=PRICE & VALUE=






Currently, the fastest single-core GPU on the market is the NVIDIA GTX 280, which beats the HD 4870 in most games and benchmarks that I've seen. The GTX 280 is more expensive than the HD 4870, somewhere between $425 - $500. If you've got the cash, and don't have to worry about Black Crush issues (especially if you use a traditional LCD or CRT PC monitor and NOT an HDTV - Black Crush is a non-issue for these folks), then the NVIDIA GTX 280 might be the better choice.













Those of us with Crossfire-ready motherboards can run TWO HD 4870 GPU's at one time and may want to buy one HD 4870 now, and a second HD 4870 in six to twelve months when the price drops and more games are available that over-stress a single HD 4870. From the comparison reviews I've read online, two HD 4870's in Crossfire outperform the GTX 280 by a wide margin on most tests, and even outperform the famous NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2. Buying a second HD 4870 when they drop down to $150 or so and running the pair in Crossfire is a cost-effective strategy for staying abreast of the coming Winter onslaught of GPU-hungry PC games.













However, if you have money to spare, you ought to buy a GTX 280. If you have an SLI-enabled motherboard, which is NVIDIA's analogue of Crossfire, you can run two NVIDIA GTX 280's on one PC, which will beat two HD 4870's in Crossfire, so for the SLI-capable, buying one GTX 280 now and a second GTX 280 in twelve months is my recommendation if you can afford it.













=CONCLUSION=






I highly recommend the Visiontek HD 4870 to anyone who is either a PC gamer, or an HTPC enthusiast suffering from the evil Black Crush.













=SPECIAL NOTE=






The new generation of ATI and NVIDIA GPU's are power hungry and require special PCI-express power connectors that may not be found on your power supply unit. The PCI-express power connectors stem from your PSU, just like any SATA or IDE drive power connect, only they are shaped differently and supply larger amounts of power. Verify that your PSU already has these connectors, or that your PSU has enough wattage to run your chosen card(s), and then purchase some PCI-e connector adapters that can convert several IDE connectors into one PCI-e connector. If you haven't bought a high wattage PSU lately, you may have to upgrade.













The requirements for each of the setups I've discussed in this review are as follows:













SINGLE HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:






* two (2) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors






* PSU of at least 500W













CROSSFIRE (DUAL) HD 4870 REQUIREMENTS:






* four (4) x 6 pin PCIe power connectors






* PSU of at least 600W













SINGLE GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:






* two (2) x PCI-e power adapters: one (1) x 6-pin, one (1) x 8-pin






* PSU of at least 550W













SLI (DUAL) GTX 280 REQUIREMENTS:






* four (4) x PCI-e power connectors: two (2) x 6-pin, two (2) x 8-pin






* According to NVIDIA's dedicated SLI website, all PSU's currently certified for running two GTX 280's in SLI are at least 1000W, but I did not find a minimum cutoff. I would guess that 850W or 900W would be enough, but please verify this with NVIDIA before purchasing.













Finally, please note that the 8-pin PCI-e connectors sometimes come as 6+2 connectors that may or may not fit the GTX 280's 8-pin male adapter. NVIDIA's website provides a list of compatible 6+2 PSUs.













...and as always, Amazon rocks.













=THE END=






-RTA