| VisionTek Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card | 
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| List Price: $299.99
Buy New: $225.98
You Save: $74.01 (25%)
Buy New/Used from $225.98
Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 5 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1642
Category: CE
Publisher: VisionTek Products
Studio: VisionTek Products
Brand: VisionTek Products
Label: VisionTek Products
Language: English (Original Language)
Media: Electronics
Memorabilia: 0
Graphics RAM: 512
Special Features: nv:GPU/VPU^RADEON HD 4870|RAMDAC^Dual 400 MHz|Additional Features^RoHS Compliant|Additional Features^HDCP Enabled|Additional Features^HDTV Ready|Additional Features^OpenGL 2.0|Additional Features^Vista Certified|Additional Features^DirectX 10.1|Additional Features^CrossFireX Ready|Additional Features^Game Physics Capable|Additional Features^Vista 3D Environment Support|Maximum Resolution^2560 x 1600 (Digital)|Video Memory^512MB|Memory Type^GDDR5|Memory Interface^256-bit
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 2.8 x 0.5 x 0
MPN: 900244
Model: 900244
UPC: 784090025067
EAN: 0784090025067
ASIN: B001BGHCZI
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | 512MB GDDR5 memory | | • | DirectX 10.1 | | • | ATI CrossFireX? multi-GPU support for highly scalable performance (Use up to four discrete cards with an AMD 790FX based motherboard) | | • | PCI Express 2.0 support | | • | Limited Lifetime Warranty |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 4870 brings the power of graphics, supercomputing to gamers, setting a standard for visual computing. Redefine the way you play and take HD gaming to the extreme with best-in-class performance. The TeraScale graphics engine delivers an immersive, cinematic gaming experience. Add this GPU to your PC and watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity. Do it all with break-through efficiency that doesn't compromise performance.
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| Customer Reviews:
 AtI 4870 September 8, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is just my opinion on the card, very hard to OC , I haven't had a ATI on my computor for some time and wasn't that impressed about this card at all, I would recommend it but wait for awhile to improve more. when you have two major companys competting on their cards nvidia and ATI they are not finding the problems but are shipping them out so use gamers can find them for them, Price wise go with Nvidia better card but i just had to see what the hipe was about for the 4870. sorry none there that i could see. AD
 Solid, Fast, Affordable August 22, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
After reading the reviews I went out yesterday and picked up this card.
I have spent about 10 hours of pretty hard use and it has not glitched yet.
NOTE: the box does come with adapters to go from 2 4 pin to 1 6 pin power plugs, of course your powersupply still needs to be up to the task. I have a 550 watt supply but it only had 1 6 pin plug, so I was concerned I would have to "rig" something. I am running a Nvidia motherboard 2 gig ram, Q6700 processor overclocked to 3.2 ghz and 3 seagate 750 gig and 1 500 gig internal hard drives and have not had a issue. I have a systemax built system (BTW - not counting extra hard drives total out of pocket for system was ~ 1000.00 - before this card - that included the 8600).
I originally had a Nvidia 8600 - upgraded to a new 9800 - took that back and exchanged it for this. It has handled everything I have thrown at it - f.e.a.r. - crysis (High - running dx9), halflife 2 and several highdef movies.
For the money (heck, forget the money even) this is a very good card.
Joe Ruder
Awesome Card!! August 9, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the best card ever! The super hot issue is a mith, it's really easy to set a profile and change the fan settings. There are some forums with steps on how to do it. 100% recommended!
 befooled by raving reviews July 23, 2008
1 out of 31 found this review helpful
Raving
-noun: "An extravagantly enthusiastic appraisal or review of something"
The HD4870 disappoints me to no end. Needs four 4 pin molex connectors if the PSU doesn't have the PCI-e ones, I had to employ makeshift extensions to use with the adapters provided by Visiontek.
The card runs real hot, idles at around 74 Celsius and 90C+/- on load, shipped with the drivers from the previous generation of ATI cards (HD3000 whatever). I updated to Catalyst 8.7 (released 2 days ago) but the fan issue stays unresolved and had to fiddle again with ATI profiles to set the card's fan speed to "40" anything above that makes it sound like a leaf blower. I switched drivers back and forth (8.6, hotfix, 8.7) due to issues with some games, and ended up downgrading to Catalyst 8.6. I wanted to hurl my rig through the window in frustration, kicked it instead.
Performance wise it runs the 2 years old game "Oblivion" 1 to 2 fps faster than my Geforce 8800GTS 320 OC, killer deal huh? Silky smooth gameplay this was not, turned back to fan-made optimization mods. It was said that Mass Effect runs at 1920 x 1080 with all settings on high at 60fps ...jeez, is that for real? That must have been in one of the barren planets the game prompts the player to explore. In the Space Citadel (one of Mass Effect's main levels) my framerate drops to 28-40 fps at medium/high settings and a measly resolution of 1280x1024 (E6600, 2Gb RAM). The Witcher's Trade Quarter runs at 20-35fps also at 1280x1024. Quite impressive NOT.
Yeah, no video card is gonna run Crysis at ueber high settings, although I was pretty content playing it at 1152x864 with high textures, high shaders, medium lighting and AAx2 with a GeForce 8800GTS 320 OC. Running through the aircraft carrier at the last level, I enjoyed. The flying thingy level everyone complained about, I enjoyed. The snowy jungle level, I enjoyed. The alien zero-G level I thoroughly enjoyed. So in this regard the HD4870 did nothing groundbreaking.
ATI could slap GDDR5 stickers all over the boxes of HD4870's for all I care and ship them with GDDR3 instead because it makes no noticeable difference in-game.
The Catalyst "Center" lacks many of the options Nvidia's Control Panel has to tweak image quality and performance, there are no game profiles, no digital brilliance, and no stereoscopic support.
All in all this has been a very frustrating experience with ATI, again (I had a X850Pro 2 years ago). I'm stuck with the HD4870 because I'm living outside the US. I highly recommend the Radeon HD4870 to the crew with GeForce5200's. Adios.
A Powerful GPU with Outstanding Image Quality at a Reasonable Price July 21, 2008
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
The Visiontek HD 4870 PCI express GPU (graphics processing unit) is an excellent comeback card for ATI (ATI makes the GPU, Visiontek builds the rest of the video card around the ATI GPU). Until recently, ATI had no GPU's to compete with NVIDIA's mid- and top-tier offerings, and NVIDIA was in essence, the only game in town. Fortunately, this has now changed (go Capitalism!). I rate Visiontek's HD 4870 a full FIVE STARS based on the following:
=IMAGE QUALITY=
My desktop, web browser, DVD and blu-ray movies, digital photos, and computer games, all look better on the HD 4870 than on my previous card, the PNY NVIDIA 8800 GTS 640 MB. While truly an excellent card for its time, the 8800 GTS, as well as all NVIDIA cards that I am aware of as of 07/2008, and most (all?) past ATI cards, potentially suffer from a serious image quality problem known as Black Crush, which I talk about next.
=CORRECTS BLACK CRUSH=
Without getting into too much detail, people who want to use high-end GPU's such 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
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