XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH

Zardon · Feb 10, 2009, 09:13 AM

Read The Review here
_____________________

Due to their levels of excellence XFX have received more DriverHeaven gold awards in the last few years than any other company which is quite an achievement. Not content with being known for great Nvidia based products XFX recently announced a range of Radeon graphics cards and Intel motherboards, all of which are designed to take on the best products in their marketplace. Today we have the first of their cards on our test bench, the Radeon HD 4870 1 GB XXX which is a factory overclocked model.

Mac Daddy · Feb 10, 2009, 12:42 PM

Good looking card and nice review Stu still be nice to see the temps come down on the 1G cards.

clanman · Feb 10, 2009, 12:59 PM

good performer. Love the colours and the red dvi out ports. Good start, now I hope to see the same cards with better coolers !

comp_ali · Feb 10, 2009, 02:24 PM

Great review . Thanks DH , XFX is awesome , Hope to see more companies joins the red team (i.e Zotac).

H82LUZ · Feb 11, 2009, 11:32 AM

Great review

Is it me or does the mask look like Jason from the Friday the 13th Movies....XFX Slaughters the competition .....

PS
The XFX Theme ROCKS !!! Any desktop themes planed?

Cannyone · Feb 24, 2009, 06:45 PM

I bought one of these yesterday (Newegg was offering $30 off), but I was in a hurry. Now I go and check some of the "reviews" and there is supposed to be a problem with "Flickering" that requires a BIOS flash... Has anyone (besides the reviewers on Newegg...) encountered this issue?

Cannyone · Feb 26, 2009, 10:18 PM

Well I didn't notice flickering till I started up a game. It was there and was a problem. Had to download a BIOS update for the card. At first I didn't run the flash utility with Admin privileges so it failed to work.

After the update it seems to outperform 2 Palit 8800 GTs / overclocked and with 1GB of memory each. So I'm really pleased with my purchase.

Mac Daddy · Feb 26, 2009, 10:59 PM

Cool on the feedback and glad its working well for you

I still want to pick up another 4870 512 DDR5 I have 2 X38 CrossfireX mobos here and haven't had a change to try Crossfire yet ...

Cannyone · Feb 27, 2009, 05:49 AM

There is only one thing I wish the ATI cards had: Physics Processing. Now I'll admit if they had it, the way it was implemented would be different from Nvidia's method. And Game companies would not want to support both in all cases. Add to this the fact that these cards are so powerful maybe Physics is something we can do without...?

BTW I also have an X38 chipset board, the Asus P5E. It's in another system and I've had numerous issues in the past with memory voltages on that board. So I wasn't even going to try Crossfire, and the P45 board seems to work better.

Mac Daddy · Feb 27, 2009, 12:32 PM

On PhysX I hope to try out Mirror's Edge this weekend just been to darn busy. Now that the AMD system is setup and stable I am going to try an experiment this weekend. Using XP SP3 on this system I am going to try running the 4870 alone and then it along with the 9600gt for dedicated physx.
(If I can do it)

On this P5E3 Deluxe no memory voltage issues so far. I did however have major memory issues with the GA-X38-DQ6 until I flashed the BIOS.

Cannyone · Mar 1, 2009, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mac Daddy

On PhysX I hope to try out Mirror's Edge this weekend just been to darn busy. Now that the AMD system is setup and stable I am going to try an experiment this weekend. Using XP SP3 on this system I am going to try running the 4870 alone and then it along with the 9600gt for dedicated physx.
(If I can do it)

On this P5E3 Deluxe no memory voltage issues so far. I did however have major memory issues with the GA-X38-DQ6 until I flashed the BIOS.

ATI has Physics processing? What rock have I been under....? Is there anything special I need to download?

Cannyone · May 28, 2009, 05:21 AM

Well now, after just a few short months, I really regret buying this card! See I installed the 9.2 drivers, and skipped the 9.3 set. And when I installed the 9.4 set it no longer wanted to let my dual display setup work. I've been putting up with it and was hoping the 9.5s would be better.

Now I realize it's a "No Go" - I contacted ATI's Tech Support. They had me uninstall the drivers, run Driver Sweeper, then reinstall the 9.5s. No change to the Dual Display malfunction... What happens is that it disables the secondary display when Windows starts. This means that every time I need to restart this system I have to open the CCC, enable the second display in "clone mode", and confirm the setting change. Then I have to open CCC again (yes, it closes down automatically after confirming the last setting change!), then I have to "Extend my Desktop" onto the second display. And, since installing the 9.5s, to add insult to injury ... almost every time I try to start the CCC I get an error message about the CCC Command line interface not working. So sometimes I can bring up the CCC and most other times I can't!

End Result! I've had enough of ATI for a long while, and I don't ever want to talk to their Tech Support people again.

And this situation is really sad! In the past I was always favorably impressed with their drivers. Now all I can hope for is that enough of you will keep buying ATI cards... so Nvidia doesn't think they can jack their prices up to astonomical levels. Cause even the BEST Hardware, without good drivers, is nothing more than an expensive paper weight.

Feb 10, 2009, 09:13 AM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,481 Rep Power: 162	XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH Read The Review here _____________________ Due to their levels of excellence XFX have received more DriverHeaven gold awards in the last few years than any other company which is quite an achievement. Not content with being known for great Nvidia based products XFX recently announced a range of Radeon graphics cards and Intel motherboards, all of which are designed to take on the best products in their marketplace. Today we have the first of their cards on our test bench, the Radeon HD 4870 1 GB XXX which is a factory overclocked model.

Feb 10, 2009, 12:42 PM	#2
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 65 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH Good looking card and nice review Stu still be nice to see the temps come down on the 1G cards. __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Feb 10, 2009, 12:59 PM	#3
clanman DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 152 Rep Power: 20	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH good performer. Love the colours and the red dvi out ports. Good start, now I hope to see the same cards with better coolers !

Feb 10, 2009, 02:24 PM	#4
comp_ali Sniper Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Egypt Posts: 5,531 Rep Power: 152 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH Great review . Thanks DH , XFX is awesome , Hope to see more companies joins the red team (i.e Zotac).

Feb 11, 2009, 11:32 AM	#5
H82LUZ HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Cobourg ,Ontario ,Canada Posts: 111 Rep Power: 41 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH Great review Is it me or does the mask look like Jason from the Friday the 13th Movies....XFX Slaughters the competition ..... PS The XFX Theme ROCKS !!! Any desktop themes planed? __________________

Feb 24, 2009, 06:45 PM	#6
Cannyone DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Albuquerque NM Posts: 80 Rep Power: 23 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH I bought one of these yesterday (Newegg was offering $30 off), but I was in a hurry. Now I go and check some of the "reviews" and there is supposed to be a problem with "Flickering" that requires a BIOS flash... Has anyone (besides the reviewers on Newegg...) encountered this issue? __________________ Eagles may Soar! But Weasels don't have to worry about being sucked into a jet engine...

Feb 26, 2009, 10:18 PM	#7
Cannyone DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Albuquerque NM Posts: 80 Rep Power: 23 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH Well I didn't notice flickering till I started up a game. It was there and was a problem. Had to download a BIOS update for the card. At first I didn't run the flash utility with Admin privileges so it failed to work. After the update it seems to outperform 2 Palit 8800 GTs / overclocked and with 1GB of memory each. So I'm really pleased with my purchase. __________________ Eagles may Soar! But Weasels don't have to worry about being sucked into a jet engine...

Feb 26, 2009, 10:59 PM	#8
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 65 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH Cool on the feedback and glad its working well for you I still want to pick up another 4870 512 DDR5 I have 2 X38 CrossfireX mobos here and haven't had a change to try Crossfire yet ... __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Feb 27, 2009, 05:49 AM	#9
Cannyone DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Albuquerque NM Posts: 80 Rep Power: 23 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH There is only one thing I wish the ATI cards had: Physics Processing. Now I'll admit if they had it, the way it was implemented would be different from Nvidia's method. And Game companies would not want to support both in all cases. Add to this the fact that these cards are so powerful maybe Physics is something we can do without...? BTW I also have an X38 chipset board, the Asus P5E. It's in another system and I've had numerous issues in the past with memory voltages on that board. So I wasn't even going to try Crossfire, and the P45 board seems to work better. __________________ Eagles may Soar! But Weasels don't have to worry about being sucked into a jet engine...

Feb 27, 2009, 12:32 PM	#10
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 65 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH On PhysX I hope to try out Mirror's Edge this weekend just been to darn busy. Now that the AMD system is setup and stable I am going to try an experiment this weekend. Using XP SP3 on this system I am going to try running the 4870 alone and then it along with the 9600gt for dedicated physx. (If I can do it) On this P5E3 Deluxe no memory voltage issues so far. I did however have major memory issues with the GA-X38-DQ6 until I flashed the BIOS. __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

May 28, 2009, 05:21 AM	#12
Cannyone DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Albuquerque NM Posts: 80 Rep Power: 23 System Specs	Re: XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX Review @ DH Well now, after just a few short months, I really regret buying this card! See I installed the 9.2 drivers, and skipped the 9.3 set. And when I installed the 9.4 set it no longer wanted to let my dual display setup work. I've been putting up with it and was hoping the 9.5s would be better. Now I realize it's a "No Go" - I contacted ATI's Tech Support. They had me uninstall the drivers, run Driver Sweeper, then reinstall the 9.5s. No change to the Dual Display malfunction... What happens is that it disables the secondary display when Windows starts. This means that every time I need to restart this system I have to open the CCC, enable the second display in "clone mode", and confirm the setting change. Then I have to open CCC again (yes, it closes down automatically after confirming the last setting change!), then I have to "Extend my Desktop" onto the second display. And, since installing the 9.5s, to add insult to injury ... almost every time I try to start the CCC I get an error message about the CCC Command line interface not working. So sometimes I can bring up the CCC and most other times I can't! End Result! I've had enough of ATI for a long while, and I don't ever want to talk to their Tech Support people again. And this situation is really sad! In the past I was always favorably impressed with their drivers. Now all I can hope for is that enough of you will keep buying ATI cards... so Nvidia doesn't think they can jack their prices up to astonomical levels. Cause even the BEST Hardware, without good drivers, is nothing more than an expensive paper weight. __________________ Eagles may Soar! But Weasels don't have to worry about being sucked into a jet engine...

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XFX 4870 1GB XXX GFX - Introduction and Packaging - XFX , Radeon HD 4870, Video Cards	This thread	Refback	Jul 19, 2009 06:59 AM

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