HIS 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo 1GB PCIe Graphics Card
Test Setup & Overclocking
Published: 24th December 2008 | Source: HIS | Price: £229 |
A common mistake made when benchmarking graphics cards is that the rest of the PC system isn't sufficient enough to test the GPU to its limits. This results in a bottleneck situation, where the system can only run at the speed of its slowest component. For this reason, the test configuration chosen below has been specially selected to give each of the graphics cards on test the headroom they require in order to produce the best results.
CPU
Intel Core2Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz @ 3.6 Ghz
Motherboard
ASUS P5Q Deluxe (P45)
Memory
Cellshock DDR2 PC-2 6400 5-5-5-18 @ 800mhz
Power Supply
Tuniq Ensemble 1200w
Graphics Drivers
NVidia Forceware 180.48
ATI Catalyst 8.12.72276
Operating System
Windows Vista 64bit SP1
Intel Core2Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz @ 3.6 Ghz
Motherboard
ASUS P5Q Deluxe (P45)
Memory
Cellshock DDR2 PC-2 6400 5-5-5-18 @ 800mhz
Power Supply
Tuniq Ensemble 1200w
Graphics Drivers
NVidia Forceware 180.48
ATI Catalyst 8.12.72276
Operating System
Windows Vista 64bit SP1
A selection of games and benchmark suites has also been chosen to test each of the graphics cards used in today's review on several different game engines. Each of the cards will be run at both low and high resolutions with varying levels of texture filtering to represent the use of the card with both small and large screen sizes.
3DMark05
1024x768 / 0xAA
1680x1050 / 4xAA
1920x1200 / 4xAA
3DMark06
1280x1024 / 0xAA
1680x1050 / 4xAA
1920x1200 / 4xAA
3DMark Vantage
Performance Mode
High Mode
Extreme Mode
ET:Quake Wars
1440x900 / High / 4xAA
1680x1050 / High / 4xAA
1920x1200 / High / 4xAA
Unreal Tournament III
1440x900 / DX10
1680x1050 / DX10
1920x1200 / DX10
Call of Duty 4
1440x900 / Max / 4xAA
1680x1050 / Max / 4xAA
1920x1200 / Max / 4xAA
Farcry 2
1440x900 / Max / 4xAA
1680x1050 / Max / 4xAA
1920x1200 / Max / 4xAA
Racedriver GRID
1440x900 / High / 4xAA
1680x1050 / High / 4xAA
1920x1200 / High / 4xAA
Crysis
1440x900 / DX10 / High / 4xAA
1680x1050 / DX10 / High / 4xAA
1920x1200 / DX10 / High / 4xAA
1024x768 / 0xAA
1680x1050 / 4xAA
1920x1200 / 4xAA
3DMark06
1280x1024 / 0xAA
1680x1050 / 4xAA
1920x1200 / 4xAA
3DMark Vantage
Performance Mode
High Mode
Extreme Mode
ET:Quake Wars
1440x900 / High / 4xAA
1680x1050 / High / 4xAA
1920x1200 / High / 4xAA
Unreal Tournament III
1440x900 / DX10
1680x1050 / DX10
1920x1200 / DX10
Call of Duty 4
1440x900 / Max / 4xAA
1680x1050 / Max / 4xAA
1920x1200 / Max / 4xAA
Farcry 2
1440x900 / Max / 4xAA
1680x1050 / Max / 4xAA
1920x1200 / Max / 4xAA
Racedriver GRID
1440x900 / High / 4xAA
1680x1050 / High / 4xAA
1920x1200 / High / 4xAA
Crysis
1440x900 / DX10 / High / 4xAA
1680x1050 / DX10 / High / 4xAA
1920x1200 / DX10 / High / 4xAA
Overclocking
Using the "Auto-Tune" facility built into the ATI Overdrive™ driver control panel, the maximum overclock we were able to obtain from the HIS HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo was 780MHz on the core and 1090MHz on the memory. Attempting to manually increase either of these settings any higher instantly resulted in artifacting and/or game freezing. Granted that this is only a small increase on the stock 770MHz / 1000MHz speeds of the card, but it certainly shows that HIS are quite fearless with their factory overclocking.
Testing the card at both its stock and our overclocked settings in 3DMark Vantage Performance mode reveals that this small increase in speed on the core and memory certainly wasn't fruitless.
Most Recent Comments
This is a great read! I thoroughly enjoyed it.. The estimated price also seems good.. Santa may have a revised list rushed to him 
If I had the £ to get a 4870 it would def be this. Great cooler, factory oced, good price.
Great review as always Jim!
Great review as always Jim!
Great review, even tho I'd not personally buy it, I think this card offers a decent amount of spanking for the price, particularly nVidia's mid-range card.
Gorgeous pictures too Jimbo.. whoever told you to use a flash gun must be amazing..
I so wish I could afford to but this card,nice review as normal,however one small spelling mistake:the farcry engine is Dunia not dunai
Because of the simple package, it does make the GTX260 a bit more desirable for anyone who doesn't own the packaged game.
Roughly same price between the two.
Clock the GTX260 higher and it will probably beat the Turbo 4870.
And where the heck is the special screw driver thingy?
Roughly same price between the two.
Clock the GTX260 higher and it will probably beat the Turbo 4870.
And where the heck is the special screw driver thingy?
Fine review, and a super card.
I have to ask though.. This part..
Why? It's odd that such a high end card can be ***** slapped into yester year on one game, yet hold its own and win a few on others. This about driver optimisations? The games that are popular they tweak the drivers for knowing that they will be used as benches?
I have to ask though.. This part..
Finally we come to the GRID results and as we can see, this is certainly a place where the green team fall flat on their face. Across all resolutions the HIS 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo wipes the floor with the GTX260 and in some cases even the stock clocked Sapphire HD 4870 512Mb sends the Zotac packing.
Why? It's odd that such a high end card can be ***** slapped into yester year on one game, yet hold its own and win a few on others. This about driver optimisations? The games that are popular they tweak the drivers for knowing that they will be used as benches?
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by name='fruityness'
Why? It's odd that such a high end card can be ***** slapped into yester year on one game, yet hold its own and win a few on others. This about driver optimisations? The games that are popular they tweak the drivers for knowing that they will be used as benches? |
It's quite possible that NV could turn around tomorrow with a new driver that drastically improves GRID performance on the GTX260 and the 4870 gets a good spanking.What ever happens its great to see ATI finaly giving Nvid something to worry about and work for.
Great review Jimbo, your a machine where do you get the time!
Great review Jimbo, your a machine where do you get the time!
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by name='Jim'
Drivers, game engine, backhander between the developers and ATI...who knows
It's quite possible that NV could turn around tomorrow with a new driver that drastically improves GRID performance on the GTX260 and the 4870 gets a good spanking. |
But it's created by a game design platform called Gamebryo, similar to the version used to make DAoC and WAR.
Having a finger in the dev pie can always influence performance.
Would of been interesting to see crossfire performance with a pair of these against the gtx260 in sli, also gtx 280 single & sli.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by name='Nelly'
Would of been interesting to see crossfire performance with a pair of these against the gtx260 in sli, also gtx 280 single & sli.
|
The only thing I would disagree with is the cooler. The fan on this thing is like a leaf blower on full noise!
Main reason I purchased this HIS was because of this review saying the cooler was 'whisper' quiet.
First thing I did was get myself an MCW60-4870.
Nice review otherwise.
Main reason I purchased this HIS was because of this review saying the cooler was 'whisper' quiet.
First thing I did was get myself an MCW60-4870.
Nice review otherwise.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by name='crunchie'
The only thing I would disagree with is the cooler. The fan on this thing is like a leaf blower on full noise!
Main reason I purchased this HIS was because of this review saying the cooler was 'whisper' quiet. First thing I did was get myself an MCW60-4870. Nice review otherwise. |
Hi Jim. Nice review 
.
When I first installed the card I checked the temp through CCC and was surprised to see that it was 67C, no fan running. So I manually ran it using CCC. Anything below 40% fan speed was ok and brought the temps down quite a bit (the cooler itself works really good).
Testing it out and running the fan flat out, I thought that my case was going to start moving across the floor. Loudest fan I have ever heard.
I had included the card into my water loop within a week of buying it, so it's all good now.
Pity I paid a premium price for the HIS though because of it's cooler. Ended up coughing up another $AU139 for the MCW60-4870 too
.
All's well that ends well though
.When I first installed the card I checked the temp through CCC and was surprised to see that it was 67C, no fan running. So I manually ran it using CCC. Anything below 40% fan speed was ok and brought the temps down quite a bit (the cooler itself works really good).
Testing it out and running the fan flat out, I thought that my case was going to start moving across the floor. Loudest fan I have ever heard
.I had included the card into my water loop within a week of buying it, so it's all good now.
Pity I paid a premium price for the HIS though because of it's cooler. Ended up coughing up another $AU139 for the MCW60-4870 too
.All's well that ends well though
I just leave the cards on auto (Ihave 2) and they are real quiet, never go much above 60c, deffo works much better than a reference 4870 cooler.
Water sure is nice though. Stays below 40C and quiet to boot .
.Aye built many with water mate, got one on the go now idling at 32c.
Im all for water, but where Ive not had time to do my own :crys: Id had to stay air, and just wanted to say that the coolers are much better than the stock ones and worth the extra few quid.
4870's get hot because of the digital PWM's, so the cooler really does do a good job.
Im all for water, but where Ive not had time to do my own :crys: Id had to stay air, and just wanted to say that the coolers are much better than the stock ones and worth the extra few quid.
4870's get hot because of the digital PWM's, so the cooler really does do a good job.
Got mine idling at 28C and the cpu at 26C atm . GPU's VDDC slave temps are in the mid 30C's.
I had nothing against the ICEQ cooler. It did the job nicely. Just could not handle the noise.
I've just changed the stock 120 fans on the radiator with a couple of 90cfm coolermasters. Running at 2000rpm and they can hardly be heard.
What sort of an OC can these HIS' get to? Had mine to 850 clock and 1100 mem with no artifacting. Haven't tried to go higher.
. GPU's VDDC slave temps are in the mid 30C's. I had nothing against the ICEQ cooler. It did the job nicely. Just could not handle the noise.
I've just changed the stock 120 fans on the radiator with a couple of 90cfm coolermasters. Running at 2000rpm and they can hardly be heard.
What sort of an OC can these HIS' get to? Had mine to 850 clock and 1100 mem with no artifacting. Haven't tried to go higher.
CSS Valid
http://www.overclock3d.net/gfx/artic...095350126s.jpg
HIS 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1GB PCIe Graphics Card