Recently we took a look at the PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 which did very well at the launch of this new GPU. So after some time we can't help but wonder, are the manufacturers getting all of the bugs worked out for this awesome graphics card? Right now the Radeon HD 4870 cards are the pinnacle of ATI's lineup, taking the GeForce GTX 200 series head on for the top performer for gamers and enthusiasts alike. You wonder though, how does the performance score when the same chip is manufactured by two different companies. Will the scores vary or stay constant? Today we are going to take a look at VisionTek's Radeon HD 4870 video card and see how well it behaves. - Overclockers Club

VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 Mass Effect Board Review

VisionTek used the same reference design as the PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 we checked out before and there were some heat issues that concerned us. Has VisionTek addressed these issues? Will its card be better than the rest and possibly take over the GeForce GTX 260 or GTX 280? VisionTek uses a very intimidating design for its packaging. The faded alien head looks eerie with the glowing blue eyes, which like the hardware inside, means business. The front of the box highlights some of the features of the Radeon HD 4870 card, including the memory specification of GDDR5 memory which are very new.

There is also a sticker claiming that the VisionTek card provides the best visual experience for the game Mass Effect, however no game or demo is included. It would have been nice to have included so you can actually see for yourself instead of a marketing ploy. The back of the box shows more in depth features as well as what adapters are available on the card. On the sides you have at your disposal the system requirements as well as a detailed specifications list. When you open the packaging you are presented with what we like to call a little black box, which seems appropriate with the alien head on the front.

To feed the power hungry beast, you will need two free 6-pin PCI Express power connections. We would also recommend that you make sure you have a very efficient power supply if you plan to run more than one card in a CrossFireX setup. On the outer spine of the card there are the two CrossFire connectors for CrossFireX mode for a powerful multi-GPU system. The heatsink on the VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 uses a dual slot design with a copper heatsink and pipes connected to aluminum fins for maximum heat dissipation. The heatsinks are enclosed in a plastic shroud with a large blower style fan to push air out.

For the VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 we were only able to get a limited overclock on the GPU of 30MHz before it became unstable. This seems to be a pattern with these Radeon HD 4870 cards as we achieved the same GPU overclock earlier. On the memory we were able to push out 360MHz for a total speed of 2160MHz. While this is not a high overclock, this was near the limit of what the Overdrive will allow the GPU to max out at. We again find ourselves very impressed with the ATI based Radeon HD 4870 video cards. The performance is outstanding, so you can't go wrong with the VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 version.

We are still weary about the heat issues however. Whether it can be fixed with a software update or by using third party cooling solutions, something needs to be done by the card manufacturers to address this issue. We are surprised no one is worried about this except us, especially since case temperatures go up because of the added heat radiating from the graphics card. We are also surprised that the Radeon HD 4870 is not very overclockable since the Radeon HD 4850 card has the same core. Either way, this is a win-win card and we recommend it to anyone building a new system. You will not be disappointed.