Like its lesser compatriot, the Radeon HD 4870 beats NVIDIA at its price point. ATI is the only company with a current $300 card, although runaway sales have bumped up that price temporarily. Still, they could sell it for more, to match the GeForce GTX 260, and people would still buy it. And ATI has needed a card at this price point. The Radeon HD 3870 was nice, but it wasn't great. It became a really smart deal when it dropped below $200, and then the GeForce 9800 GTX came along, and AMD fell back into its old routine, selling decent cards at okay prices. They just weren't breaking ground. Which has, apparently, paid off. The Radeon HD 4800 series cards aren't revolutionary, design wise. - TechLounge

Palit Radeon HD 4870 512MB Graphics Board Review

And now, they're great cards at great prices. Palit's sent us a few Radeon HD 4870's. Reference designs, stock clocks, and pretty packaging are still enough to shake NVIDIA's foundation. The big, dual slot rectangular heatsink looks municipal, and uses two big heatpipes to shuttle heat away from the GPU. The heatsink's completely enclosed and vents no hot air back into the case. The fan looks serious, and takes up a third of the heatsink, between what's visible and what's exposed. Like the high-end ATI cards of the past, the card relies on solid state power regulation, meaning there are only three capacitors on the board.

The PCB, thankfully, isn't full length. It's nice to have a top performing card that you don't have to worry about fitting inside your case. The power connectors face the front end of the card. Of course, the card is CrossFireX ready, with the standard two CrossFire tabs at the top. The back of the Radeon HD 4870 is just as cluttered as a Radeon HD 4850, it's an expanse of transistors with no blanks on the component side for extra memory. Instead of a vixen, the box sports Palit's mechafrog, which is nice and the Palit mascot somehow. The graphics card has a discreet pastel design which gives it a nice touch and look.

For $200, the Radeon HD 4850 has a lot of competition. For $300, the Radeon HD 4870 is without challenge. Which, if it had a little more direct competition, we think people would be quicker to criticize it. Primarily, we think 512MB is too little memory for the card, and it could do a lot better anti-aliasing with some elbow room. Secondarily, the card consumes a lot more power than ATI cards do traditionally. It's not a huge jump, but it's not a small amount either. The stock cooler does a loud job of cooling, and you'll have to go third party if you really want to overclock. And the card is begging for CrossFire, a relatively easy config.

And just like the Radeon HD 4850, it's Linux ready, with open and closed source drivers good to go. The real win is having a $300 card, and NVIDIA made a lot of money with the GeForce 9800 GTX before the Radeon HD 4850 forced them to sell it for $200. Now that bracket belongs to ATI, who for the first time in years, is dictating hardware costs, not following prices set by NVIDIA. We'll have to wait for board partners to add innovation. So yes, the card isn't perfect, but like they say, it's lonely at the top.