When the Radeon HD 4870 launched a few months back, it did come as a bit of a surprise that we couldn't see any 1GB models on offer. Really, in this day and age it does seem weird to have such a high-end video card carry only 512MB of memory. Jump forward a few months and we finally see 1GB models coming from companies. The first one we're going to be looking at comes from Palit and carries with it a bit more than the reference cooler and clocks. Coming under the Sonic naming scheme, we see Palit has gone for an aftermarket cooling solution and of course an overclock on the core and memory. Fortunately, they've taken the whole card a step further from there. How exactly - TweakTown

Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic 1GB Video Board Review

Looking at the box, there isn't anything we haven't really seen before. Most of the box is taken up with a picture of FroBot. Towards the left of the card we have the Palit logo along with some other logos. In the top corner we have mention that this card is a dual edition card, which means we have dual fans and a dual BIOS setup. Across the bottom of the box we have a sticker that gives us the model along with some of the main features. The card is of course a Radeon HD 4870, but unlike many of the ones we have seen before, this is a Sonic model which means it's overclocked. It also carries with it 1GB of GDDR5 memory.

Turning the box over, we have some extended specifications on the card in a number of languages. Across the bottom we have the Palit logo along with their contact details and website address. With the package out of the way, it's time to move onto the card. Upon pulling it out of the box for the first time, we don't actually see anything we haven't seen before. The card looks identical to the Radeon HD 4870 Sonic we looked at from Palit recently which carried with it 512MB of GDDR5 memory. Like the other Sonic board, the Radeon HD 4870 1GB graphics card fans are different sizes and therefore have different airflow.

The one directly above the core is actually slightly larger than the one that sits towards the back of the card. We can see across the top of the card a heatpipe that helps move the heat from above the core. Looking around the card, there isn't anything that really differs from other Radeon HD 4870 cards. Towards the back of the card we see two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors while at the front we see a pair of CrossFire connectors. We don't see the dual link DVI setup that we've become so accustomed to from companies. Alongside a single dual link DVI, we see an analog port along with a HDMI port and DisplayPort.

We also have a switch on the back of the board which goes between two sets of clocks. While a bit pointless, it's there none the less. With the card of course carrying the Sonic name, it is overclocked when the switch is in turbo mode. In normal mode, the core comes clocked at 750MHz while the memory comes in at 3800MHz effective. Kick it up a notch to turbo and you're running at 775MHz on the core and 4000MHz effective. And while we thought that the decision not to release a 1GB model of the Radeon HD 4870 at launch was a bad idea, as compared to the 512MB model the increases are due to the higher clocks.

It will be interesting to see the difference when we have a stock clocked 1GB card on hand. We don't doubt for a second though, that the 1GB version of the Radeon HD 4870 is going to be popular. There's that thing inside of us that says more is better and since the price difference isn't huge, it's not going to hurt too much by grabbing the extra memory. Palit has done a pretty impressive job. The cooler does a good job of not only keeping the card cool, but doing it at a pretty reasonable noise level. While the switch is a bit pointless, in the fastest mode the clocks aren't too bad and help get a bit more performance.

Following on with typical Palit style, there isn't a whole lot going on in the package. With only the bare essentials in cables and paper work, there isn't a whole lot to get excited about. While we would probably suggest most people save the dollars and just go down the 512MB route, if you're looking for more memory then the Palit is a good option with a huge amount of features on tap, including a nice out of the box overclock.