When buying a graphics card everyone wants the fastest product they can get for their money and those that are successful get acclaim across the globe which inevitability leads to more sales. Throughout product lines the same can be said and even in low-end parts the model which is known to overclock best regularly sells more than the competition. In the Radeon HD 4870 family there have been numerous overclocked models released in the last few months but few go to the extreme level shown by today's product, the PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 liquid cooling solution. This is actually the first water cooled version that we see to hit the market shortly and tuning the game experience up a notch. - DriverHeaven

PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 LCS Video Card Review

PowerColor package their Radeon HD 4870 in a box which has the same styling as many of their products and has a number of information stickers on the front and side. On the back is a list of specifications and inside we find a reasonably standard bundle. This initial bundle includes items such as a manual and DVI to HDMI convertor as well as composite and analog connectors. The final standard item is a software CD which includes drivers as well as the CyberLink software. Though strangely, no CrossFire cable is included however PowerColor assure us that this will be shipping in retail packages when these hit the selves.

From the moment this Radeon HD 4870 board is unboxed it is clear that it is significantly different to models from other manufacturers. While the PCB is identical to the reference design, including the two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors, the cooling is obviously completely different. Attached to this card we have this EK Water Blocks which is a single slot waterblock designed specifically for the Radeon HD 4870 series. Looking around the card we see that PowerColor cap all of the outputs and CrossFire connectors with plastic covers and on the rear of the card there is no change from the reference design.

As expected PowerColor have enhanced the speeds of this card and we have a core containing 800 unified shaders set to 800MHz and with 512MB of GDDR5 clocked at 3800MHz. The memory is connected to the core by a 256-bit bus and as with all Radeon HD 4870 cards the LCS version supports PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1 and Blu-ray acceleration. Initial overclocking of the Radeon HD 4870 LCS edition is relatively easy process as it is supported by Overdrive within Catalyst control centre. With this utility we ran autotune which found a maximum clock speed at the limit of the application, 850MHz and memory of 4300MHz.

That memory speed is well below the maximum of the tool which should mean it is close to the limit of the product but to find the highest overclock of the core we had to continue on manually with RivaTuner. Through this application we found the GPU limit was actually 860MHz. Upon testing the card at 860/4300MHz we discovered that there were occasional hangs and graphical glitches and from a little investigation we found that Overdrive had not successfully set the limit of the memory. Following a reduction to 4200MHz we were able to complete our tests without issue, and run all the benchmarks and current game titles.

The PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 certainly stands out from the crowd and in this case that is no a bad thing. It is packaged well with plenty of protection and the extras secured in a separate compartment, additionally the box features plenty of information such as card speeds and cooling system compatibility. Every cable and dongle we would require for normal operation is provided and this impressive collection of extras continues to the cooling attachments. Included with the card are inlets for the most common types of water cooling tubing which ensures that the card is compatible with most, if not all, mainstream liquid cooling solutions.

The choice of the EK Water Blocks is good as it features an impressive design which ensures the GPU, memory and power circuitry all receive effective cooling. To buy one of these coolers and install it ourselves would cost €85 so there is a lot to be said for having PowerColor do this work for us. Although we cannot help but wish for a little more from the card in terms of the amount of memory and shipping speed there is no doubt that this PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 LCS version is an impressive product.