One month ago we have tested the XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black edition graphics card based on the Core 216 version of NVIDIA, and we concluded that the ATI Radeon HD 4870 offered a better price to performance ratio. In last month both NVIDIA and ATI have dropped prices for both products and made choice for your next graphics card much harder. The other aspect to take into account is that NVIDIA has recently done quite some work on their drivers and succeeded in raising the performance bar upwards. Next to that they have also released the 55nm version, which will replace all their current GeForce GTX 260 cards and as such bring them into a new era with further price reductions. - InsideHW

Palit Radeon HD 4870 1GB Sonic Dual Cooler Preview

In red corner we have the Radeon HD 4870 model signed and overclocked by Palit. This graphics card is bundled with just the basic accessories. On the other side Palit didn't economize too much with the graphics card itself. Since this is model overclocked by the manufacturer, and Palit used its own cooling solution instead of default design. It is consisted of an aluminum cooling profile that is supported by three heatpipes. The active part of this cooling solution is consisted of two non identical fans. Although fans looked the same at first moment, they have different diameters. This is much more efficient and quieter cooling solution.

So after we took off cooler we found one RV770 core and 1GB of GDDR5 memory signed by Qimonda. Now the power section of this board has also changed and upgraded. The overclock of this video card is satisfactory but we couldn't achieve results of some Golden Sample models. The Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual edition worked stable at 780MHz core and 4200MHz for the memory. All in all performance and built quality are great and we must congratulate Palit on this model. The extra 512MB on this video card compared to other models isn't just marketing trick but useful when play games at higher widescreen resolutions.

If you plan to acquire a new graphics card in the next few months with a price tag below $300 then you are facing a tough decision. The XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black edition with price tag around $299 with a nice bundle and is actually faster than the Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual version. On the other side Palit is cheaper with their price tag around $249 but also slower. If we compare the performance and price of both models we can see that they are almost in perfect correlation. Finally, it will come to your personal affinity in these type of choices.