What, is it time to upgrade again? Do you feel that your system needs a boost in performance? Is it within your budget to even think about it? Let's face it, if you like to game on your computer, the stress of constantly pushing your GPU to its limits will eventually cause a decrease in performance. How many average users constantly check their temperatures or even clean the dust off the heatsink fans on a regular basis just to make sure their video card is not being overheated by something that could be easily taken care of? Not many, and overheating is one of the major causes of video card failure when it happens on a regular basis. This Diamond graphics card is a solution that may fit your needs. - HiTechLegion

Diamond Radeon HD 4870 512MB Style Board Review

The Diamond Radeon HD 4870 512MB comes packaged in a bright black box which caught my eye immediately due to the black and white image of the mascot at the right of the box. And the back of the box lists some of the new features offered with the video card and look there's the mascot again. Inside the exterior packaging is a box white box that houses the Radeon HD 4870 and its bundle of accessories and software. When opened the components are further protected by foam insulation. The card itself is placed in an antistatic bag, when removed from it, you will get your first look at the two slot cooling solution.

The price point of $280 places the Diamond Radeon HD 4870 512MB card in the mainstream gaming catagory. The price of the card places it in the higher end as compared to Diamonds competitors. If considering an upgrade from your old ATI graphics card you won't be upset with the performance of the Diamond Radeon HD 4870. We feel that Diamond could have left the price at $235, and this would place it right in the middle of the field for ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards. Again, it comes to preference, and Diamond is a name that has been around for quite sometime, and they do have good technical support and customer service.

So if you are looking to upgrade your system or just your video card and desire performance, reliability, customer service and technical support that does not require a long hold before you speak with someone, the Diamond Radeon HD 4870 512MB video card should be one to look at. While running benchmarks, we did not notice any artifact or any freezes that we have had in the past with quite a few ATI based video cards. The Diamond Radeon HD 4870 ran quiet and smooth even when reaching full fan speed as the temperatures increased while gaming. When we think of Diamond, we think of reliability and performance.

We feel Diamond is a little high with its price, but the performance between it and even a Radeon HD 3870 X2 card, which we also have, are night and day. If you are looking to upgrade your system to the new AMD Dragon platform and take advantage of Fusion and other optimizations or even an Intel based system, the Diamond Radeon HD 4870 will fulfill your needs.