| ASUS EAH4870 DK TOP 512MB Video Card |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Matt Williams | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 21 December 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ASUS EAH4870 DK TOPBenchmark Reviews is no stranger to the Radeon HD 4870 and today we add one more to the ranks: the ASUS EAH4870 Dark Knight Top. This 'DK TOP' model comes equipped with ASUS' famed Dark Knight cooler and claims of a 9% performance lead over stock 4870's thanks to an impressive factory overclock. In today's review, we'll put this claim to the test and find out what kind of performance the EAH4870 DK Top brings to the table. There's a reason the Radeon HD 4870 is so popular: it offers one of the best price/performance ratios the GPU market has seen in quite some time. With recent price cuts dropping the cost below $200, this ratio has gotten even better. In fact, prices throughout the entire HD 4000 line have been steadily falling for several months. If you've been holding out on upgrading your video card, now is definitely a good time to buy.
With a custom HSF and factory overclocking, the EAH4870 DK Top should prove to be a top performer. Still, with prices on the rest of HD 4800 series dropping, some may be inclined to pick up a cheaper 4830 or 4850. For this reason, we'll be pitting our test card against ATI's other mid to high-end offering to find out just what kind of performance advantage the 4870 has over its siblings. About the company: ASUSAsus is one of the most respected manufacturers of computer hardware of the industry, including video cards. Here is what they have to say about their commitment to quality: "ASUS, a technology-oriented company blessed with one of the world's top R&D teams, is well known for high-quality and innovative technology. As a leading company in the new digital era, ASUS offers a complete product portfolio to compete in the new millennium. In 2007, one in three desktop PCs sold was powered by an ASUS motherboard; and the company's 2007 revenues reached US$6.9 billion.
ASUS products' top quality stems from product development. It's like learning Chinese Kung-Fu; one must begin with cultivating the "Chi" and inner strength. The requirements for this honor include radiation emission control, energy (battery consumption), ecology (environment friendly) and ergonomics. To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, great products need to be complimented by speed-to-market, cost and service. That's why all 8,000 over employees of ASUS strive for the "ASUS Way of Total Quality Management" to offer the best quality without compromising cost and time-to-market while providing maximum value to all customers through world-class services. With unyielding commitment to innovation and quality, ASUS won 2,568 awards in 2007, meaning on average, the company received over 7 awards every day last year. BusinessWeek has ranked ASUS amongst its InfoTech 100 for the 10th straight year; and the company is ranked as No.1 in quality products and services by the Wall Street Journal. ASUS has also achieved the number one title on the annual league table of Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands with a brand value of 11.96 billion US dollars." Radeon HD 4870 FeaturesATI Radeon HD 4800 Series GPUs bring the power of graphics ‘supercomputing' to gamers, setting a new standard for visual computing. Redefine the way you play and take HD gaming to the extreme with best-in-class performance. With up to 1.2 teraFLOPS on tap, the TeraScale graphics engine delivers an immersive, cinematic gaming experience. Add this graphics card to your PC and watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity or take your experience to another level with new multimedia capabilities. Do it all with break-through efficiency that doesn't compromise performance.
Redefine HD Gaming The ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series GPUs deliver a cinematic gaming experience with unprecedented performance. The powerful new TeraScale graphics will propel you deep into your gameplay with seamless frame rates and high resolutions. Enhanced anti-aliasing (AA) and anisotropic filtering create striking graphics with unparalleled realism so you can max out the settings of the most demanding next-generation games or revitalize your favorite titles. Play today while preparing for tomorrow with tessellation, support for DirectX 10.1 and scalable ATI CrossFireX technology.
Go Beyond HD Video Add an ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series GPU to your PC and watch the latest Blu-ray and HD movies play with incredible fidelity -upscale to nearly twice the display resolution of HD content. Take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities. Sophisticated new features within ATI AvivoTM HD technology provide a truly responsive experience. Support for the latest audio visual interconnects ensures you can take advantage of the latest display technology.
Break-through Efficiency Like its predecessors, the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series GPUs offer optimal performance and break-through efficiency with platform-independent intelligent power management. ATI PowerPlay delivers the power needed to blaze through even the most intense games while intuitively conserving energy at idle or when demand is low.
EAH4870 SpecificationsAsus Features
Graphics GPU Features
Closer Look: ASUS HD 4870Until recently, AMD has restricted partners from using non-reference board designs on their HD 4800 series products. This is typically done to protect the consumer against possible design flaws, as well as AMD's own reputation during the launch of a product. Without the option of modifying the board design, manufacturers have had to find creative ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. To this end, several manufacturers, including ASUS, have developed their own unique branding and customizations. This particular HD 4870 from ASUS, the EAH4870 DK Top, has been given the "Dark Knight" treatment.
The first, and most obvious distinction of the Dark Knight edition is the revised heatsink and fan. Gone is the large reference cooler, replaced by a smaller, but more aggressive thermal solution. The heatsink is milled out of high quality aluminum and utilizes a custom heatpipe and fin design. Heat is transferred away from the GPU through the four large heatpipes where it is diffused throughout the larger surface area of the fins to be cooled by the fan. The fan, itself, is regulated by the VGA BIOS with manual control available in the driver control panel. ASUS rates this particular fan with a noise level of just 32dB.
Aside from the improved heatsink and fan, the EAH4870 DK Top retains the usual feature set we've become accustomed to with the HD 4800 series. Two dual-link DVI ports are clearly visible on the back side, as well as an additional port for s-video and component outputs. The DVI ports can also be converted to support VGA and HDMI using the included adapters. Full 7.1 audio is available via the onboard audio controller as well, should you decide to use the HDMI connection.
In addition to the usual video adapters, the EAH4870 DK Top also comes with a crossfire bridge, driver CD, and a leather mouse pad. In typical ASUS fashion, everything was packaged extremely well and separated into different compartments to keep each component safe. While I don't expect to use the mouse pad, it was a nice touch. I'd much rather have an overabundance of accessories rather than be shorted something of critical importance, like a crossfire bridge or HDMI adapter. EAH4870 DK TOP Detailed FeaturesIn addition to its Dark Knight classification, the EAH4870 DK Top is also distinguished by its "Top" designation. In ASUS lingo, this simply translates into factory overclocking. Stock 4870 GPUs run at 750MHz and a memory speed of 900MHz (3600MHz effective). This model, on the other hand, features a GPU clock speed of 815MHz and a memory speed of 925MHZ (3700MHZ). This results in what ASUS claims to be a 9% performance lead over generic 4870s. We'll be testing this claim a bit later in the review, but before we get there I'd like to touch on a few more features.
The Radeon HD 4870 is built on AMD's award-winning RV770 architecture. The heart of the RV770 is its 800 stream processors, separated into 10 SIMD cores communicating in parallel. Additional features of the RV770 include 40 texture mapping units, 16 ROPs, and a 256-bit memory bus. All of this adds up to a theoretical computing performance of up to 1.2 TeraFLOPS (single precision). Of course, there is more to a video card than raw performance, which is why the EAH4870 DK Top also includes AMD's Unified Video Decoder 2 and full 7.1 HD audio via HDMI.
For memory, ASUS went with 512MB of GDDR5. These particular chips come from Qimonda, model IDGV51-05A1F1C-40, and are rated up to 1000MHz (4GHz effective). As you'll see in the overclocking section, however, they can be pushed well beyond that spec.
All of this computing power does come at a price: increased power consumption. You'll need a power supply rated at at least 500 Watts and two 6-pin PCIe connections (one 4-pin to 6-pin adapter is included). If you're already sitting on a quality power supply, then is essentially a non-issue--save the increased utility bill. If not, this is something you'll definitely want to take into consideration when deciding on your video card. Video Card Testing MethodologyAt the start of all tests, the previous display adapter driver is uninstalled and trace components are removed using Driver Cleaner Pro. We then restart the computer system to establish our display settings and define the monitor. Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. The synthetic benchmark tests in 3DMark06 will utilize shader models 2.0 and 3.0. In our higher-end VGA products we conduct tests at the following resolutions: 1280x1024 (19" Standard LCD), 1680x1050 (22-24" Widescreen LCD), and 1920x1200 (24-28" Widescreen LCD). In some tests we utilized widescreen monitor resolutions, since more users are beginning to feature these products for their own computing. Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. This process proved extremely important in the World in Conflict and Supreme Commander benchmarks, as the first run served to cache maps allowing subsequent tests to perform much better than the first. Each test is completed five times, with the average results displayed in our article. Our site polls and statistics indicate that the over 90% of our visitors use their PC for playing video games, and practically every one of you are using a screen resolutions mentioned above. Since all of the benchmarks we use for testing represent different game engine technology and graphic rendering processes, I feel that this battery of tests will provide a diverse range of results for you to gauge performance on your own computer system. Since most gamers and enthusiasts are still using Windows XP, it was decided that DirectX 9 would be used for all tests until demand and software support improve for Windows Vista. Test System
Benchmark Applications
Video Card Test Products
3DMark06 Benchmark Results3DMark is a computer benchmark by Futuremark (formerly named Mad Onion) to determine the DirectX 9 performance of 3D game performance with graphics cards. 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. Some enthusiasts may note that Benchmark Reviews does not include CPU-bound tests in our benchmark battery, and that only graphic-bound tests are included. Here at Benchmark Reviews, we believe that synthetic benchmark tools are just as valuable as video games, but only so long as you're comparing apples to apples. Since the same test is applied in the same controlled method with each test run, I believe 3DMark is a very reliable tool for comparing graphic cards against one-another. More visitors to Benchmark Reviews operate at 1280x1024 resolution than any other, as it represents the native resolution of 19" LCD monitors. Using this resolution as a starting point, the maximum settings were applied to 3dMark06 which for these tests include 8x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering. Low-resolution testing allows the graphics processor to plateau maximum output performance, which thereby shifts demand onto the system components to keep up. At the lower resolutions 3DMark will reflect the GPU's top-end speed in the composite score, indicating full-throttle performance with little load. This makes for a less GPU-dependant test environment, and is helpful in measuring the maximum output performance in the test results.
To start things off, I ran the ASUS EAH4870 DK Top at the default 3DMark06 settings. This establishes a baseline that we can use to analyze the effects of increased resolutions and post processing. It also allows these scores to be compared in Futuremark's online results browser. As expected, the ASUS 4870 has a clear performance lead over its siblings, scoring up to 32% higher than a stock HD 4850.
With anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled, scores drop considerably across all of the test cards. However, the increased bandwidth of the EAH4870's GDDR5 memory and higher clock speed keep it well above the HD 4850.
After increasing the test resolution, scores drop again, but this time not as drastically. At this point, the EAH4870 expands its lead over the HD 4850, offering a performance increase of 35%.
Our final 3DMark06 test represents the worst case scenario for most gamers. Resolution, anti-aliasing, and anisotropic filtering are maxed out, taxing the video card more than most games ever would. At these settings, the EAH4870 is in a league of its own, leading the HD 4850 by as much as 45%. Call of Duty 4 Benchmark ResultsCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare runs on a proprietary game engine that Infinity Ward based off of the tried-and-true Q3 structure. This engine offers features such as true world-dynamic lighting, HDR lighting effects, dynamic shadows and depth of field. "Bullet Penetration" is calculated by the Infinity Ward COD4 game engine, taking into account things such as surface type and entity thickness. Certain objects, such as cars, and some buildings are destructible. This makes distinguishing cover from concealment important, as the meager protection provided by things such as wooden fences and thin walls does not fully shield players from harm as it does in many other games released during the same time period. Bullet speed and stopping power are decreased after penetrating an object, and this decrease is calculated realistically depending on the thickness and surface of the object penetrated. This version of the game also makes use of a dynamic physics engine, a feature which was not implemented in previous Call of Duty titles for Windows PC's. The new in-game death animations are a combination of pre-set static animations combined with ragdoll physics. Infinity Ward's use of the well-debugged Quake 3 engine along with new dynamic physics implementation allows Call of Duty 4 to be playable by a wide range of computer hardware systems. The performance may be scaled for low-end graphic cards up to 4x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Tri-linear anisotropic texture filtering. Before I discuss the results, I would like to take a moment to mention my general opinion on Fraps software when it comes to game performance benchmarking. If you're not familiar with the software, Fraps (derived from Frames per second) is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX and OpenGL applications. Some reviewers use this software to measure video game performance on their Windows system, as well as record gaming footage. My opinion is that it offers a valid third-party non-bias alternative to in-game benchmarking tools; but there is one caveat: it's not perfect. Because the user must manually begin the test, the starting point may vary from position to position and therefore skew the results. In my testing with Fraps v2.9.4 build 7039, I used the cut-scene intro to the coup d'etat scene when Al Asad takes over control. First I allowed the level to load and let the scene begin for a few moments, then I would use the escape key to bring up the menu. Once I selected the restart level option, I would immediately press F11 to begin recording the benchmark data. This scene is nearly four minutes long, but I configured Fraps to record the first 180 seconds of it to remain consistent. Once the scene would end, I would repeat the restart process for a total of five tests. So within a 0.2 second starting point margin, all benchmark results are comparable which is probably as good as it can possibly get with this tool.
Game testing with Fraps reveals the same trends we saw with the synthetic 3DMark06 tests. At lower resolutions, the EAH4870 DK Top has a performance advantage of about 32% over the stock HD 4850. At higher resolutions, this performance difference increases to 38%. What this means for you is that the HD 4870 scales better with increased processing loads. While part of this can be attributed to the increased GPU clock, the extra performance is most likely due to the increased memory bandwidth of the GDDR5 memory. Crysis Benchmark ResultsCrysis uses a new graphics engine: the CryENGINE2, which is the successor to Far Cry's CryENGINE. CryENGINE2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX9, both on Vista and Windows XP. Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders. To get the most out of modern multicore processor architectures, CPU intensive subsystems of CryENGINE 2 such as physics, networking and sound, have been re-written to support multi-threading. Crysis offers an in-game benchmark tool, which is similar to World in Conflict. This short test does place some high amounts of stress on a graphics card, since there are so many landscape features rendered. For benchmarking purposes, Crysis can mean trouble as it places a high demand on both GPU and CPU resources. Benchmark Reviews uses the Crysis Benchmark Tool by Mad Boris to test frame rates in batches, which allows the results of many tests to be averaged. Low-resolution testing allows the graphics processor to plateau its maximum output performance, which thereby shifts demand onto the other system components. At the lower resolutions Crysis will reflect the GPU's top-end speed in the composite score, indicating full-throttle performance with little load. This makes for a less GPU-dependant test environment, and is helpful in creating a baseline for measuring maximum output performance in the next few test results. At the 1280x1024 resolution used by some newer 17" and most 19" monitors, all of the video cards tested performed at very respectable levels.
Out of all the cards tested, the EAH4870 DK Top is the only card that offers an average framerate above 30 FPS throughout all of the test resolutions. The HD 4830 and HD 4850 put in a solid effort, but at 1920x1200, you'll definitely want to go with the 4870. At framerates this low, the extra performance it offers will surely be noticeable.
Throwing anti-aliasing into the mix reveals results similar to those seen in the 3DMark06 testing. All cards show a dramatic decrease in average FPS, but the 4870 copes slightly better than the others thanks to its increased memory bandwidth.
Devil May Cry 4 BenchmarksDevil May Cry 4 is one of the newest additions to Benchmark Reviews' testing suite. Launched in July of this year for the PC, it is also one of the newest games on the market. Fortunately for us, Capcom recognized the community's interest in hardware testing and included a built in benchmarking tool with this game. In fact, it is even included it in the demo. The benchmarking tool runs through four different scene, all of which I highly recommend watching. It's a beautifully detailed game and, as you'll see from our benchmarks, can produce some great framerates even on lower end hardware. In keeping with our previous tests, the Devil May Cry 4 benchmark will be run at 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 resolutions. All options are set to high where available, with 4x AA enabled through the in-game options and 16x anisotropic filtering enabled via the catalyst control center. All four scenes are allowed to play through three times, with the first results disregarded and the other two averaged. This proved to produce very reliable results, with an error rate as low as 1-2 FPS.
At a lower resolution of 1280x1024, none of the cards are pushed too hard and all produce adequate framerates. The HD 4670 even fares well, although compared to the EAH4870 DK Top it's nothing to get excited about. The 4870, on the other hand, produces some amazing framerates, although without the aid of software, it would be nearly impossible to distinguish it from the rest of the 4800 series.
Increasing the resolution is accompanied by the expected decrease in average FPS across the board. Still, framerates aren't low enough among the 4800 series to demonstrate a need for anything beyond the HD 4830.
Even with the resolution set to 1920x1200, it is clear the Devil May Cry 4 can get by with the mid-range video card and still produce great visuals and acceptable framerates. By tracking the framerate via software, however, we can clearly see the increased computational power of the EAH4870 DK Top. Even if the difference is not noticeable to the naked eye, you can rest assured that the 4870 will offer framerates 38-48% higher than the 4850 in this game.
World in Conflict Benchmark ResultsThe latest version of Massive's proprietary Masstech engine utilizes DX10 technology and features advanced lighting and physics effects, and allows for a full 360 degree range of camera control. Massive's MassTech engine scales down to accommodate a wide range of PC specifications, if you've played a modern PC game within the last two years, you'll be able to play World in Conflict. World in Conflict's FPS-like control scheme and 360-degree camera make its action-strategy game play accessible to strategy fans and fans of other genres... if you love strategy, you'll love World in Conflict. If you've never played strategy, World in Conflict is the strategy game to try. Based on the test results charted below it's clear that WiC doesn't place a limit on the maximum frame rate (to prevent a waste of power) which is good for full-spectrum benchmarks like ours, but bad for electricity bills. The average frame rate is shown for each resolution in the chart below. World in Conflict just begins to place demands on the graphics processor at the 1920x1280 resolution, so we'll jump ahead for our concensus.
Our final benchmark results confirm what we've been seeing all along. At lower resolutions, the HD 4830 and HD 4850 offer enough performance to make most gamers happy. At higher resolutions, however, the EAH4870 DK Top really demonstrates the capability of a high end card. In World of Conflict, you can expect up to a 24% performance advantage with this card over a stock HD 4850. It also scales better when increasing resolutions, dropping only 8% in FPS when going from 1680x1050 to 1920x1200, while the HD 4850 dropped 12%. VGA Power ConsumptionTo measure isolated video card power consumption, Benchmark Reviews uses the Kill-A-Watt EZ (model P4460) power meter made by P3 International. A baseline test is taken without a video card installed inside our computer system, which is allowed to boot into Windows and rest idle at the login screen before power consumption is recorded. Once the baseline reading has been taken, the graphics card is installed and the system is again booted into Windows and left idle at the login screen. Our final loaded power consumption reading is taken with the video card running a stress test using FurMark. Below is a chart with the isolated video card power consumption (not system total) displayed in Watts for each specified test product:
* Results are accurate to within +/- 5W.
Life is not as affordable as it used to be, and items such as gasoline, natural gas, and electricity all top the list of resources which have exploded in price over the past few years. Add to this the limit of non-renewable resources compared to current demands, and you can see that the prices are only going to get worse. Planet Earth is needs our help, and needs it badly. With forests becoming barren of vegetation and snow capped poles quickly turning brown, the technology industry has a new attitude towards suddenly becoming "green". I'll spare you the powerful marketing hype that I get from various manufacturers every day, and get right to the point: your computer hasn't been doing much to help save energy... at least up until now.
As with most things in life, when it comes to video cards you don't get something for nothing. As expected, the EAH4870 DK Top consumes considerably more power than the other test cards. However, considering the 30-48% performance advantage it has over the HD 4850, we certainly don't mind the extra 25% power consumption under load. ASUS HD 4870 TemperatureTemperature and power consumption tend to be directly proportional. As power consumption increases, the heat output of the video card's components increase as well. Video card manufacturers usually stick to the reference heatsink and fan when a product series launches, but soon after, develop their own cooling solution. These custom cooling solutions can have a big impact, often reducing temperatures by 20-40%. To test cooling performance, Benchmark Reviews makes use of the temperature sensors built into modern video cards. We first measure the video card in an idle 2D windows environment to get the idle reading. We then max out the GPU load using FurMark and record the highest temperature reached in a 30 minute period. It should be noted that the case design and fans can have a large impact on these results, as well as ambient temperature. These tests were conducted using an Antec P180B case, with all fans set to low and an ambient room temperature of 74 degrees Fahrenheit.
Thanks to the Dark Knight cooler, the increased heat generated by the EAH4870 DK Top was held in check. In fact, it was beat out only by the much slower HD 4670. Even with the custom heatsink and fan from ASUS, I was not expecting temperatures nearly as good as these. The HD 4800 series video cards are notorious for their high heat output and the temperatures maintained by the Dark Knight cooler are simply phenomenal. ASUS HD 4870 OverclockingThe EAH4870 DK Top comes from ASUS already overclocked, but that wasn't good enough for us. Most manufacturers leave a certain margin of safety when establishing factory overclocking speed. This ensures that more cards will be capable of sustaining the set clock speeds and cuts down on warranty service due to failed overclocks. We decided to explore this margin, and after some stability testing, settled on 855MHz for the GPU core and 1175MHz (4700MHz effective) for the memory. Needless to say, this card had considerable headroom left, even on top of the factory overclocking performed by ASUS. To make things interesting, we also ran these benchmarks at reference HD 4870 speeds to test ASUS' claim of a 9% performance increase.
With 3DMark06 as our measure, we see roughly a 5% increase in performance with the EAH4870 DK Top over reference 4870 clock speeds. By overclocking the EAH4870 beyond the factory speeds, we were able to achieve a total increase of 12% in the SM 2.0 tests and 10% in the SM 3.0 tests.
After upping the resolution and enabling some post processing , the results became even more pronounced. The ASUS overclock yielded a 6-7% increase over reference, while our additional overclocking brought this up to a 16-17% lead.
To supplement our synthetic testing with 3DMark06, we fired up our favorite Crysis benchmarking tool and got to work. Here we see the 9% performance increase that ASUS claims in their advertising, as well as a 15-16% increase when using our own overclocking. I'm sure ASUS would love to stick the latter figure on their box, but I appreciate conservative, honest advertising. Overall, these are excellent overclocking results and, while we don't have specific figures in this review, the overclocked EAH4870 DK Top is definitely reaching towards GTX 280 performance. Radeon HD 4870 Final ThoughtsWhile the Radeon HD 4800 series has been around now for over six months, it's clear that manufacturers are still making improvements. One of the major criticisms of this series has been the unruly heat output and inadequate cooling solutions. Customized heatsink and fan units, like the ASUS Dark Knight cooler featured on our test card, have curtailed this problem to some degree. The heat output of the card is essentially the same, but the improved cooling performance does a much better job of diffusing this heat and reducing the overall temperatures. Proper cooling is essential to the stability and lifespan of computer hardware, but it also plays a role in how far the clock speeds can be pushed. Much to the enthusiast's delight, several manufacturers already have factory overclocked HD 4870's on store shelves. However, without proper cooling and power circuitry, these cards often cannot be pushed beyond the factory speeds. In the worst case scenario, the factory overclocked clock speeds may even begin to fail, as I have experienced in the past. Quality assurance and good warranty service are a must when it comes to factory overclocked video cards, which is why I recommend going with a manufacturer you trust.
Fortunately, the EAH4870 DK Top from ASUS appears to be void of any of these problems. I tested this card extensively for any sign of stability problems or display corruption and it performed flawlessly. I even sabotaged the cooling performance of my case by turning off all of the case fans. Still, the Dark Knight cooler held temperatures at acceptable levels, even after hours of FurMark, and there were no lock-ups or corruption of any kind. ASUS EAH4870 DK TOP ConclusionAs we've come to expect from ASUS, the EAH4870 DK Top is packaged in a well designed, full color box. The box further separates components into different compartments to guard against shipping dangers. ASUS showcases their products on their website as well, although sites like newegg.com offer better product photos. It would be to ASUS' advantage to put the same effort into displaying their product, as most video card buyers tend research products on the web before buying. Out of the box, the reason for the "Dark Knight" model distinction becomes clear. Although ASUS went with a standard red PCB, the custom heatsink and fan is anything but stock. The darkened aluminum fin design and heatpipes have a very distinct appearance and convey a sense of quality and cooling performance. It may look a bit bland for those used to full length card stickers, but with such a great heatsink design, it would a shame to cover it up.
ASUS earns top marks for construction quality as well. Having removed the heatsink to photograph the die and memory, I can attest to its build quality. The base is milled flat, although not polished, and there were no signs of loose fins or broken solder. A quick glance at the power components reveals high quality capacitors, chokes, and EMI shielding as well. All add up to a great card that had no trouble achieving a stable result on our FurMark torture test. The only drawback to note is the lack of a fan shroud, which means you'll want to be extra careful not snap off a blade during installation. With the card securely in the system, however, this becomes a non-issue. Once fired up, the EAH4870 DK Top performs admirably, living up to ASUS' claim of a 9% performance boost over stock HD 4870s. Additional overclocking through the catalyst control center yielded an impressive clock speed of 855MHz for the GPU and 4700MHz for the GDDR5 memory. This amounted to a 10-16% total performance increase over reference 4870 speeds and an ever-widening lead over the rest of the HD 4800 series. Recent price cuts have dropped this card down to $209.99 (after MIR). At this price, the EAH4870 DK Top is a great value compared to the $300+ prices we saw a few months ago. With a performance increase of up to %50 over the HD 4850, it also offers an incredible price/performance ratio. Keep in mind, however, you'll need a good power supply to run this card, which could be an additional cost if you don't already own one. From appearance to actual performance, the EAH4870 DK Top represents everything that has propelled ASUS so far in the industry: quality. With prices the lowest they have been since launch, it's easy to recommend this video card to anyone looking for high-end performance at a decent price. Pros:
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Besides innovating cutting-edge features, ASUS engineers also pay special attention to EMI (electromagnetic interference), thermal, acoustics and details that usually go unnoticed to achieve complete customer satisfaction. ASUS notebooks are the first TCO'99-certified notebooks worldwide.
