AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

Palit Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB

Manufacturer: Palit

Core Clock: 750MHz
Memory Clock: 3,600MHz (effective)
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

The card we received in order to complete this evaluation came from Palit, a brand normally associated with selling Nvidia-based graphics cards. In fact, many would argue that Palit is Nvidia’s biggest partner, especially once you factor in all of the OEM shipments instead of just focusing on retail sales.

Palit’s card doesn’t differ a great deal from the reference design; in fact, the only real change is the sticker on the card’s heatsink shroud. And while I’m talking about the sticker, I have to say it is rather poorly applied and I have never witnessed this lack of attention to detail before on any of Palit’s other products.


The fact that the card is almost identical to the reference design is a good thing from my perspective at least, as it enables me to look closely at the way AMD designed the card, making notes on how things have changed since the original dual-GPU Radeon HD 3870 X2 design. For starters, here's a comparison shot of the two cards side by side.

You’ll see quite clearly that the two are very similar by design at a first glance—aside from the different PCB colour—and they’re both 270mm (approx.) long, just like Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 280. When you look closer, you’ll start to see the differences between the two cards. First of all, although almost identical, the heatsink design has changed in some areas – it’s as if AMD has further-optimised the design and weight distribution because this card still weighs well over 1kg.

Unlike the Radeon HD 3870 X2, the 4870 X2’s maximum board power of 289W stipulates that both the six- and eight-pin power connectors are required in order for the card to function – you could run the 3870 X2 with just two six-pin connectors if you weren’t overclocking. That’s no longer possible with this card.

Annoyingly though, AMD doesn’t appear to have listened to feedback from end users with regard to the orientation of the power connectors. With both of them perpendicular to the PCB, you could find yourself in a bit of a cable conundrum if your power supply happens to be located at the wrong end of a large case.


Because of the high maximum board power, it’ll come as no surprise to you that the Radeon HD 4870 X2’s fan spins rather loudly under load. And what’s more, the heat generated under load—and not just the exhaust temperatures—brings back memories of running the ill-fated Radeon HD 2900 XT during that rather strange British ‘summer’ we had last year.

That said, the card remains fairly quiet while it’s idling and the pitch is fairly consistent, such that it doesn’t serve to cause annoyance. Due to the noise created by the card under load, one concern we had was that it’d be loud when watching Blu-ray movies – thankfully, those worries were nullified after watching some of my favourite scenes from Casino Royale with the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in situ.

Both of these outputs are fully compliant with HDCP at resolutions upto 2,560 x 1,600 and can also carry 7.1 audio using a supplied DVI-to-HDMI dongle. While we’re speaking about the card’s output capabilities, it’s worth giving a shout out to multi-monitor support because it’s still there and it’s as seamless as it was on the Radeon HD 3870 X2. As a multi-monitor user myself, one of my biggest reservations for multi-GPU technology has been its frankly lacklustre support for more than one display – at least one half of the graphics industry has worked it out now, and the other is expected to follow later this year.

It’s not without its problems though – especially if you’ve got a tendency to play games in windowed mode. From the limited testing we’ve done so far, it looks as if the card runs at its 2D clock speeds and with CrossFire disabled. The reason for this is that the card appears to be using the drivers to regulate power consumption again and, considering the steps forward AMD has made on the power efficiency front, I’m frankly a little disappointed by this.