Review: Supercharging the Radeon HD 4870 - PowerColor does it properly

by Tarinder Sandhu on 19 September 2008, 08:31

Tags: HD 4870 1GB PCS+, PowerColor (6150.TWO), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qapdh

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Company of Heroes: Opposing fronts

Company Of Heroes: OF - 1,680x1,050 - 4xAA 0xAF - DX10
PowerColor HD 4850PowerColor HD 4870 1GB PCS+Leadtek 9800 GTX+Force3D HD 4870ZOTAC GTX 260
46.356151.6755.5870.37

Company Of Heroes: OF - 1,920x1,200 - 4xAA 0xAF - DX10
PowerColor HD 4850PowerColor HD 4870 1GB PCS+Leadtek 9800 GTX+Force3D HD 4870ZOTAC GTX 260
39.1252.842.0646.1358.48

Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts runs a little better on NVIDIA cards, with the GTX 260 king of the heap. PowerColor's HD 4870 1GB PCS+ receives a nice boost over the reference-clocked Force3D HD 4870 512MB, helped by both the increased clockspeeds and framebuffer capacity.

 

Company Of Heroes: OF - 2,560x1,600 - 4xAA 0xAF - DX10
PowerColor HD 4850PowerColor HD 4870 1GB PCS+Leadtek 9800 GTX+Force3D HD 4870ZOTAC GTX 260
24.1136.0223.529.837.29

Results should be taken with a large pinch of salt at 2,560x1,600 - some cards saw some huge variances between runs (10% on HD 4870, 9% on HD 4850 and 15% on the 9800 GTX).

The PowerColor HD 4870 1GB PCS+ and ZOTAC GTX 260, with their larger framebuffers, ensure consistent results between runs, as well as similar levels of performance.