HEXUS.bang4buck, temps, overclocking
HIS09
In a rough-and-ready assessment of the cards' bang per buck, we've aggregated the 1,920x1,200 framerates for the four games, normalised them* and taken account of the cards' prices.
But there are more provisos than we'd care to shake a stick at. We could have chosen four different games, the cards' prices could have been derived from other sources and pricing tends to fluctuate daily.
Consequently, the table and graph below highlight a metric that should only be used as a yardstick for evaluating comparative performance with price factored in. Other architectural benefits are not covered, obviously.
| Graphics cards | Force3D Radeon HD 4870 Black Edition | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 TOXIC 512MB | Force3D HD 4870 512MB | BFG GTX 260 MAXCORE OC 896MB | ZOTAC GTX 260 896MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual aggregate marks at 1,920x1,200 | 265.45 | 273.73 | 258.09 | 290.16 | 247.85 |
| Aggregate marks, normalised*, at 1,920x1,200 | 240.52 | 245.8 | 235.17 | 265.08 | 239.78 |
| Current pricing, including VAT | £196 | £210 | £175 |
£257 | £190 |
| HEXUS.bang4buck score at 1,920x1,200 | 1.23 |
1.17 |
1.34 |
1.03 | 1.26 |
| Acceptable frame rate (av. 60fps) at 1,920x1,200 | No (COH:OF) | No (COH:OF) | No (COH:OF) | Yes | No (COH:OF, COD 4, GRID) |
* the normalisation refers to taking playable frame rate into account. Should a card benchmark at over 60 frames per second in any one game, the extra fps count as half. Similarly, should a card benchmark lower, say at 40fps, we deduct half the difference from its average frame rate and the desired 60fps, giving it a HEXUS.bang4buck score of 30 marks. The minimum allowable frame rate is 20fps but that scores zero.
Here's the HEXUS.bang4buck graph at 1,920x1,200. The graph divides the normalised score by the price.
| HEXUS.bang4buck (08/10/08) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sapphire HD 4870 TOXIC | ZOTAC GTX 260 | BFG GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE | Force3D HD 4870 | Force3D HD 4870 BE |
| 1.17 | 1.26 | 1.03 | 1.34 | 1.22 |
Priced a little lower than the Sapphire TOXIC but almost performing the same, the Force3D Black Edition scores a touch higher. There are no stinkers here, either.
However, there's more about it than just pure framerates; something which our graph doesn't show.
Temperature musings
We perform our testing on an open test-bed with a 120mm fan simulating case airflow.
| Graphics cards | Force3D Radeon HD 4870 Black Edition | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 TOXIC 512MB | Force3D HD 4870 512MB | BFG GTX 260 (216) MAXCORE OC 896MB | ZOTAC GTX 260 896MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambient temperature | 20.5°C | 20.5°C | 23.5°C | 21°C | 23°C |
| Idle temperature | 40°C | 53°C | 78°C | 42°C | 53°C |
| Load temperature | 49.5°C | 65°C | 90°C | 64°C | 71°C |
| Ambient-to-load delta | 29°C | 45°C | 67°C | 43°C | 48°C |
We thought that the TOXIC's cooler was damn good at keeping the hot-running Radeon HD 4870 cool. The Arctic Cooling Accelero TWIN TURBO is markedly better, producing the best under-load temps of any card. Indeed, it's some 40°C lower than the reference card's number, helped a little by a lower ambient temperature.
Overclocking
Cranking it up some more from the base 770MHz/3,800MHz clocks, we managed to gain 30MHz on the core, raising it to 800MHz. The memory, running at an effective 3,800MHz, rose to an incredible 4,400MHz - the highest we've seen.
Looking back at the ET:QW test at 1,920x1,200 we see that card, at its shipping clocks, scored an average 71.97fps. When overclocked this rose to 75.2 fps, which is just above a GeForce GTX 260's base performance.