Sapphire 4870 1GB, Powercolor PCS or HIS 4870 512mb??

[oli_ramsay]

Definitely the 1GB model!

 

[winterwonderland]

I see... well... He could only offer me the standard PowerColor PCS, not the one you mention.

So... I will have to buy a new cooler in order to have a proper 4870 1GB, huh?

 

[BrooksyX]

I see... well... He could only offer me the standard PowerColor PCS, not the one you mention.

So... I will have to buy a new cooler in order to have a proper 4870 1GB, huh?

No the stock cooler will be just fine. Go with the 1gb Sapphire 4870. It will treat you great.

 

[Ben_UK]

Sapphire cards have always done a good job for me and consistently clock high, never had a bad one, and I have had a quite a few.

 

[winterwonderland]

ok... things got kinda off-handed here... please take a look at my first post, because i couldn't get the Sapphire 4870 1GB card for a good price after all..... so now i am back to the beginning... now i must find which 4870 i should go for... HIS 4870 1GB, Diamond 4870 1GB, PowerColor 4870 1GB or Sapphire 4870 1GB? All cards for (probably) the same price, according to my friend who gave the card to his g/f instead.....

so... any suggestions, people?

PS: will the video card work for my european PC? (all my other PC components are european-bought) or will there be a power-interruption once i setup the card, perhaps?

 

[inf3rno]

Go for the HIS one.

 

[winterwonderland]

Oh? So the HIS 4870 1GB would suit me best, huh? What about Diamond 4870 1GB? I've not read too much about it, so I am a bit curious on that one as well...

 

[ShadowFold]

I'd go HIS as well. I have had nothing but good cards from them. I just ordered an HIS 4830 too!

 

[winterwonderland]

I see...

What about Diamond 4870 1GB card? How's that compared to HIS 1GB card?

And ALL HIS 1GB cards comes with Ice4, yes?

 

[ShadowFold]

No not all are IceQ. I've never used or know of anyone that used Diamond before but I know a lot of people will tell you HIS is top quality

 

[winterwonderland]

I understand. So even the HIS 512mb does not have all of the cards with IceQ? How can I check if the card has IceQ? Any specific model name, serial number or something I should look for to verify if it's the one with IceQ?

 

[ShadowFold]

stock cooler - HIS Hightech H487F1GP, HIS Hightech H487F512P
stock cooler V2 + blue PCB - HIS Hightech H487FT512P
newer cooler - HIS Hightech H487FN1GP, HIS Hightech H487FN512P
IceQ cooler - HIS Hightech H487QT1GP

 

[winterwonderland]

Woah... So there are 4 different coolers..? :O Which one's the most quiet one and which gives better performance? And does those number apply for both 512MB and 1GB..?

 

[ShadowFold]

At the end it says 1GB or 512P to indicate the memory size. The stock cooler is fairly loud from what I hear.no pun intended and that newer cooler looks like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161269
So I would imagine it's quiet and works good. I just ordered the HIS HD 4830 with that same cooler so if you haven't ordered by then I can tell you how well it works

 

[winterwonderland]

Ah. Of course. I just saw those end-numbers. My bad.

Yeah. So the IceQ4 is the most quiet one then, huh?

Did you order yours from newegg as well? Looks like I won't be ordering just yet. Wait until thursday, friday or somewhat and by then you should've tested your card, yes?

 

[inf3rno]

I am pretty sure his card ll do him great. Nice choice ShadowFold.

 

[Wile E]

I got the Powercolor PCS 1GB. I haven't had any probs with it, and it's even volt modded.

 

[winterwonderland]

I see. Well, hmm... How much more QUIET (without OC'ing) will the newer cooling be than the stock cooling? Like... how many %? Is there some kind of comparison anywhere..?

 

[nafets]

At the end it says 1GB or 512P to indicate the memory size. The stock cooler is fairly loud from what I hear.no pun intended and that newer cooler looks like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161269
So I would imagine it's quiet and works good. I just ordered the HIS HD 4830 with that same cooler so if you haven't ordered by then I can tell you how well it works

Avoid the HIS HD4870 card, linked above, at all costs.

The cooler on it is absolute garbage, and is horribly underpowered/ineffective for cooling the original reference 3-phase (very hot) design. Only the original stock dual-slot exhausting cooler (ICEQ 4 is the same thing) is recommended for this HD4870 PCB design.

There's a reason why both the 512MB and 1GB versions with this flower cooler are the cheapest they sell; HIS cheaped out on the cooling...

 

[winterwonderland]

I see...

*sighs*

This is getting too expensive for my needs and wallet.

I'll most likely go for a 4850 now... Which 4850 should I go for that's QUIET/SILENT and that gives GOOD performance....and that isn't garbage? I guess I'll go for 1GB here, since 512MB will be too little.

Any suggestions for a 4850?

 

[ShadowFold]

How is 512mb too little? I'm playing pretty much every game maxed out with AA and AF with a 512mb HD 4830. I would get the HIS HD 4850 IceQ4 if you were gonna get a 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161244
I loved my old HIS HD 3850 IceQ3.. Ran really cool and quiet, I'm sure they have revised the IceQ4 with some new stuff And you get STALKER Clear Sky, one of my favorite games!

 

[winterwonderland]

I see...

Seriously. This've been driving me nuts, really. For 2 weeks I've been scouting the interweb for a good deal for a video card, but I am still stucked. Crap.

The thing is that I am located in Europe, so it's hard to find a video card that fits me and my wallet very well. I've got to think about shipping as well. Buying a video card here is a waste when I can buy from i.e newegg. Longer waiting time, but cheaper! A 1GB Sapphire costs roughly 280~300$ here, so yeah... that's out of the question, I guess. I've calculated that even with taxes and shipping costs to my country, it STILL would be like 50~75$ cheaper to buy from newegg...

So yeah, now I am stuck between a HIS 4850 512mb and a HIS 4870 512mb, or a 1GB, all with IceQ4 cooling... and yet I cannot seem to figure out which one I should go for, especially since I've only got a 19" screen for now... and I guess that any other video card choices are out of the question, or...?

I seriously need help with this. It's driving me....nuts, tbh.

 

[nafets]

Based on your original statement of;

i am NOT a hardcore gamer, so i DON'T want max performance or something like that since i won't be playing all the newest games etc.

For the price you'd pay for a 1GB HD4850, you could get a 512MB HD4870, which would be more than enough for your current (and most likely, future) needs. Don't be fooled by the 512MB/1GB mess. You won't see any benefit of the extra 512MB on the HD4850, as it would be contradicted by the slower GPU and MEMORY speeds.

That being said, if you plan on keeping your next video card for longer than a year, and are really set on having 1GB of memory, then I'd recommend just spending a bit more and going with the HD4870 1GB. There are a number of models priced around $205 - $215 (after rebate), that you'd be very happy with.

As far as the HD4870 ICEQ 4, from what I've read it's nothing more than the stock cooler with fancier plastic and a slightly different blower fan. Don't expect it to be hugely quieter than the reference stock dual-slot cooler. In the case of the HD4850 with the ICEQ 4 cooler, it's actually a good choice, as it is quieter and more effective than the usual single-slot garbage reference cooler, that comes (or used to come) with most HD4850's. Since it exhausts air out of the PC, it's highly recommended, since most HD4850's (now) come with flower coolers that do not do this.

With all of these cards the big difference with regards to cooling and noise output is how the BIOS is set up. With a BIOS that has a properly set up fan speed section, the card can have lower idle fan speeds, and ramp up quietly and in an effective manner, to increase speeds as the GPU temperatures increase. Unfortunately, this is a lost art with many manufacturers, as they just copy the same non-optimized fan settings over on to their newer cards. All is not lost though, as the end user can tweak these settings and/or use third party programs to set the fan speeds to their personal liking....

 

[winterwonderland]

Yeah? Which cards would that be? I guess that getting a 4870 makes sense enough, based on what I've stated earlier, like you mention. So yeah, which cards are for me to choose from? Either it's 4870 512mb or 1gb, just list the one's I should be considering getting, based on the facts that I want a cool, quiet and a card that got good performance.

Also... I am having a bit trouble to understand that "MIR"-thingy on newegg... What if I don't have a printer or something? Can I just e-mail them the copy/original docs that they require for the "MIR"..? Or will there be sent some papers to my address that I must sign before I get the rebate...?

 

[r9]

Just stay away from short PCB versions.