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PowerColor Radeon HD 4830 512 MB |
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Value and Conclusion
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| 9.0 | AMD's new Radeon HD 4830 is positioned to fill one of the last gaps in the GPU market price ranges. While the HD 4670 has a tight grip on the sub-$100 market and the HD 4850 is a great choice in the sub-$200 range, AMD felt there was something missing in between $100 and $200. Considering price/performance, the HD 4830 is one of the best offers on the market today only rivaled by some low-end NVIDIA cards. PowerColor has successfully improved on the AMD reference design by adding a native HDMI output which comes in handy when you want to connect your big TV set. The other big change doesn't seem too wise to me though. PowerColor's big fan looks mighty at first sight, but the default fan settings make it a less than pleasant experience. For a card in this performance class the fan is way too noisy. On the other hand the temperatures are lower than on the AMD reference design. But personally I prefer a few degrees higher GPU temperature in return for a quiet card. While PowerColor's sample is not affected by the missing shaders issue, it is completely unknown if the problem is limited to AMD samples only or if board partners are sending out cards with missing shaders too. |
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