Introduction

AMD's Radeon HD 4770 with its RV740 GPU is the first graphics card using a 40 nanometer graphics processor. Initially released in April 2009, the availability of the cards was quite limited due to supply issues in the GPU production. Now stocks seems to be normalizing again and with better GPU availability partners will start to build their own designs.

One of the first such custom HD 4770 designs is Powercolor's HD 4770 PCS. It uses an Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 for reduced noise and higher cooling performance. Unfortunately that is the only change that will affect you as user. Performance specifications like clock speeds, memory size etc. have remained the same. This seems to be due to an AMD policy that does not allow HD 4770 cards to be built that perform better than HD 4770 reference designs. The most probable reason for that is that AMD does not want HD 4850/4870 sales to hurt.

It should also be noted that the PCB has been largely redesigned, especially power circuitry has seen some changes which should result in a reduced production cost.

Packaging

The card comes in Powercolor's typical compact packaging. The front has the basic product highlights while the back has a generic text describing what you can do with graphics cards.

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Documentation + Driver CD
• DVI adapter
• TV out cable

The Card

A quick look at the card reveals that it is designed to be a simple to make card (= cheap = good). The most prominent feature is the Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 cooler. Even though the slot cover is just one slot tall, the card requires two slots in your system due to the thickness of the cooler.


The card has two DVI ports, the most common output configuration today. If you want to use the card with your big TV screen you can use an HDMI adapter (not included). In case you need an analog port you can also use the included DVI adapter.
For HDMI Audio, NVIDIA requires you to feed an external audio source, for example from your motherboard's on-board audio, to the card via SPDIF cable. AMD on the other hand has integrated a sound device inside their GPUs which is the easier solution for most users.


The Powercolor HD 4770 PCS can be combined with other HD 4770 class cards in CrossFire for increased rendering power or better image quality options.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.