HIS Ati 4870 X 512 - Anyone?

General question.

I was looking at what was currently available and I was trying to pick out a card for my aging system.

It still runs fine with its soon to be 4G of ram, E6600 dual core chip and 7950 GT KO card, but I would like to boost it a bit. My screen is currently a 1600x1200 resolution 20" LCD, so I do not think I will need to worry TOO much about having loads of memory for this card at that resolution.

I have noticed that the 4870's have been at a really good price point, especially with rebates.

I was originally going to go for the Sapphire (512) but they say the card is VERY long. I know that my system will not fit an 11" long card without it banging into my HD cage, so that was regrettably out.

The next one down the price line was the HIS 4870 (H487FN512P): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161268

This seems to be a good call, although there seems to also be a conflict with two products on Newegg with the exact same mfr # but different layouts.... The other layout has gotten good reviews, but this one seems to be a new addition with only one gloom-and-doom review.

Has anyone else used HIS cards before? Are they reputable? Google has turned up no reviews, and a search on here has listed 6300+ tags to the forum ("HIS" is not exactly a good search term).

Any help/advice would be appreciated!

Not REALLY bent on it, but it would be nice to have something that does not flinch at some of the tougher games.

The 7950 is able to play most of them now, but I can see hesitancy and the settings need to be lowered a bit (no vsync, turn AA down or off, and things like object distances are limited. Very noticable on Witcher...)

Besides, right now the HIS 4870 512 meg is on sale, with a rebate, and a free copy of STALKER for $170......

Although their 4850 matching card is now $130 for the same package......

Besides the DDR3->DDR5, are there any other major differences?

The card you`ve linked to has a quite tall cooler, you might want to check that it wo n`t interfere with any other cards you have installed.
Like far too many out there, it also has a cooler that does n`t exhaust outside of the case, unless your case is large with good airflow I`d suggest you look at one of those that do.

That is a possibility, but OC'ng is always a craps shoot.....

I have had so-so luck with my last few CPU's, seeing problems (most likely with sync and heat)....

But continuing the thread, what cooler has given the best, well, cooling (effective and QUIET) for the 4850?



BTW, I am set for cooling. The Lian Li I have has a nice big 9" fan on the side and two 3" fans on front (and I think one 3" fan and a vent on the back). It would still be good to check into more so long as the $$s stay reasonable....

It is higher, by pixel count, than most standard wide screens and I think it is about the same as a standard HDMI resolution (1080p)....

The difference is $40, which is not much (but is also 33% more, which is a lot when you start looking at it that way).

Thanks for the advice. Let me know if you have any more. I will let you know what I get and what the end result is.....

Just so you know, the HIS BARELY fits! (I had to nudge the card up a bit to plug the second power lead).

The card works great so far, but I only got a small test run of the Witcher on high everything at 1600x1200. I have not cast spells or fought beasties, we will see what happens.

(E6600 duo chip, 2G memory, XP SP3, just FYI).