Most reliable Radeon 4870

[vinster27]

I am looking to buy a ATI Radeon 4870 for my new build. But I am having a hard time deciding which brand to buy. I'm trying to decide between a XFX, Sapphire or HIS. I like the XFX because of the lifetime warranty and HIS because of the cooling. And of course the Sapphire is the most popular. Which brand do you guys think would be the best?

 

[invisik]

The cheaper one of course but if they are all priced about the same xfx.

 

[rajadog]

Make sure your processer is at least 2.5-3ghrtz. I bought a sapphire radeon 4870 and because my cpu was a 1.8ghrtz phenom quad core i got low fps on everything. But I believe all the brands are about the same.

 

[vinster27]

Make sure your processer is at least 2.5-3ghrtz. I bought a sapphire radeon 4870 and because my cpu was a 1.8ghrtz phenom quad core i got low fps on everything. But I believe all the brands are about the same.

Thanks for the recommendation rajadog. I was actually considering going with my existing CPU-2.0Ghz AMD Athlon 64 but after reading your recommendation I decided that it was time for an upgrade and decided to go with the AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor. Thanks.

 

[bildo123]

I personally own a XFX 4870 and I got it to clock to 855/1000. The memory can go higher but there's that talk of 'ruining it' if you leave it over 1000 for extended periods of time. Of course because this brand, and this particular card does it, doesn't mean the next one will. But it's a start. For the most part aim for price, and what the cooler is.

 

[JofaMang]

4870s are high ambient heat cards. Make sure airflow is healthy in your case.

I would go for the XFX based purely on the double lifetime warranty. Being able to sell it with a warranty increases resale value. That is why I picked my 4870x2 from XFX.

If you want to OC, the sapphire vapor-x is pretty brilliant (and quiet), but more expensive. I haven't seen any benches on the 4870 vapor-x 2gb, but in theory it could kick some high res ass. I have owned a reference cooler sapphire 4870 512mb, and it performed awesome, had it stable at 820/1000. It is sitting in a box waiting for my HTPC build to be ready for it.

Don't have much to say about HIS good or bad, never owned one of their products.