ATI'S new HD4870 could well be a poster child for a comeback advertisement. Let's face it its GPU fortunes have been dwindling since AMD took it over. NVIDIA enjoyed winning products across the high end and midrange spectrums, as well as some great entry level offerings. Enter the core AMD labelled the RV770 which has spawned two GPU variants that have radically changed what we expect to pay for a fast graphics card. The HD4870 is a high-end part that is priced as a midrange offering. It consists of an 800 SP based GPU which is a huge hike considering its 3870had just 320 SPs. Although a direct comparison between ATI's 800 SPs and NVIDIAs 240 SPs is impossible due to differences between their SP architectures, the HD4870 is a step in the right direction for ATI. The best thing is it doesn't cost you much and here's why it's built on a cost saving 55nm process, ATI also simplified the PCB by sticking to a 256-bit memory interface. What it did was to slap on shiny new GDDR5 memory, which itself is a very new, and as yet untested standard, which pioneers like Samsung and Qimonda are pushing. Therefore ATI can cut costs much more effectively than NVIDIA can with its GTX 2xx architecture.

Features
ASUS and Palit were the two ATI vendors who sent us their HD4870 offerings. Both were overclocked over the 750 MHz that ATI recommends as a stock speed. The Palit HD 4870 SONICs core is clocked at 775 MHz while the memory runs at the recommended speed i.e. 3,600 MHz. Palit uses a custom cooler it features two heatpipes, and two fans we feel this cooler is much more efficient than ATI's stock cooler, and looks good too. This card ran cooler than the ASUS EAH 4870 TOP, which was over clocked to a whopping 825 MHz. Palit's bundle was sparse with the usual power connectors and an S-Video cable. ASUS includes the usual goodies in the form of a leather mousepad and CD pouch, but no games. Both venŽdors include an HDMl adapter.

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Performance
Shockingly both 4870s hold their own against the GTX 280s in Crysis a very, very good result for ATI since this game engine is very new, and is likely to be indicative of future performance for DX10 games. UT 3 proves to be CPU limited on these cards, although they cannot match the GTX 2xx family. Both these cards also perform well in Company Of Heroes, and manage to out perform even the HD4870 x2However the GTX 280 and GTX 260 are still too tough a proposition to tackle. World In Conflict and F.EAR are easy for these cards although they are slower than NVlDIAs offerings in the high-end segment. But the most shocking factor for us was the price these cards are nearly 50 percent cheaper than the GTX 280s and close to 15 per cent cheaper than the GTX 260 cards. When you consider this the HD 4870 makes a very good buy for someone looking at a very fast card for under the Rs 20,000 mark. Palit's HD 4870 SONIC is just superbly priced at an MRP of Rs 17,900 - you might get it even cheaper in the market.