“MSI is back under the spotlight with a slick new video card with a sleek new cooler. MSI claims a 20 degree temperature reduction on this Radeon HD 4870 1GB, but is that accurate or just a lot of hot air? We’ll find out exactly what potential buyers can expect out of this low-priced dynamo!”Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
- HIS HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1 GB GDDR5 @ techPowerUp
- AMD Radeon HD 4890 benchmarked @ HEXUS
- ASUS Extreme AH4870X2 Tri-Fan @ Legion Hardware
- Three -way shootout: XFX HD 4870 vs. HIS HD 4870 vs. Inno3D GTX 260 @ HEXUS
- Sapphire HD 4870 2GB Vapor X Series Review @ OCC
- ATI Catalyst 9.3 Analysis – XP & Vista @ Tweaktown
- How to turn your Geforce 9800GTX+ into a GTS 250 @ CPU3D
- Copper Boost – Gigabyte GeForce GTS 250 @ Hardware Zone
- Unleashing NVIDIAs GTX 295 @ Tweaktown
- Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216SP @ Benchmark Reviews
- Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI Geforce 9600GT Rev.B @ PCStats
- Galaxy Geforce 9500 GT Voltage Modification and Overclocking @ Madshrimps
- TwinTech Geforce GTS 250 XT OC Edition @ CPU3D
- GeForce GTX 295: New on Old @ accelenation
The change is only skin deep but still impressive
Looking at the raw stats, the MSI R4870 MD1G is just a normal 4870, there is no factory overclock. Looking at the card, the lack of an enclosing assembly really stands out, instead it is the oval shaped heatsink and fan that grab your eyes. MSI claims that the change in cooler should allow the GPU to operate about 20C cooler than the normal heatsink assembly you see. Drop by [H]ard|OCP and you can see how the cooler does and how this card can perform against other HD4870s as well as the GTX260.
