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ASUS 4870 Matrix

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By Justin Robinson
Jan 9, 2009 | 9 Comments
Tags: ASUS | 4870 | Matrix

Buy one card, get two fans free!

As we stumbled into the office today (after a night spent benching, no less), we discovered a box full of gear, fresh from ASUS. We picked out something from this veritable lucky dip, and managed to grab a 4870 Matrix - is it a card worth your attention?

Everyone should be relatively clued-in with the tech inside this card, but we'll give it a full description in the full review. Performance of the card is pretty good however, with 3DMark Vantage returning a knee-slappingly decent result of P7938. This has a small edge over the reference 4870, but the real advantage here is the temperatures.

Idle temps sit at only 45 degrees, and load is amazingly only seven degrees higher at 52. This result is quite impressive, but it is as the expense of noise - idle is 66dBA, and load is 71.3 (measured from the center of both fans). The card was annoyingly loud during benching, and is certainly something you'll want to have music or a game on all the time to drown it out. Or earmuffs.

Check out our gallery for some pics of the card, and Issue 98 for a full writeup with bench scores.

 
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9 Comments
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
SpudMuffin
Jan 9, 2009 1:32 PM
 The fans are different sizes? How strange...
CAP
Jan 9, 2009 6:06 PM
 I've had enough of ATI. Going to sell both my 4850's that i have configured in a crossfire, and going to buy a GTX 295. The drivers just aren't up to standard IMO
SceptreCore
Jan 9, 2009 6:12 PM
 This is kind of a twist on Palit/XpertVision's Dual sonic Edition. With the smaller fan being ooh so noisy. Nothing unplugging the bloody thing can't fix... but then you'd be better off buying a reference card and overclocking, and adjusting fan speed yourself.
MagnumXY
Jan 10, 2009 10:29 AM
 @CAP call me a fanboi (which im not in terms of graphics) but nvidia drivers are probs just as crap
PS have u tried homebrew drivers?
t8y
Jan 10, 2009 7:46 PM
 youre actually going to buy a gtx295? thats fine, its just i get the impression its only being released so nvidia can get back the performance crown until the next gen cards are out (which is just a couple months, right?)
and then youll just feel jipped..

cap, are you using vista? sure its not just the 4850 crossfire vista issue? theres hotfixes for that i believe.

and drivers are hit and miss on both sides.. i prefer nvidia tho, tbh, but ive had more experience with the green team
AMD AKIMBO
Jan 11, 2009 9:34 AM
 ive owned both ati and nvidia cards and must say nvidia drivers work much better than ati.
but just look at the budget nvidia has to put into drivers.
im not a fanboi i just use what is easiest.
this card sounds way to loud for my liking.
atomichurley
Jan 12, 2009 12:08 AM
 well i'm going to get the HIS HD4870 IceQ4 Turbo (Overclocked) on a p45 chipset
CAP
Feb 8, 2009 9:52 PM
 Have recently purchased a 4870 Sonic - Loooooove it!
Rintaro
Feb 15, 2009 4:56 PM
 They probably changed the cooling on the card because they previous 4870's fans kept dieing
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