Doesn’t quite need 1.21 Gigawatts of electricity.
Apart from a title inspired by Doc Brown, we've actually got a card to look at here! Specifically a graphics card, and this is one that we think you'll be interested in - even if it can't take you through time.
Based on the RV770 core that we've come to know and love (not to mention promising our firstborns to, as dowry), this core has 800 shader units that run at a stock speed of 750MHz. The memory chips are from Qimonda, and run at a speed of 900MHz on a 256-bit memory bus. GIGABYTE doubled the amount of memory here, giving an entire gigabyte of superfast GDDR5 memory - affording you plenty of space for large textures without running out of space or bandwidth.
These solid tech specs also translate into respectable physical ones with DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort all included. Twin Crossfire nipples are at the top of the card, giving you the capacity to run this card in tandem with one or two more of its brethren. Built around the traditional azurey-greeeney-blue GIGABYTE PCB colour, this is a rather neatly arranged card and is quite minimalist. Power is supplied from the PCIe 2.0 slot, as well as the dual 6-pin power sockets. Regulation for this power (all the filtering components that ensure power is directed where it's needed at the right voltage) is cooled by a large black heatsink, while the actual core of the card is taken care of by the Zalman VF830. This is a dual-heatpiped, aluminium-finned, 80mm-fanned cooler, which effectively draws the heat away and dissipates it inside the case. Unfortunately this means that there is another source of heat in there, so make sure you've got good ventilation to get that hot air out as effectively as possible - there's nothing worse than heat related instabilities with an overclocked rig!
The Zalman managed to keep idle temps at 41 degrees and load temps at only 54 degrees, with a constant noise level of 64dBA. Fan control isn't possible through software here, as this uses a two-pin fan connector - RPM monitoring will also not function. This headroom for the core allowed us to bump it up easily to 790MHz without even breaking a sweat, though the memory chips don't like being pushed too far - they become swelteringly hot without significant airflow when overclocked. If our calculations are correct, when those babies hit 88 degrees you're going to see some serious instabilities (okay, we'll keep those BTTF allusions to a minimum). You can try adding some RAMsinks here, but keep in mind that you'll most likely break your warranty.
Gaming performance is exactly what we've come to expect from a 4870 at stock speeds. The extra memory didn't do anything extra for us in either the games or the benchmarks, but it'll become really useful for those with large resolutions, or those AntiAliasing lovers out there.
Sadly, the added memory doesn't really add enough of an appeal to really justify spending the extra cost on it right now. Since the downturn of the economy tech has taken a very large amount of blows under the belt, pummeling the metaphorical organs down there and causing prices to skyrocket. Something that would have cost you $325 only five months ago now costs much more. The only thing we can suggest is doing your research before you buy. This is a good card, but unless you need big textures, you'd be better off with a cheaper 4870.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012