A quirky behemoth of an ASUS video card, with an awkward name.
We haven't had a look at a 4870X2 card since Issue 96 (the one we described as gilargically hunourmous), but when this triple-fanned beast from ASUS came out we knew it was time to revisit familiar ground. There's a lot you can achieve with the stock cooler, but with three fans you technically should achieve even more while being quieter - at least on paper.
Just like every other 4870X2 out there, this one is built around two identical RV770 cores manufactured on ATI's very reliable 55nm process. Each has 800 shader units clocked at reference speeds of 750MHz, a total of 1600 that should allow greater (theoretical) performance and throughput. The memory subsystem is impressive here as well, with two gigabytes of GDDR5 memory being fed by a 256-bit wide bus. As this is the slightly older core, it does not have the Decap ring featured in the RV790XT core, meaning that higher clockspeeds will be harder to maintain.
Physically this card is almost as big as the one we mentioned earlier; it is 10.5 inches long with a triple-slot cooler that takes up two expansion slots (and renders a third unusable). Two identical thick aluminium heatsinks are pressed against each core, rising upwards into a series of fins that provide a huge surface area for the heat to be dissipated. Each fin is not a solid part of the aluminium base however, instead being individually soldered on; this should still provide a decent path for heat transfer. No heatpipes have been used at all, instead relying on the three huge 80mm fans mounted in the black plastic frame to push a huge amount of air through the heatsinks. Memory chips are also cooled by these heatsinks, and the remainder are treated to a large metal plate on the back side of the PCB.
All this would suggest plenty of headroom for overclocking, but the lack of a factory overclock is a little puzzling. We managed to push the core by ten per cent and hit a stable maximum of 827MHz, with memory speeds only hitting a four per cent increase of 940MHz. Temps at idle were a very chilly 40 degrees at 58.1dBA, load hitting 59 at 73.2dBA. This is a huge noise increase over the stock cooler (67.5dBA), but temps are twenty degrees lower. We found the card to be quite finicky when overclocking for some unknown reason, producing graphical errors during some 3DMark runs at just slightly over the max stable speed - but being oddly bereft of them during others under the same load at the same clocks.
Power demands remain the same with one 8-pin and one 6-pin PCIe power connector needed, while only a single Crossfire nipple allows up to one other card to be used here in TriFire or QuadFire. Two DVI ports with an analogue video out give us the pretty pixels, while the PCIe V2.0 connector at the bottom gives plenty of bandwidth for a compatible mobo.
Performance of the card is very nice, hitting consistently high frames and scores across all our benchmarks, not even flinching at GRID while running at 1920 x 1200 res with 8xAA. There is no game included, only the basic cables and a leather CD wallet.
This brings us to the biggest downfall of this card - the price. It's got an RRP of $1099; for that price you'd expect three games, an engraved custom nameplate and at the very least exceptional overclocking prowess. What we get instead is a grossly overpriced card with a lightweight bundle and merely decent overclocking. If you're looking for a 4870X2 and don't have a bottomless pit of money, we suggest you look elsewhere.
Issue: 107 | December, 2009