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Robert P.

Robert P.

Joined on 10/27/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

Very good card

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4670 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100256L
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4670 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100256L

Pros: -Can run COD4 maxed out (4xAA, 1680x1050 resolution) with around 30 FPS. Turning off shadows and AA will increase the FPS to about 50-60, at same resolution. -No need for an external power source, it draws all its power from the PCI-E slot. -1 GB of memory.

Cons: -Stock Fan is loud, but it doesn't bother me all that much. It might for people planning to use it for a HTPC though. Reason for this is because fan runs at 100% all the time, and cannot be slowed (2-pin). -Memory Interface is only 128 bit, but this isn't much of a con for this type of card. They had to cut the specs somewhere. :P

Overall Review: I bought this card because I have a weak PSU (300W), but needed the best card as possible, and this has served its purpose very well. I was a bit worried at first as this card is rated for a 400W, but it runs just fine with my 300W. I have tried Crysis Warhead with this but it doesn't run it that great, though I think its my CPU that's holding me back. System Specs: CPU- Intel Pentium D (2.80 GHz) RAM- 2 GB DDR2 GPU- Radeon 4670

Most Critical Review

RAM

G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-1866C9D-16GSR
G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-1866C9D-16GSR

Pros: Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3 motherboard posts with this RAM.

Cons: Does not run at advertised speed/timing/voltage. The RAM I received will only run at 1600 MHz 9-9-8-24 @ 1.5 volts

Overall Review: Not sure if it's defective or false advertising from G.SKILL, either way it's too big a hassle to return.

Solid GPU

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100314VXSR
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100314VXSR

Pros: It's a Radeon 6870. Decent cooling by Sapphire (better than reference).

Cons: Fan's whinny at high RPMs, but not really loud.

Overall Review: Disappointed by the OC ability of the card that I received. Can only do 940 MHz on the core. My reference PowerColor does 1000+ MHz on the core... Oh well..

Solid Memory

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-8GBXH
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-8GBXH

Pros: 8 GBs of solid memory at a good price.

Cons: I didn't have much luck OCing these sticks, but maybe it's me.

Solid Mouse

GIGABYTE M6800 GM-M6800 Noble Black 4 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical Gaming Mouse
GIGABYTE M6800 GM-M6800 Noble Black 4 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical Gaming Mouse

Pros: Nice solid mouse that does its job at a cheap price.

Cons: Gigabyte logo fades out after awhile with heavy use. Could use a longer cord (then again for some people a longer cord might be a con).

Great Card

PowerColor Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card AX6870 1GBD5-M2DH
PowerColor Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card AX6870 1GBD5-M2DH

Pros: Performance Crossfire Scaling Overclocking headroom

Cons: Fan is rather loud above 40%

Overall Review: This card is very powerful and will run almost any game out there at max settings on a 1920x1200 resolution. The exceptions I noticed are Crysis, and Metro 2033. Don't be fooled by the many interpretations of "max settings" out there. On Crysis with very high settings, adding 8X Anti-Aliasing will choke the card's memory buffer. Metro 2033 is even more demanding and you will have to lower settings from very high to high. The overclocking ability of the GPU clock on this card is excellent and I have no problem maxing out the slider in CCC which is 1000 Mhz. I haven't tried aftermarket programs yet to take it further, but I'm sure it still has some headroom left. Memory clock on the other hand is a different story and I couldn't get it to go over 1090 Mhz stably. Temps at load are decent and stay within 70c with a 1 Ghz GPU clock with fans speeds around 45% in an Antec 1200 case. AMD's drivers could use some polish as well. What's up with the newest drivers increasing idle GP