VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 DirectX 10.1 900244 512MB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: Extremely fast for the price. The 4870 lives up to the hype. At this price point, the 4870 is without a doubt the champ. It can compete with cards twice as expensive. For the first time in 10 years, I can say that I'm 100% sure I made the correct choice in video cards. VisionTek offers a lifetime warranty for their graphics cards!

Cons: Runs very hot with 8.6 drivers. The fan runs at only 26% with temperatures around 88 degrees. After manually changing the fan speed to 55% the temperatures dropped to around 50 degrees at idle and 60 degrees under load. The fan is loud at 55%.

Overall Review: The high temperatures reported are due to a driver issue. The current drivers aren't running the fan at a high enough speed. This problem should be resolved soon. The 4870 uses two 6-pin power connectors. Make sure you have that before you order.

Pros: With this graphics card I'm able to run today's games with very high quality and smooth gameplay. Overclocked mine to 790/1100 with ATI Overdrive without any problems. I'm also running Optimal Quality in the ATI Catalyst Drivers, and the quality is out of this world!!!

Cons: There was a normal branded ATI HD 4870 in the Visiontek box. In other words, no special logo from Visiontek like shown in the picture.

Overall Review: Would be best for users to have a powerful CPU to back up a powerful GPU. You could see less performance if you do not have a equal balance between your CPU and GPU. At the moment I'm running a Intel E6600 @ 3333Ghz/ 2GB OCZ 4-4-4-15 @ 740Mhz/ MSI P35 Platinum/ Antec 650W Trio

Pros: I've been playing AoC since launch and had been looking for a upgrade over my old 8800GTS-640MB. A few weeks back I picked up a 9800GTX which was an improvement but not really enough to allow smooth game play in all situations. Then I saw Nvidia had released the GTX260/280 and thought - ok, that's the way to go. As I'm doing my research I see ATI is making waves with the 4850... and then I read early reviews of the 4870!!! So I hit the 'EGG and sure enough, they have a 4870 in stock - click buy!!! If any of you remember the launch of the 9700PRO, this is that kind of value - this is your chance to jump back into the RED with ATI. I've raided in AoC the past two nights with the 4870 and saw smooth gameplay at high settings. I am really glad I went with this card over the much higher priced Nvidia offerings.

Cons: The fan noise is high at max setting - but 90% of the time it is fairly quite. I'll be pickin' up the water block for this card soon so it will not be an issue... FYI - the 9800GTX fan noise is similar for those looking for a reference.

Overall Review: My setup; FX60 - 2.8ghz (overclocked 2.6 stock) 4GB - Corsair PC3200 EVGA NForce4 (I know.. ) Audigy Plat 24" @ 1920x1200 AOC @ "High" settings /3.0 shader 8800GTS - 15-20 FPS 9800GTX - 25-30 FPS 4870- 35-55 FPS With the 4870 some scenes/areas in AoC I can see my processor pegging 100% CPU utilization, so yeah... it's time to upgrade mobo and proc to really let this GPU fly. GoGo ATI!!!

Pros: This card absolutely flies. Plays Cryisis on full settings without a fuss, every other game I play averages framrates well above the actual refresh rate of my monitor. Even though most people manually up the fanspeed this card is still completely stable at 80c

Cons: Drivers are still slightly immature, had a couple display driver crashes that recovered without restarting so no big deal, haven't had it happen since updating. ATI still refuses to put fan-controls in catalyst so you have to unlock overdrive and manually edit a saved catalyst profile to control fanspeeds. The card is loud at fanspeeds above 40% but in an antec 900 the card holds steady at 50-55c with the fanspeed set to an almost silent 33%.

Overall Review: To manually adjust fanspeed, turn on overdrive and save a profile in Catalyst, include whatever else you want in the profile but make sure overdrive is checked, and make sure its at settings you like. Then, go to C:\Users\<windows_username>\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\<profile_name>. XML and edit it. Change the fanspeed algorithm value to manual and the FanSpeedPercentTarget value to whatever percentage you want. I created multiple profiles and then edited them for 33, 40, 50, 66, 75, 90, and 100. 33 has been plenty to keep it at <50c in a room at 90F

Pros: The card has excellent price to performance. I like the way ATI's Catalyst Control handles dual monitors compared to Nvidia.

Cons: Runs hot. The default fan setting never goes above 25%. If you set the fan to a more appropriate speed (say 60%) for cooling it sounds like you purchased a jet engine instead of a videocard.

Overall Review: Overall I am happy with this card.

Pros: Amazing performance, able to max out on just about every game I play including Age of Conan, Guild Wars, Witcher and C&C3 at 1920x1200. Card runs cool at 40C provided that you manually adjust the fans.

Cons: DOES NOT COME WITH A HOT GIRL ON THE HEAT SINK COVER. The fan speeds need to be manually adjusted. My case also at a problem where the front end of the video card would not fit because the two "hooks" where too thick and took about half an hour to finally get it in. The card runs extremely hot (75-90 degrees C) if you don't adjust the fans.

Overall Review: Overall an amazing card, however the heatsink cover picture is pretty dull, have a Nvidia motherboard so I can't cross fire it.

Pros: There isn't ANYTHING I can't run on this card: WoW, LoTRO, L4D, you name it, all on maxxed out settings. I do 3D graphics and video editing and this card is amazing.

Cons: Runs hot on factory settings, so you'll need to increase the fan. Is LOUD - my PC sounds like a vacuum cleaner, but the noise doesn't really bother me.

Overall Review: I plan on getting another and crossfiring them.

Pros: Price, Power, Performance.

Cons: Catalyst Control Center.

Overall Review: Lives up to the hype. At 1680x1050 there's no game out today that I can't run at max settings with 4xAA and 16xAF. The days of having to spend $600 on video cards are over, thank you ATI.