HIS HD4870, ATI back in the game!

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dnottis

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 14, 2001
Messages
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So after my overnight air session with ZipZoomFly and Fedex and everyone dropping the ball, the card finally arrived at the local sort facility. I called them and told them I was coming to get it despite the overnight fees of $27 I paid to ZZF to have it Friday. Here is a look at the HIS HD4870, great looking card, cannot wait to get it on water and see some third party OC tools like Rivatuner.

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Out of the box - overclocked to the maxes in CCC, Passed the tests!! Woohoo

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... a bit shorter than the 8800GTX (which is up for sale in the forums here) ;)
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So far I'm loving it. It's quiet except at boot up. I've got a TT Duo Orb I might stick on it till I can find out which block actually fits it, leaning towards another MCW60 though. Crysis jumped over 20 fps at the same setting as my GTX OCd to 648/1020 and shader 1610 clocks. Just amazed and that was at stock. Assassin's Creed runs great again about 15 fps faster than the OC'd GTX. GOW runs great. ATI cards have never had the tearing issue that Nvidia does at 60Hz so running 1680x1050 is much more comfortable for me when it's smoother like ATI cards are.

Overall I'm very happy with the card. I did not have to reinstall Vista x64. Just removed the Nvidia drivers from CP, ran driver sweeper and installed the ATI drivers. A quick reboot and I have been gaming since. I'll report back as I test more games...
 
This has to be the best looking reference cooler in a while. BTW what did you get with the card? The little pen-like thing labeled HIS...
 
gs29 said:
This has to be the best looking reference cooler in a while. BTW what did you get with the card? The little pen-like thing labeled HIS...
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That's a screwdriver/LED flashlight combo.
 
thats really nice looking. whats the pin looking black thing on the box cover?
 
That's the screwdriver / LED flashlight combo that they're showing on the box.

I wonder when the ICEQ HIS cards are coming out... those should be pretty damn good for air cooling.
 
Geez, I didnt even look at the accessories lol My bad. EDIT - the tool is cool, I'll post some pics of it in a bit too.

Anyways for those wondering - I installed a Thermal Take Duo Orb on this beast already - until I get a block for h20.

Temps were 76 idle / 85 load with stock. Now 40 idle, 65 load. A nice 20 deg C drop for a 15 minute surgery. The OC doesn't seems to do much a few FPS, sux to be limited by CCC but awaiting RivaTuner update to go further...

I'll post pics later with the Duo Orb mounted.
 
they mounted your core upside down! lol :p

also glad to see it says amd on it.
 
Wolfkin said:
Looking good. :)
Do you got any temp numbers for us with the duo orb?
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He did:

Temps were 76 idle / 85 load with stock. Now 40 idle, 65 load. A nice 20 deg C drop for a 15 minute surgery. The OC doesn't seems to do much a few FPS, sux to be limited by CCC but awaiting RivaTuner update to go further...
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Actually, I'm not alone... several people at XS have reportred issues even without oc'ing at all :( just like I had happen. Apparrently cold-rebooting is often killing the cards within a day of use. I picked up a 4850 since they have had no reported issues, staying the heck away from the 4870. Best of luck with yours dnottis, I hope things don't turn south :(.

LINK about this phenomenon (widespread issues): http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=192759
 
What ram sinks are on the voltage regulator's? I want to mount an S1 with a 120mm fan on mine when it comes. I have the ram heatsinks from the S1, but I have nothing to put on the voltage regulator's
 
exactly how long is this card? i'm wondering if it will fit in my case without having to rip the drive cage apart.
 
heatlesssun said:
Most? Isn't that a bit over an overstatement?
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Most people who have posted having them so far are reporting this issue... thus I call it most because there have been very few forum members posting with fully working cards that didn't die within the day that I have seen. Just saying, a lot of people are reporting this... I've yet to see someone post a thread about how they got their card, and not later post within the day it has died :(. Just warning ... one guy in the linked thread had FOUR cards die even.

EDIT: It does seem like the BIOS flashing is causing many more issues, others could be chalked up to just bad luck...
 
GoldenTiger said:
Most people who have posted having them so far are reporting this issue... thus I call it most because there have been very few forum members posting with fully working cards that didn't die within the day that I have seen. Just saying, a lot of people are reporting this... I've yet to see someone post a thread about how they got their card, and not later post within the day it has died :(. Just warning ... one guy in the linked thread had FOUR cards die even.
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Not doubting you I just hadn't noticed with all of the euphoria over the 4800's. If the failure rates are that high and the supply of 4870's is tight then maybe AMD has a little more work to do.
 
Yeah but he never stated if he tried flashing them or not. The majority of those cases were related to flashing from what I've seen, or they downright didn't say whether or not it was.

So far though, most users on other forums haven't had problems as they haven't touched BIOS with them.

Either way, I'm waiting for Unwinder to get the new RivaTuner out which shouldn't be too far since Guru3d sent him a 4800 sample.
 
ZerazaX said:
Yeah but he never stated if he tried flashing them or not. The majority of those cases were related to flashing from what I've seen, or they downright didn't say whether or not it was.

So far though, most users on other forums haven't had problems as they haven't touched BIOS with them.

Either way, I'm waiting for Unwinder to get the new RivaTuner out which shouldn't be too far since Guru3d sent him a 4800 sample.
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Some people in the linked thread said no overclocking, let alone bios flashing... so I think it's something with the cards *shrug*, I'd be wary for now a couple of days until this is figured out if I were looking to buy one now, but that's just me. I 100% wouldn't try a BIOS flash at the moment, though. EDIT: BIOS flashing seems to be a death sentence currently for them.
 
Right. Well we should see wave 2 of the cards coming within the next 2 weeks so we'll see how likely it goes. Most other users on other forums haven't had issues so its weird.
 
From what I've read, almost all of the dead cards are dead after doing a BIOS flash for fan modding or OC.
 
Apparently some of those cards died from being in xfire. With no flashing/ocing whatsoever.

The majority however seem to have died from flashing with radeon bios editor.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Most people who have posted having them so far are reporting this issue... thus I call it most because there have been very few forum members posting with fully working cards that didn't die within the day that I have seen. Just saying, a lot of people are reporting this... I've yet to see someone post a thread about how they got their card, and not later post within the day it has died :(. Just warning ... one guy in the linked thread had FOUR cards die even.

EDIT: It does seem like the BIOS flashing is causing many more issues, others could be chalked up to just bad luck...
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Ive shut the PC off and on a few times today, no issues. I read through that post I believe almost all of them have been flashed - one guy had flashed his back. Id be willing to bet that flashing has something to do with it. I'll keep on eye on mine, its going under water soon.
 
dnottis said:
Ive shut the PC off and on a few times today, no issues. I read through that post I believe almost all of them have been flashed - one guy had flashed his back. Id be willing to bet that flashing has something to do with it. I'll keep on eye on mine, its going under water soon.
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Good to hear :).
 
GoldenTiger said:
Some people in the linked thread said no overclocking, let alone bios flashing... so I think it's something with the cards *shrug*, I'd be wary for now a couple of days until this is figured out if I were looking to buy one now, but that's just me. I 100% wouldn't try a BIOS flash at the moment, though. EDIT: BIOS flashing seems to be a death sentence currently for them.
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Most of them are probably lying. I'm sure there are just lots of posters at XS who just leave their hardware alone and would NEVER start screwing with the BIOS before its been well documented.
 
jaegertech said:
Most of them are probably lying. I'm sure there are just lots of posters at XS who just leave their hardware alone and would NEVER start screwing with the BIOS before its been well documented.
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Why would someone lie on a forum about it :confused: . Still, I think you have a point... doesn't make sense why but seems plausible.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
funny that I read that and found that most people had fiddled with their BIOS on the card.........serves them right
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jaegertech said:
Most of them are probably lying. I'm sure there are just lots of posters at XS who just leave their hardware alone and would NEVER start screwing with the BIOS before its been well documented.
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why the hate for modders, and people from XS? Serves them right for trying to get more out of their cards? wow cause none of us have never tried that :rolleyes:
 
WOW, this is news to me. I think I might actually cancel my order for two 4870 from NCIX and just keep my GTX280 for the time being...

I'd rather not have a vid card that's just going to randomly die on my. Hopefully this issue is resolved before the 4870x2's are released!!!
 
There's a lot of FUD going around as to how cards are dying.

Yes I'm sure a lot of them aren't lying, but you also have the incentive to say you never tweaked the BIOS and make it look like it wasn't your fault. After all, if you're trying to get an RMA, would you admit the BIOS got tweaked by you? Probably not!

Not worth cancelling... just try it out and see what happens. Worse case if anything happens you can RMA and sell a new one on the market. Or better yet, if you are really that unsure, sell it - theirs huge demand for the card right now. Anyways, by the time NCIX gets them shipped out, you'll probably see more information.
 
mnewxcv said:
why the hate for modders, and people from XS? Serves them right for trying to get more out of their cards? wow cause none of us have never tried that :rolleyes:
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it isn't a hate for modders, it's a distain for people saying their card is dead after THEY messed it up
 
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