31-05-2010, 05:45 PM
Well, when building my gaming rig a year ago I came across a problem, I needed a graphics card and only had £100 to spend... The 4870 was still £150 and I saw one of these going on an auction site just under budget, "nice" I thought and bought it.
The Catalyst drivers were pretty easy to install (though I had to update to the latest version to get a second desktop running, and ATi's catalyst program isn't recommended for those that are new to computing)
It arrived and worked, but got extremely hot (by the time I'd got all the other equopment It was out of it's 30 days' warranty), I ran it with my case side open and found that the fan never span on it (Turns out the motor had burnt out from some idiot overclocking it) so I fitted a third party cooler and she runs like a dream now.
I can watch full HD on a 32" TV I have, and have a 2nd desktop on another monitor in full HD with no problems at all. I've played Red Alert 3 on full settings with no problems whatsoever (and still have a second screen running for the desktop). Granted it's not the newest game out but it's as close to benchmarking as I have (My previous card ran Red Alert 2, just)
I have to say at this point that I did NOT buy this from Powercolor, and that other than this it was of very good quality. The only criticism I'd have of it is the non-reference PCB design, so if you're looking to cool with liquid you might want to look at getting a different card.
I wouldn't recommend these anymore as ATi have their DX11 cards out, so if you're after something in a similar range of performance I'd get the HD5770, but when they were still the top end I'd get one of these in a heartbeat
The Catalyst drivers were pretty easy to install (though I had to update to the latest version to get a second desktop running, and ATi's catalyst program isn't recommended for those that are new to computing)
It arrived and worked, but got extremely hot (by the time I'd got all the other equopment It was out of it's 30 days' warranty), I ran it with my case side open and found that the fan never span on it (Turns out the motor had burnt out from some idiot overclocking it) so I fitted a third party cooler and she runs like a dream now.
I can watch full HD on a 32" TV I have, and have a 2nd desktop on another monitor in full HD with no problems at all. I've played Red Alert 3 on full settings with no problems whatsoever (and still have a second screen running for the desktop). Granted it's not the newest game out but it's as close to benchmarking as I have (My previous card ran Red Alert 2, just)
I have to say at this point that I did NOT buy this from Powercolor, and that other than this it was of very good quality. The only criticism I'd have of it is the non-reference PCB design, so if you're looking to cool with liquid you might want to look at getting a different card.
I wouldn't recommend these anymore as ATi have their DX11 cards out, so if you're after something in a similar range of performance I'd get the HD5770, but when they were still the top end I'd get one of these in a heartbeat
![[Image: Bulbasaur_by_bigsharn.jpg]](http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/113/9/8/Bulbasaur_by_bigsharn.jpg)
As you do...