Testbed:

Motherboard:
EVGA 780i SLI (Provided by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 QX9770 Extreme edition (Provided by Intel)

Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Provided by OCZ)

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black (Provided by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Provided by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Andy Samurai Master (Provided by Scythe)

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM

Vista 32 SP1



Futuremark Vantage results



Vantage reports Gainward’s slight advantage over Sapphire HD 4870 running at reference speeds. After switching to Turbo mode, this advantage increased further and we end up seeing up to 5% better results.


Gaming

As expected, gaming also reports performance increase, and since Gainward’s card went through a nice memory overclock – the performance increased the most in cases where bandwidth was the name of the game. So, Crysis sees this card beating Sapphire HD 4870 by 23%, whereas in other two games this result ducks to up to 9%.








The temperatures and the fan

The two fans on a large aluminum heatsink are enough to cool the card much better than the reference cooler. A large 80mm fan is positioned above the core and its RPM is dynamic – the higher the temperature the faster the spinning. It’s really quiet and due to the small fan’s constant RPM and the noise it made, we couldn’t even hear it. Unfortunately, there’s no way around this and it’s really a downside of this efficient cooling. Although 3D results in some moderate noise, much like the other cards on the test, Golden Sample HD 4870 will be loud in 2D operation mode, too.

Idle temperatures are around 46°C, whereas maximum temperatures are around 62°C. Turbo mode results in almost the same temperatures – give or take a couple of °C.

If you want to further overclock the card, you can increase the GPU fan’s RPM to maximum 2408 RPM. While running at maximum speeds, the cooler kept the core temperatures under 50°C, whereas idle mode will result in temperatures of only 36°C. These helped us in overclocking the core all the way up to 826MHz and the memory to 1100MHz.



Core speed is also altered as various scenarios dictate. We see that the GPU speed downclocks to 500MHz when we turn off a 3D application.

 

Conclusion

Gainward tried really hard to freshen up their ATI line of graphics cards with an interesting non-reference HD 4870. Due to non-reference cooling, higher speeds and twin BIOS, which you don’t see every day, Gainward’s Radeon HD 4870 Golden Sample definitely deserved the title “Golden.”

The card comes with a dual-slot, twin-fan cooler keeping the temperatures very low, but it’s unfortunate that the loudness levels couldn’t be kept in check, too. The core and the memory on this card are overclocked and this card’s two BIOSes are really a unique feature. Still, the difference between these two BIOS modes is not that significant. In order to load the new BIOS you’ll have to restart your system, which is not quite practical.

DisplayPort and a BIOS switch are featured on this card’s I/O panel. In the box, you’ll also find an HDMI adapter, so we can say that Gainward didn’t skimp on accessories. Another good side of this card is the large cooler, which in turn enables for further overclocking without having to worry about temperatures. The only down side is somewhat loud operation in idle mode, but given the excellent price of this card, we simply have to award and recommend this card.

After all, it does bring DisplayPort, dual BIOS and an overclocked core and memory, priced at only €15 more than the reference card.