Conclusions

As we mentioned in our introduction, in recent months the competition between the Radeon HD 4870 1GB and GeForce GTX 260 has become so fierce that it's nigh on impossible to choose between them - Each offering has its own benefits and drawbacks, to the point where it's a win-win situation provided you're a "glass half-full" kind of person.

When things are so tight in performance terms, factory overclocks can occasionally swing things one way or the other, and indeed HIS' Radeon HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo manages to push things in AMD's favour, with its higher core and (more importantly) memory clocks frequently allowing it to leapfrog the GeForce GTX 260 in performance terms.  At high resolutions, memory bandwidth is often key these days, which makes HIS' focus on memory clock over core speed improvements in this part look like a smart decision, as it often pulls away from a reference Radeon HD 4870 1GB to a decent (if not breathtaking) degree.

Away from poor performance, HIS have always had a nifty line in custom cooling solutions, and the IceQ 4+ Turbo of course sports just such an offering.  The UV sensitive nature of the cooler is a nice touch if you're the kind of person who likes lots of lights, LEDs and prettiness in their chassis, and the cooling solution does a reasonable albeit not sensational job of cooling this board's toasty RV770 core, although that slight whine when running 3D applications was a bit disappointing and could prove to be irritating once you notice it.

One other area where the HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo does look potentially competitive is in terms of pricing - While its £229 price point doesn't make it the cheapest Radeon HD 4870 1GB part on the market (obviously), it does throw it into the mix amongst a number of reference clocked solutions, which makes it a tempting offering, so if it can make it to retail at this promised retail price then no doubt it'll do rather well for itself.

Overall then, it really is a toss-up between the GeForce GTX 260 and Radeon HD 4870 1GB these days, dependant on whether you value PhysX and CUDA over DirectX 10.1 and faster anti-aliasing, and even what titles you're likely to be playing a lot of over the lifespan of the board or your preference in driver interface and functionality terms.  All I can tell you is that HIS' Radeon HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo packs enough performance to outstrip a reference GeForce GTX 260, and if that sways your decision in the direction of this board then you'll find yourself enjoying a great gaming experience - I know I've said it before, but 1920x1200 with 8x multi-sampling is where it's at for me right now, and HIS provides that luxurious configuration in the majority of situations.

Product information

HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo 1GB

- Vendor web site
- Vendor product information

Recommended retail pricing (at time of going to press): £229 including VAT

Many thanks to HIS for providing the sample for this review

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