We'll dispense with telling you how good ATi did with their release of the HD4800 series.  The HD4870 which is the larger of the two GPUs in the series has been wooing crowds since its release.  The Radeon HD4870 can go toe to toe with the NVidia heavy weights and do so at a slimmer price point.  Force3D is a new player to the graphics accelerator market and is looking to make a name for themselves.  Taking the ATi HD4870 and producing a card clearly separated from the competition with a much needed after market cooler.  Styled the Force3D HD4870 Freezer DHT, this product looks at making a great product that much better.  The good people at Force3D have sent a sample of this card over for a closer look.  So, shall we?

Specifications

• Graphics Engine: Radeon HD4870

• Interface: PCI-Express 2.0

• Engine Clock: 750MHz

• Memory Clock: 3.6GHz

• Cooler: Freezer DHT (Direct Heatpipe Touch) Cooler

• Memory Type/Size: GDDR5/512MB

• Memory Interface: 256-bit

• Stream Processing Units: 800

• 24x Custom Filter Anti Aliasing (CFAA) and high performance Anisotropic Filtering

• Max Resolution: 2560x1600

• VGA Output: Yes with adapter

• TV-Out: DVI x 2/Composite Out

• HDMI Support: HDMI with 7.1 surround audio

• HDCP Support: Yes

• Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for Blue-Ray and HD Movies

• Supports full HD 1080p playback

• Native CrossfireX support

• DirectX 10.1 Ready

What you get

Force 3D follows the logic of keeping prices down by trimming the fat.  Sure bundles are nice but only if you are going to use something in it.  For my part, I can't remember seeing a game in a bundle that I was just on the way out the door to pick up at Best Buy.  Keep it simple.  Included with the Force 3D HD4870 Freezer DHT is a driver CD, CrossfireX bridge cable, DVI to HDMI adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, HD component cable and a S-Video adapter.  If you are running an older power supply that doesn't have a PCI-E plug, you're out of luck.  No power adapter included.

NEXT

Pg. 1 - Introduction
Pg. 2 - The Card
Pg. 3 - Installation/Noise/Benchmarks
Pg. 4 - Benchmarks
Pg. 5 - Image Quality/Overclocking/Conclusion