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FINAL THOUGHTS
Gaming: Please check out gaming-oriented reviews of the HD 4770 at xbit labs, techPowerUp,
HardwareCanucks,
and The Tech Report.
Preliminary reports indicate that the performance level is between
that of the HD 4830 and 4850
and easily surpasses the GeForce 9800 GT. If this holds true, the card is easily
the highest performance $100 GPU on the market.
Cooling/Noise: The stock cooler is audible but unobtrusive when idle and
its fan ramps up smoothly. When placed under stress in our testbed, the fan
speed leveled out only a few hundred RPM higher than the idle speed, resulting
in only a small increase in noise. The temperatures we recorded during testing
were excellent. The card's power draw does not warrant a dual-slot cooler, and
a reduction in fan speed would probably have little impact on maximum load temperature.
Power Consumption: By our estimates, the ATI Radeon HD 4770 requires
about 28W idle and up to 60W when stressed to the limit. The idle number is
10W more than the HD 4830, while the load figure is 27W less. All things equal,
we prefer lower idle power consumption as most systems, especially ones equipped
with low/mid-tier graphics cards sit idle most of the time. However, xbit labs, whose video card power measurements are usually quite consistent and trustworthy, found their HD 4770 idling >10W lower than their 4830, so we are a bit puzzled at this point. We'll try more testing, perhaps with another sample, and report back on this again.
As a 60W card, the GPU runs fairly cool and thus the stock fan barely needs
to exert any real effort. The cooler is quiet enough
not to bother most users, especially during load. Some with sensitive
hearing will probably still want to opt for a third party solution. Assuming the HD 4770 performs
as expected, we thank ATI for bringing unparalleled value to budget PC gamers.
The HD 4830 was already an excellent
bang-for-your-buck card, and to replace it with a card that is faster and has
a lower thermal envelope without increasing the price is an admirable feat.
The only negative point is our sample card's poor idle power consumption which can't
be overlooked. It makes little sense for a card to draw almost half the amount
of power it does when placed under load, which suggests that ATI's power management
feature, PowerPlay, just isn't working properly on this sample. Despite this, it still drew
less power than the GeForce
9800 GT, the HD 4770's chief competitor.
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ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB
|
PROS
* Fairly quiet
* Well cooled
* Low power consumption during load
|
CONS
* High idle power consumption
|
Our thanks to ATI
for the video card sample.
* * *
Articles of Related Interest
HIS
Radeon HD 4890 Turbo Edition
Sparkle
GeForce GTS 250 1GB Graphics Card
Asus
EN9400GT Silent Edition
Asus
Radeon HD 4870 Matrix
Asus
EN9800GT Matrix Edition
Filling
the Gap: ATI Radeon HD 4830
* * *
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