Palit's "Sonic" 4870 card

deruberhanyok · Post by **deruberhanyok** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:28 am

Hardware Canucks has an article up about this 4870 with a non-standard design.

In short: loud with both fans (the 70mm one runs at full speed at all times), with just the 80mm temp controlled one it is quiet and still better temps than the stock cooler, slightly shorter than standard 4870 PCB. And apparently a new version with external exhaust grill is coming, maybe that will be on their 1GB version.

Apologies if this has been posted already. Figured there might be useful info there for some.

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:26 am

It's the same cooler as the Gainward Golden Sample card (Palit being its parent company). The HD4850 kicks ass, but this one doesn't. That damned 70mm fan... why couldn't they have gone with a second 80mm fan?!

Maybe one could just unplug the 70mm fan and be done with it!

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 1:23 pm

The HS design calls for a slimmer fan on one side or what is currently a two slot design becomes 3 slot.

It would have been better with the 80mm fan and the 3 slot push but anybody serious enough to read this on SPCR would probably put the 70mm fan on a fan controller or rip it off anyway.

Heck, I'd be happy if they provided the card without either fan and an mounting system in place for a 92mm/100mm, or 120mm single fan. I'm not worried about card height slap some Kaze Jyu slim fans on it if you need a slim fan.

Kaze Jyu 100mm Case Fan (1000rpm) SY1012SL12L
Kaze Jyu 100mm Case Fan (2000rpm) SY1012SL12M

If slim isn't an issue slap any old 92mm or 120mm sleeve bearing fan on it but do so in a way that I can replace the fan without voiding the warranty (standard power connectors with a fan controller built into the video card please).

t1000 · Post by **t1000** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:22 pm

I can confirm that the 70mm fan is noisy as hell. I bought one with the intention of adding a Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo and for the week I was running the stock cooler it was like a hair dryer on full rip 24/7.

You CAN disable the 70mm fan and just run the 80mm .. the card gets a little warm when you do this though. The 80mm also has a "whine" to it when it gets over 50% speed too.

1000

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:53 am

I'm bumping this topic to inform you that, at least the Gainward version of this card has been updated with a 70mm PWM fan. So now both fans are PWM. Newer versions of the 512MB Golden Sample model have it and all 1GB versions have it.

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 6:25 am

The 80mm fan is an Everflow R128015BH high speed model rated for 3600rpm, lowest operating voltage 7V. Even @ 7V we're looking at around ~2300rpm which is still too loud.
The 70mm fan is an Everflow R127010DM medium speed model rated for an equal 3600rpm, lowest operating voltage is also 7V.

Just by looking at its fans specs one can guesstime that this card will still be too loud for any spcer. Too bad though.

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:59 am

I have that card also. I took the fans of and put two manually controlled noctuas there instead. Tied them with cord

works great thou. There should be some sort of dual bios thing, but don't know how it works?

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 8:04 am

CyberDog wrote:I have that card also. I took the fans of and put two manually controlled noctuas there instead. Tied them with cord works great thou. There should be some sort of dual bios thing, but don't know how it works?

There is a small switch at the back of the card, near the DVI connectors.

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:04 am

Yeah. Thanks.

didn't noticed that

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 2:56 am

CyberDog, before you took them out, did you try reducing their speed with Rivatuner? Maybe have stop at idle? It seems loud but damn, it's a lot less power hungry than even the regular 1GB versions.

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:53 am

No I didn't. I saw only one fan with CCC so I thought that the other one is not controllable.

I'm not sure how much there is performance penalty with 512 against 1Gb. But that card was only one at the local store...

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:59 am

CyberDog wrote:No I didn't. I saw only one fan with CCC so I thought that the other one is not controllable.

I'm not sure how much there is performance penalty with 512 against 1Gb. But that card was only one at the local store...

Oh nevermind. I forgot you have the old one with just one PWM fan.

rpsgc · Post by **rpsgc** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:29 am

Xbitlabs has a review (finally!).

So apparently the fan spins at a maximum of 1240rpm (<4V) during load, which is much lower than the 7V starting voltage as stated in its website, and ~2500rpm at 100%. So, what gives? Are the website specs wrong? Maybe it's because of PWM, I don't know I'm no expert. It's good news nonetheless.