HIS HD 4770 512MB PCI-E Graphics Card
Packaging & Appearance
Published: 9th May 2009 | Source: HIS | Price: £78.19 |
Packaging & Appearance
The HD4770 is presented in what can only be described as a rather drab cardboard box. Whilst lower end cards don't usually feature extravagant, over the top packaging, a little more effort to add appeal to the box would have gone a long way. Simple styling seemingly is what HIS do best. On the front we have a spherical design dominating the package, with some key features listed on the right.
Moving on to the rear we are greeted with the cards aptly named Features & Benefits, System Requirements and a number of coloured orbs outlining some more of the cards key features.
Lifting up the flap reveals the card neatly packaged in a plastic shroud, supported by a sheet of anti-static styrofoam and a number of polystyrene pieces to make sure it arrives safely without damage, even if it does take a bump or two along the way. The VGA and HDMI adapters sit snugly under the plastic shroud, with the driver disc, sticker and manual resting in the depths of the box.
On the right, the contents are set out on display and rather disappointingly there isn't an awful lot there. Other manufacturers include a handful of useful adaptors and programs along with their cards, so there isn't really any excuse here for HIS.
Now for a closeup of the card. First of all the card is fairly short, so should fit easily into most systems without the need for modding/rearranging the internals of your chassis. When I first saw the cooler I was surprised that it wasn't the full cover shroud cooler ATI had shown in press releases, but the supplied cooler is more than sufficient for keeping the 4770 cool and quiet under load.
On to the back of the card we see that the usual 4 sprung retaining backplate is used to attach the heatsink to the card, applying optimal contact with the GPU core.
The heatsink assembly is far from unnatractive with its sleek, insinuating curves, subtly branded with ATI's logo. Silver, black and gold detailing gives the impression of quality, and helps tone down the bright red PCB. The heatsink is made from aluminium which may come as a surprise due to it's copper colouring and features an embedded 92mm fan.
On the right you will see that the memory is made by Qimonda and should overclock reasonably well. Opting to cool the memory via airflow from the heatsink is never a good idea from my point of view, but heatsinks could easily be added should the end user wish to do so.
With Multi-GPU configurations becoming more popular, ATI have added not one, but two Crossfire fingers to the 4770, allowing users with a compatible motherboard to run four cards in Quad Crossfire X mode. Whilst scaling isn't perfect, it will offer a huge boost in FPS for many games supporting the technology.
Power Consumption has long been an issue and until recently many companies did very little to reduce the power graphics cards draw. ATI decided to make the 4770 as efficient as possible and even though a 6 pin power connector was still required, the cards draws less power compared to similar cards on the market.
Most Recent Comments
Don't like barebone cards. Seem cheap. But this thing surely can compete against the 9600GT with pricing no?
Seems like a good card over all.
Seems like a good card over all.
The 4830 easily performs above the 9600GT and the 4770 performs ahead of the 4830 and is comparable to the 4850 so it's great value for money 
I have literally seen nothing but praise for this card. In Crossfire friendly games it's supposed to be as fast as a GTX280, which is astonishing really...
Yeah they do look rather tasty in Crossfire 
Do I buy 2 to replace my 4850
Well we need to see figures of crossfire 4770 vs crossfire 4850 first. But for now I wouldn't do anything.
Crossfire 4850s is gonna cost about £50 more and consume more power, for not alot more performance.
4770 in x-fire decimate a 4890,4870,4850-gtx 275, gtx 260 upto 1920x1200
For £150 not a bad double act.
For £150 not a bad double act.
BUT if you already have a 4850, I think it's better to CF it with another '50 because its second hand price is probably dropping like a stone now.
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