HIS 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo 1GB PCIe Graphics Card

Conclusion

HIS 4870 IceQ 4+ TurboWith a price tag expected to be around £229, the HIS 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo 1GB is clearly positioned to be a direct threat to NVIDIA’s recently released GTX260 216 cards – and a threat it certainly is. Factory overclocked to 770MHz with GDDR5 running at 1000MHz , the IceQ4+ Turbo managed to give the Zotac GTX2602 we happened to have in our office at the same time a proverbial run-around, beating it in both GRID, Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 while also coming within a few FPS of the GTX260 in games such as Far Cry 2 and Quake Wars.

This combined with the stunning look and performance of the IceQ4+ cooler that kept the GPU temperatures well under 60°C at all times and noise levels to little more than a whisper certainly makes the card worth every penny.

In our previous review of the HIS 4850 IceQ4 TurboX, we concluded that the card was the “crème de la crème of 4850 series cards”. This is something that also rings true for the HIS 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo 1Gb in the 4870 series….There really is no 4870 that we’ve seen or tested to date which can come close.

The Good
– Exchanges blows with the GTX260 216, beating it in several games.
– Excellent aftermarket IceQ 4+ cooler keeps GPU temps and noise under control.
– Healthy overclock places the card well ahead of a stock HD4850 512MB.
– Competitively priced.
– Looks great.

The Mediocre
– Rather basic package. Most GTX260 216 cards are shipped with a game.

The Bad
– Still no 4870×2 version HIS…c’mon pull your finger out!

Based on the performance, looks and price of the HIS 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo we are delighted to award the card Overclock3D “Best In Class” for the ATI HD4870 based series of cards.

Overclock3D Best In Class Award

Thanks to HIS for providing the 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo for review. Discuss this review in our forums.