HIS Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5
HIS was the first manufacturer to seed a Radeon HD 4770 512MB to HEXUS for evaluation. The initial batch of cards will be produced with this kind of heatsink. The ATI reference card is different, and we'll show you it on page six.
The PCB measures 209mm by 111mm x 36mm (WxDxH) and weighs in at 530g. Total card memory amounts to 512MB and it's GDDR5 rated at 3.2GHz. The core and shaders are set at the stock speed of 750MHz, too.
Nothing much on the back of
note, the card retains ATI's dual 'golden fingers' for CrossFireX
multi-GPU operation.
Here's a side-on shot of
the cooler.
What's clear is that it will take up the slot adjacent to the primary
PCIe x16's, We had hoped the introduction of a mainstream GPU would
bring with it single-slot cooling and eschew the need for auxillary
power. The Radeon HD 4770/50 GPUs are deceptively powerful for $99
offerings, and that's manifested in the chunky cooling of the 40nm core.
We reckon that ATI learnt a lesson from the HD 4850's launch. Shipping with a single-slot cooler that couldn't efficiently remove the heat from the 55nm powerhouse GPU without causing a din, partners have tended to release retail GPUs with dual-slot-taking heatsinks.
ATI and its partners will tell you they're giving the enthusiast significant headroom by providing better-than-needed cooling, but the heat per mm² on the 40nm process isn't easily dissipated with a cheap-as-chips single-slot cooler endowed with a slow-spinning fan.
We reckon that ATI learnt a lesson from the HD 4850's launch. Shipping with a single-slot cooler that couldn't efficiently remove the heat from the 55nm powerhouse GPU without causing a din, partners have tended to release retail GPUs with dual-slot-taking heatsinks.
ATI and its partners will tell you they're giving the enthusiast significant headroom by providing better-than-needed cooling, but the heat per mm² on the 40nm process isn't easily dissipated with a cheap-as-chips single-slot cooler endowed with a slow-spinning fan.
Pretty quiet in 2D and very
occasionally
rising to levels where the fan can clearly be heard, the HIS' cooler is
(just about)
good enough to be masked by most systems' ambient noise.
The six-pin PCIe connector
intimates
that the card can chew through more than 75W that first-generation PCIe
x16 slots can supply. ATI reckons it's about 80W of total board power
on the HD 4770.
The HIS Radeon HD 4770
512MB firmly
belongs to the R4K series. As such, the twin DVI ports offer dual-link
transmission. Audio, too, can be passed through the chip and combined
with the video, through HDMI, to provide one-cable export to a
big-screen TV.
There's also Avivo HD processing for hardware-based help with high-definition media, but you probably already knew that from previous R4K reviews.
Summary
The HIS Radeon HD 4770 512MB ships with ATI-specified frequencies of 750MHz core/shader and 3,200MHz GDDR5 memory. The cooler's good but not great, and we fully expect to see a pre-overclocked, customised IceQ4 Turbo model real soon.
There's also Avivo HD processing for hardware-based help with high-definition media, but you probably already knew that from previous R4K reviews.
Summary
The HIS Radeon HD 4770 512MB ships with ATI-specified frequencies of 750MHz core/shader and 3,200MHz GDDR5 memory. The cooler's good but not great, and we fully expect to see a pre-overclocked, customised IceQ4 Turbo model real soon.
