Diamond Radeon HD 4870 X2 XOC Review

Diamond packages its 4870 X2 XOC and the included bundle in one of the simplest boxes we've ever seen for a high end video card. Usually, a graphics card box is adorned with some kind of warrior, robot or mythical creature. Sure, we jest a little bit, but we'd be lying if we didn't say that it's actually nice to see simplicity sometimes. Obviously, Diamond trusts that the card can do all the talking. The only thing that distinguishes the XOC box from the regular Diamond 4870 X2 box is the "XOC" sticker found along the top edge of the box.

In order to ensure that your sweet new graphics card arrives safely to your door, companies must design smart, protective packaging. Diamond chose to surround the 4870 X2 XOC with a nice layer of foam. Thanks to that protection, it could probably survive a relatively rough journey to its new home in your system. Along with the card, Diamond throws in a handful of practical accessories, including a Quick Start manual, a driver CD, a CrossFire bridge, a component video cable, a composite-to-S-video adapter, a DVI-to-HDMI adapter, and a DVI-to-VGA adapter. It's not a very exciting bundle, but at least the essentials are here.

Just like with the box and the bundle, Diamond kept things plain and simple with the card's design. The design is exactly the same as ATI's reference model except for the Diamond logo sticker that sits on the fan. That's not a bad thing, though, as we happen to be fans of the all-black style. When we flip the card over, you can get a good look at the two cross braces that help secure the heatsinks to the two RV770 GPUs. As is the case with all high-end video cards these days, the 4870 X2 XOC sports two dual-link DVI ports and a video out port.

Another common high-end card trait that the 4870 X2 XOC exhibits is its size -- it's long and takes up two expansion slots. In this case, though, it's more worth the extra slot since it has two GPUs. Since it is a very powerful card, it requires two connections from your system's power supply. In this case, it has to be one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector.