PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB GDDR5
Our Summary and Conclusion
Performance Summary: The PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB performed very well throughout our entire battery of tests. The card's increased GPU and memory frequencies gave it a clear advantage over a reference Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260. The PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB also traded victories with a similarly factory overclocked GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, which puts the two cards on somewhat equal footing.
If the PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB's cooler was just a little bit quieter while idling, this card would be a contender for the title of "most enticing Radeon HD 4870". While the PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB's cooler outperforms ATI's reference cooler while idling and under load, it does so at the cost of some extra noise under light loads (under heavy loads, the PowerColor card is somewhat quieter actually). Please keep in mind, this can be mitigated somewhat by creating custom fan profiles, but that's beside the point. The PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB's larger frame buffer should also come in handy with next-gen games that can utilize more than 512MB, and its higher GPU and memory clocks give it a nice performance improvement over stock reference cards. We should also point out that while PowerColor does charge a premium for the PCS+ HD 4870 1GB's niceties, the card isn't exorbitantly expensive. In fact, it costs only about 10% - 15% more than a reference Radeon HD 4870 and can be found for less than $300--although availability at this time appears to be limited. If you're in the market for a Radeon HD 4870 card, we highly recommend checking the PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB out.
