Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I originally wanted the new 5670 that can run DX 11, however after sending away for several 5670 cards I learned by trial and error that the 5670 is a 2.1 pci express card and will not run on the older pci-express 1.0 slots. This isn't mentioned on ANY of the cards I purhcased online and I did extensive homework on my motherboard and bios BEFORE I sent away for them.
Thankfully the 4670 is a 2.0 pci-express card and it DOES work with pci-express 1.0 slots. The card has BIG fan, which it SHOULD mention on the packaging but doesn't. It IS a two slot card because of the fan. Thankfully I had a slot available and appreciate the size of the fan as it less noisy and more effective at cooling than a smaller fan.
The card has VGA, DVI and HDMI outputs which is great considering the card is a bit older and for many is going to be the catalyst to bring their old systems up to HD specs, including their monitors. Which is EXACTLY what I went out and bought, a 27'HD LCD HP, after buying this card upgrading from my 21' Trinitron. Needless to say the difference between the old and new is AMAZING!
The card has 1gb of ddr3 (not ddr5 like the 5670 but oh well) and handles everything I throw at it. I ran Bioshock on it's highest resolutions thinking it would just give me a nice looking picture and not actually expecting a playable frame rate. I have not changed the resolution since! It's that good.
Combined with the new monitor, HD movies are HUGE and really mesmerizing. This is my FIRST HD setup and I find myself quickly becoming a candidate for techno addiction as I sometimes find it difficult to tear myself away from the screen. Maybe this card is TOO good.
One last note on installation. You may, like me, need to change your sound hardware settings in the bios from "automatic" to "enabled" to enable BOTH your native soundcard and the HDMI 7.1 sound to work together. Otherwise it can default to just using the HDMI sound source once you've installed the card with its HDMI capabilities. Good luck and enjoy!
Update 3/17/11 - Richard is right about the fan. My fan became noisy a few months ago and things have gone down hill since. He's right about not being able to get to the core of the fan because of the heatsink, there's screws on the back of the card but the fan is STILL stuck to the metal heatsink and you then have a naked chip with a rapidly drying epoxy just exposed. My guess, this is why the picture for the card no longer resembles the fan I got with my card. My fan is large like the Saphire 4670, not like the one pictured here. Maybe you're better off with a chinsy small one but I also remember the price being CHEAPER when I got mine a year ago.
Click Here to see more reviews about: VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 4670 1 GB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card 900251
Loaded with the latest features, the ATI Radeon'HD 4670 Series graphics cards deliver a level of gaming performance previously only found in high-end graphics cards.Redefine the way you play HD games and enjoy unprecedented levels of graphics realism powered by 320 stream processing units and 1GB of DDR3 memory for Microsoft DirectX10.1 games. Upgrade your graphics card and watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity or take your experience to another level with new multimedia capabilities. Do it all with break-through energy efficiency that doesn't compromise performance.
