Sapphire ATI HD4670 Ultimate 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E HDMI Fanless

bought this to replace my onboard hd3200 graphics, which came with 128mb, and used some of the system memory to boost it to 256mb.

My most up to date game is currently Call of Duty 2, which previously only ran at 26 frames per second (jerky but usable) at 800x600 and lowest texture/shader settings. This new card has allowed me to use the full glory of my 1920x1200 monitor, with full everything, and still it happily sits there at 31 fps. Brilliant! that’s nearly 5 times the display area and with all the extras too!

Product wise, easy enough to install, came with drivers etc and well packed. Just be careful handling card, the thing’s heavy, and its easy to grab it by the delicate heat pipe fins.

My only gripe with this device that it was a bit fiddly to install. Mainly because I’m using a small pc case (but large enough to accommodate a full sized graphics adaptor). In the end it fitted just fine. Ok so the only ‘graphics intensive’ applications I use are Second Life and Unreal Tournament (GOTY edition) and in both cases this card comes up trumps, no surprises there thankfully.

Not really designed for high end gaming but ideal for home theatre use and as a day to a graphics card. The fact that it is totally silent is a massive bonus. Solid performance, quiet and cool in operation. Highly recommended.

Had absolutely no problems getting the card running on my dual boot XP 32 bit/Vista 64 bit machine. Drivers were easy enough to find.

But beware of the extra height the heat sink adds to the card. It wouldn’t fit in my case. The photos don’t immediately make it obvious but the dimensions are listed so take note of the height. I “fixed” by purchasing a new case.

I upgraded to this card from a fanless ATI HD 2400 device, which didn’t have any HDMI output. I have a self-built AMD dual core system, on Win7 64-bit. I was initially disappointed as the card seemed unstable and the basic windows fixes and my Driver Genius Pro failed to provide any solution. Win 7 came to the rescue, after a run of 6 crashes when it directed me to the correct part of the Sapphire site, which provided a stable 64-bit driver. I now have a system with the windows experience index upgraded for video from 4.5 to 6.8, running soundlessly at 51C idle. I’ve tested but not fully explored the 1080P link to my TV, but it seems to work ok.