Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4

Full Review

The Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 graphics card is engulfed by its huge fan, a proprietary Sapphire addition that maximizes the cooling system while still keeping a lid on noise levels.

And indeed, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 is one of the quieter cards we've tested, often pushing our test PC only up to 46 or 47db.

Even during our intensive Crysis tests, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 rarely moved up by more than a decibel. Neither are there any supplementary power connectors to plug in.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 is one of the quieter cards we've tested, often pushing our test PC only up to 46 or 47db.

ATI's Radeon HD 4670 chip is crafted from the remnants of the RV770 architecture, the RV730. As such, it has a good deal in common with the 4800-series products, including their incredible efficiency. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4's 512 million transistor count is quite small compared to the 956 million of the Radeon HD 4870 and 4850. Combine this with a 55nm manufacturing process, and the 4670 is a compact and conservative design, and noise levels are pleasingly low.

The design of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 is incredibly flexible, and allows for the use of GDDR3 and GDDR4. The version we've reviewed here is the one that uses GDDR4, so be careful not to get it confused with the slower GDDR3 version, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB we reviewed in October. The main difference between these two cards is that the memory clock speed of this Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 is 1,100MHz, a good 100MHz up on the GDDR3 version of the 4670.

This small dose of extra speed doesn't help the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 get itself out of basement in terms of memory bandwidth, but the card does pack almost three times as much bandwidth as the 9400GT, despite costing a good deal less than twice the price.

The main problem with the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 is its 128bit memory bus, although it falls behind the better cards in other areas too. The 320 stream processors, for instance, are less than half of the 800 figure offered by the 4850 series.

Despite its deficient hardware list, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 managed to post a superb performance in our games testing.

Bottom Line

The Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 costs Rs. 4,800 in India. It’s not a stellar performer and we recommend you spend that extra bit more. Nonetheless, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 is a very creditable card for the money.