Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB Video Card Review

Back in August, ATI released the Radeon HD 4870 X2. The original reference version, built by a contractor for AMD/ATI, and sold to the various ATI partners, though a quite wicked VGA card, did have some opportunities for improvement, mainly in the cooling system. The two massive copper heatsinks just weren’t getting enough airflow from the single fan, making the card’s temps little on the scary side, with 60C+ idle, and up to 90C load temps.

Our friends at Palit, who usually aren’t happy with the reference design of video cards anyway, have come up with a new version of the HD 4870 X2, with two fans blowing on a pair of heatpipe coolers to cool off those cookin’ GPUs. Taking up three expansion slots, this may be the largest gaming video card ever built. Billed by Palit as “the first custom designed HD 4870 X2”, the card not only sports custom cooling, but also a Palit-designed PCB, and four different output interfaces. In addition, they have overclocked the 2 gigs of GDDR5 memory. Read on as we check out the Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe!

Specifications
Bus interface: PCI Express 2.0
Memory Support: 2048MB GDDR5
Memory Interface: 512 bit
Memory Clock: 3800MHz (950 x 4)
Core Clock: 750 MHz
RAMDACs: 400 MHz
Full Microsoft DirectX 10.1 Shader Model 4.1 support
Dual-link DVI output supports 2560×1600 resolution display
Dynamic geometry acceleration
Game physics processing capability
ATI PowerPlay technology
ATI CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology
ATI Avivo HD video and display technology
HDCP capable
4-in-one display support includes CRT, HDMI, Dual-link DVI, and DisplayPort
Built for Microsoft Windows Vista

Packaging
The Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe comes in a large box, reddish in color to depict its ATI innards, with Frobot the frog proudly displayed on the front. There are a few specs, features, and the system requirements, but mainly the graphics leave you without a doubt that a Revolution 700 is hidden within.

Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB Video Card Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB Video Card

The card is protected inside by thick foam on all sides. It is in a static-free sleeve.

Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB Video Card

Briefly, for those that may not know, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 is basically a pair of 1GB 4870s hardwired in CrossFIre, with additional 2-way data flow via a sideport in each GPU. The bandwidth between the GPUs is an incredible 21GB/sec, as opposed to 10GB/sec with a typical CrossFire setup. GPUs are clocked at 750 megs, and the GDDR5 memory at 900. The Revolution 700 Deluxe is the same configuration, except with the memory clocked at 950 megs.