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I have to admit ... I do like this card. Its performance is extremely good, all thanks an overclocked GPU at 770Mhz with 1Gb of GDDR5 ram also overclocked to 2000Mhz (2x1000Mhz). It's much faster then the standard Radeon HD 4870, and this is proven during our benchmarks. In fact, it's not far off from the dual GPU Radeon HD 4850x2, which is also an excellent card ... albeit the price difference. So at this point, I have to say ... well done to HIS for producing an affordable, yet powerful graphics card.  

One of the most attractive selling points of the graphics card is the custom heatpipe GPU cooler. This cooler really helps with reducing the temperature of the graphics card. Take for example, a standard, non-overclocked Radeon HD 4870 would probably pump out a scorching temperature of around 69-75 degrees Celsius. For the HIS Radeon HD 4870 ICEQ4+ ... it produces a very respectable 47 degrees Celsius.

The package and contents from HIS are a little sparse. There are no games or any DVD applications included.  However, you do get all the necessary cables, manuals and drivers on CD. Accesories include DVI-to-VGA and DVI-to-HDMI converters, PCIe power cable and a Crossfire ribbon cable.

It's been great year for graphics card in 2008 ... for me it was one of the most exciting in fact. I have to say ... AMD/ATI with its Radeon HD 48xx series has given gamers of all levels a chance to explore GPUs and graphics cards outside the world of Nvidia and Geforce. Although the battle for GPU supremacy is endless, AMD/ATI have succeeded in taking that crown off Nvidia, even if it was for a short while. The REAL question is ... are you a Nvidia or an ATI fan?

Pricewise, the HIS Radeon HD 4870 ICEQ4+ with 1Gb of GDDR5 ram currently costs around £225.00, which I think is correctly priced and much better than I thought. It's way cheaper than Nvidia's Geforce GTX260 and GTX280 cards.

Final words. I have to congratulate HIS for producing such a fine graphics card. It's one of the fastest single GPU Radeon HD 48xx graphics card that we've tested to date. It may not be as fancy as a dual GPU Radeon or the latest Geforce GTX295 ... but at its current price, it offers good value for money with excellent performance. It's definitely worth considering if you're a mainstream to high-end gamer.

Pros:
 - AMD/ATI's Radeon HD 4870 (RV770) GPU
 - Using 55nm Technology
 - Overclocked GPU @ 770Mhz
 - Overclocked memory @ 2Ghz (2x1000Mhz)
 - 1GB GDDR5 ram
 - Excellent performance for the price
 - Supports Crossfire configuration
 - 800 Processor Stream units
 - Custom heatpipe GPU cooler
 - DX10.1 support
 

Cons:
 - So much competition out there
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We've given the HIS Radeon HD 4870 ICEQ4+ Turbo (1Gb GDDR5)  our CPU3D "Highly Recommended"  award for Excellent vaule and great performance. 

OVERALL SCORE
8.5/10