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@ 2009/01/14The final stumbling block for the Revolution 700 is its price. Despite offering little in game performance advantage over a stock 4870 X2, which can be picked up for around £340 following aggressive price cuts in anticipation of the launch of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295, the Revolution 700 retails for in excess of £30 more.
While the improved cooling does go some way to justify this, the 4870 X2's stock cooler is nowhere near as insufficient as the Radeon HD 4850's. There is some nice overclocking headroom unlocked by the triple slot monster, but we have to question how much extra performance you really need when you're dealing with twin RV770 GPUs in the first place. With a budget card the performance gained from a factory overclock is often very much worth the extra investment, but here it just seems almost pointless, especially with the sacrifice of the third slot.
All in all, the Palit Revolution 700 is a real let down. It's barely faster than a stock Radeon HD 4870 X2, consumes a great deal more power at idle, and really isn't worth the price premium, despite the improved cooling and quieter running. To be brutally honest, it's a poor attempt at a factory overclocked custom cooled card, and given the choice, we'd rather use a stock HD 4870 X2, if only for the sake of our electricity bill and a couple of DVI ports.
While the improved cooling does go some way to justify this, the 4870 X2's stock cooler is nowhere near as insufficient as the Radeon HD 4850's. There is some nice overclocking headroom unlocked by the triple slot monster, but we have to question how much extra performance you really need when you're dealing with twin RV770 GPUs in the first place. With a budget card the performance gained from a factory overclock is often very much worth the extra investment, but here it just seems almost pointless, especially with the sacrifice of the third slot.
All in all, the Palit Revolution 700 is a real let down. It's barely faster than a stock Radeon HD 4870 X2, consumes a great deal more power at idle, and really isn't worth the price premium, despite the improved cooling and quieter running. To be brutally honest, it's a poor attempt at a factory overclocked custom cooled card, and given the choice, we'd rather use a stock HD 4870 X2, if only for the sake of our electricity bill and a couple of DVI ports.
