Before I had even started this review I knew it wasn’t an entirely fair fight and that the HIS HD 4670 IceQ Turbo would almost certainly lag behind the BFG 9600GTOC in all of the tests. I just didn’t know by how much. To be perfectly honest I was pleasantly surprised how well the little card did, considering the BFG 9600GTOC retails at over £90 and the HD 4670 IceQ Turbo at around £70.

The extra £20-£25 might not sound like a lot but when considering it’s an extra 30%, or there a bouts, that’s quite a jump and buys quite a bit more processing power in computer terms. People looking to spend £70 on a graphics card are obviously on some kind of budget and might not be prepared to spend that for an extra 10 frames per second in Farcry2 or their preferred game of choice when it’s perfectly playable on the 4670 anyway.

All in all I think the HD 4670 IceQ Turbo offers fantastic performance for the price. It plays some fairly system hungry games at reasonable settings. Add into the equation the media centre application, as it comes with a HDMI adapter and doesn’t require extra power connections and is very quiet (silent? I couldn’t hear it over my case fans, which aren’t exactly loud), and you have a very versatile graphics solution for people on a semi tight budget.

Looking for a decent bang per buck graphics card or a media centre card with gaming capabilities? Look no further, the HD 4670 IceQ Turbo IS what you need.

Pros

• Decent performance for the price.
• Virtually silent.
• Ideal media centre card (comes with HDMI adapter).
• No external power needed.

Cons

• …errrrr?

Reality Check: Definitely RECOMMENDED a card that plays new games reasonably well, remembering its limitations, for around £70 you can’t go wrong.

Reviewed by Mac

Many thanks to HIS for supplying the HD 4670 IceQ Turbo for review