Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe

Palit is not known for launching cutting-edge products ahead of the competition, as they can be described as the tortoise in a race against the hare. What Palit does do well is deliver a refined (read: not rushed) product to store shelves. The Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe is one such example, which offers the Radeon HD 4870 X2 with 2048 MB of GDDR5 video frame buffer and is cooled by a proprietary triple-slot thermal solution. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the AE5487XSF0545-PM9348 SKU against many of the latest high-performance graphics products available to the retail market.

Technology doesn't play favorites, and when it reaches an apex there is an indifference towards who develops it. ATI has learned this lesson the hard way, having watched from the sidelines for so long that most have forgotten that AMD could be a leader in technology. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is the latest evolution in graphics cards, and ATI has delivered something bigger than we've ever seen before. With their custom triple-decker cooling solution, Palit makes the Radeon HD 4870 X2 bigger than ever.

Tao Le Ching had it right: the more you know, the less you understand. This notion surrounds the computer hardware industry as much as anything, because I have discovered that the moment my experiences lead me towards one opinion, the industry changes and goes into a new direction. Case in point: AMD / ATI. Phenom processors built for the Spider platform have had a very difficult time building momentum against Intel, relegating AMD to being second-best. At the other end of the corporate conglomerate is ATI, which has taken such a beating from NVIDIA that most enthusiasts would have to agree that their future looked bleak prior to the midway point of 2008. But that's exactly when things changed.

At some undetermined point in late June of 2008, ATI and AMD each gained ground on the competition in small steps. AMD launched several enthusiast-level processors, lifting them up out of the tailspin. Around the same time ATI launched their Radeon HD 4850 video card, which directly competes with the GeForce 9800 GTX and GTX+. Then, after a few on-again off-again launch dates, NVIDIA and ATI did an excellent job of confusing the community with a barrage of product launches. NVIDIA came out swinging with their GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 video cards, and ATI retaliated with the Radeon HD 4870 featuring the industries first implementation of GDDR5 video memory.

We live in a world where a company that produces the most powerful video card available is usually regarded as the leader in graphics technology. There is a certain amount of truth to this to be fair, but it's not always good to be the king. I imagine NVIDIA has to be getting a little tired of constantly polishing the throne in a lonely palace, especially after their recent launch of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 offered just as much to gamers as it did to multimedia editors. ATI has offered excellent value with the Radeon HD 4850, and improved upon it with the Radeon HD 4870 graphics card. For this article, Benchmark Reviews takes a hard look at the newest king of the castle - the Radeon HD 4870 X2.

About the company: Palit Multimedia, Inc.

Palit Multimedia Inc. provides a wide range of industry-leading graphics cards to North and Latin America with a focus on service, support and innovative products. Palit Multimedia is affiliated with Palit Microsystems, a world-leading supplier in the design, manufacture, and distribution of PC graphics accelerators which was established in 1988. Palit is well positioned to maintain an industry leadership due to the vast array of NVIDIA and AMD's ATi VGA products and on-going development efforts.

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