ATI HD4800 Review Thread

[onethreehill]

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1301
http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/ATI%5FRadeon%5FHD%5F4850%5Fand%5F4870%5FRV770%5FHa s%5FArrived/
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=584&Itemid=31
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=13972
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=581
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review.html
http://www.expreview.com/topic/2008-06-24/1214282167d9273.html
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/ati-4800-series-review.ars
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2321634,00.asp
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1481/sapphire_radeon_hd_4870_in_crossfire/index.html
http://www.chw.net/Revisiones/Tarjetas-de-Video/AMD-ATi-Radeon-HD-4870-200806252037.html
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14990
http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/video/atirv770/architecture/
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_4850_4870_performance/
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUyNCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/734/1/
http://www.pcghx.com/aid,648976/Reviews/Radeon_HD_4800_PCGH_Benchmark_Review/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Diamond/HD_4870/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-review--asus/
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/powercolor_hd4870/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4870,1964.html

Radeon HD4850 and HD4870 CrossfireX
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4850-and--4870-crossfirex-performance/

Sapphire HD4870 & VisionTek HD4870 CrossFire
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=585

HD4870 Vs HD4850 - memory clock speed affect on performance
ixbt.com (http://www.ixbt.com/video3/rv770-2-part3-d.shtml#p18)

[zerazax]

Sweet, time to start compiling reviews.. the other thread is getting old anyways, only 254k views ;)

[Dark-Energy]

Well that's awesome.

Can't wait to get one with my new PC.

Don't forget about this one although we've all seen it.

http://en.expreview.com/2008/06/24/first-review-hd-4870-and-hd-4850/

[Confused_User]

site must be getting hammered....

[Miwo]

crawwwlinnng
when was the last time an AMD launch actually brought down a web server? lol :)

[Chickenfeed]

Thanks for the updates onethreehill :up:

[safan80]

you know what I like!

[[XC] hipno650]

crawwwlinnng
when was the last time an AMD launch actually brought down a web server? lol :)

that's for sure it's like being on dial up and the server is on Mars. now everyone else get off so i can read the review:p::D

[Counter CS]

:up: One more http://www.expreview.com/topic/2008-06-24/1214282167d9273.html

[eXa]

Bah... ill come back later when anand is usable again.

[dr.noob]

:welcome:

yep, anand is off :shakes:

nice thread:clap::clap::clap:

[zerazax]

I guess we did it... brought Anand down lol

[twwen2]

Lol. Even expreview was crawling last night! Good to finally see some legit competition:yepp:

[zerazax]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review.html

[SKYMTL]

Palit HD4870 Review @ Hardware Canucks (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review.html)

I am still putting the finishing touches on it but all the benches are there. Just got the card yesterday and I will likely sleep for a month after the marathon of 24 hours of benching and content creation....

[Chickenfeed]

Looking forwards to seeing it SKY :)

I noticed this in the Bjorn3d review on page 4 :
"AMD teased us with a slide that showed us the performance a R700, which effectively is two HD4870 GPu’s in Crossfire on one board, in 3Dmark Vantage. The card got 12515 in the Extreme setting and the GPU subscore was 12525."

That can't be right now ? Surely they meant performance not extreme. I remember hearing that the R700 was getting around 7000 currently ( which makes more sense )

[Miwo]

lol i like how Hardwarecanucks completely excluded the GTX260 from their tests, maybe none on hand, or just that the HD4870 beats it for $100 less :)
Great review Sky, and very impressive temperatures on the HR-03. Ready to vmod.....

[m0da]

Great review Sky, and very impressive temperatures on the HR-03. Ready to vmod.....

very nice temps with an aftermarket cooler :D idle+load down significantly

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/2151/palithd487084fh1.jpg

[SKYMTL]

lol i like how Hardwarecanucks completely excluded the GTX260 from their tests, maybe none on hand, or just that the HD4870 beats it for $100 less :)
Great review Sky, and very impressive temperatures on the HR-03. Ready to vmod.....


I actually haven't received one yet. Every time I ask one of my contacts, I get the shaft. GTX 280? No problem!! GTX 260? I get silence.

I would have bought one but I am not paying shipping from the EU for that card since none are available here.

It has been a very, very, very frustratin week. :( :(

[Truckchase!]

Nice job on that review.

[TurboDiv]

No one click the anand link anymore so I can read the damn review... :p::):)

[Dragy2k]

exellent im glad i hung on till the 4870's dropped in.......well on a x38 board its ati all the way!!
...oh yeah nice review too!!

[Chickenfeed]

I found out where Bjorn3d got their 12k R700 number. This slide here : http://www.hothardware.com/image_popup.aspx?image=big_slide_18.jpg&articleid=1172&t=a

If you look at the gpu screen you see 4 gpus which means xfire 4870x2s. That makes more sense :p:

[Miwo]

soooooo, word is that Microcenter may have the card for $239.... Might be store specific @ the OPs local one, price mistake, a special, or just a wild goose chase. A huge YMMV, but getting one for that price would be a steal.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=192416

Whos gonna check tomorrow? :)

[[XC] hipno650]

Palit HD4870 Review @ Hardware Canucks (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review.html)

I am still putting the finishing touches on it but all the benches are there. Just got the card yesterday and I will likely sleep for a month after the marathon of 24 hours of benching and content creation....

fantastic review man!!! your guys are the one site i trust 100% and i look at your reviews before i make the final decision on what to get and what is faster. my conclusion...... the 4870 is a damn nice card for the price.

[Truckchase!]

The question now is how does the added bandwidth of the GDDR5 directly affect performance? Based off the initial reviews I've read, it doesn't look to be as much of a factor as I had suspected it would be based off of the relatively low performance gaps at high resolutions....

It seems that without AA, the gap is larger, showing the increase in bandwidth. As soon as you introduce AA, however, the gap shrinks as the bottleneck shifts back to math.

Keep in mind that 4870's default clock is 20% higher than the 50s... Thoughts?

[Miwo]

jimmyz will be testing more with the HD4850 @ 750MHz, so stay tuned on that. Check his thread in the BIOS modification section. I'm curious of the same thing as well.
keep in mind that the HD4870 has much beefier vregs on it that will make it better suited for higher clocks and higher volts. Higher core speeds might love the extra bandwidth once you start pushing the core, but we really can't tell for certain until the software tools are updated.

[SKYMTL]

Keep in mind that 4870's default clock is 20% higher than the 50s... Thoughts?
In some situations as you mentioned the memory bandwidth comes into play and you see those huge performance gaps between it and the HD4850. However, we have to remember that an increase of 20% in the core speed does not equate a 20% increase in performance. That is why I think the bandwidth comes into play more than we may have originally thought since this card beats the HD4850 by 20% AND MORE in many cases.

[sephiroth8748]

dang the 4870 rocks. now I just got to wait to buy one...

[Truckchase!]

jimmyz will be testing more with the HD4850 @ 750MHz, so stay tuned on that. Check his thread in the BIOS modification section. I'm curious of the same thing as well.
keep in mind that the HD4870 has much beefier vregs on it that will make it better suited for higher clocks and higher volts. Higher core speeds might love the extra bandwidth once you start pushing the core, but we really can't tell for certain until the software tools are updated.

Good point... I've got a 4850 coming tomorrow and I'm debating not even taking it out of the box now; I may have to make that run to Microcenter. :D

In some situations as you mentioned the memory bandwidth comes into play and you see those huge performance gaps between it and the HD4850. However, we have to remember that an increase of 20% in the core speed does not equate a 20% increase in performance. That is why I think the bandwidth comes into play more than we may have originally thought since this card beats the HD4850 by 20% AND MORE in many cases.

Yeah that's what I was getting at... hopefully I can get my hands on one of these cards and pull one of these numbers on it:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2381435&postcount=31

Awesome site btw, (hwcanucks) it's on the regular rotation now....

[SKYMTL]

Thanks for the compliment. This is what we get for 24 hours of reviewing since I went to AMD personally yesterday to pick up the card or it would have never got to me in time.... :(

[grimREEFER]

well, i looked at the 4870 specs and assumed that it was gonna perform like a 4850.
i was wrong, and i think im gonna buy a visiontek 4870 now.
has anyone overclocked the card yet?

[Miwo]

HR-03GT is a great cooler :)
I'll be sticking to my Accelero S1 though, since I can cover the entire card with airflow much easier on that. Less heat for those oh-so-toasty vregs

[Tonucci]

Wow, the higher clocks made it much faster than i thought.

[Dragy2k]

sky .. flipping that HR03 around the other way......it still fit ok yeah ??

[AriciU]

Finally. I love the CF performance shown by Anand :D

[iTravis]

So which cooler should I go for? HR-03GT or the Accelero S1?

[adpr_02]

Is it me, or is Anand WAY off? If those results are real, Nvidia is about to get destroyed.

[GoldenTiger]

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/ati-4800-series-review.ars

Woah... it performs within ~10% of the 280, and sometimes has HIGHER minimum framerates which I consider more important than a bloated average with spikes from some high maximums, so long as the average remains good (which it does). This review solely used AA/AF, which are what I and most other gamers play with (no aa/af is pretty much the benchers' domain).

So which cooler should I go for? HR-03GT or the Accelero S1?

Don't know, I'm trying to decide that too :D !

SKYMTL, is it the S2 or the S1 rev. 2 that fits on the card? On SVC.com I only see those two options, so I'm not sure if there was a typo in the review on the page about non-stock cooling with the HR-03 GT? I want to clarify as they are much cheaper than the HR-03 GT and I'd like to buy one right away for my incoming 4870 :).

P.S. That review was incredible, your work really showed :).

[Battle_Rattle]

I just wanted to post this little pic since I think it is oh-so-sexy:

Canucks says the old 3870 Thermalright HR-03's FIT!!!! Yeh!!!!!!

Welcome to quick and faster overclocking!!

[eleeter]

Canucks says the old 3870 Thermalright HR-03's FIT!!!! Yeh!!!!!!
Sweet. Add another stock cooler to my growing pile lol. :yepp:

[SKYMTL]

sky .. flipping that HR03 around the other way......it still fit ok yeah ??

May bump into the inductors at the back of the card so I will have to check.

[IvanAndreevich]

Looks like the Inquirer was right this time around.

[AriciU]

May bump into the inductors at the back of the card so I will have to check.

Please do. It's the only way two of them would fit in a crossfire setup.

[SKYMTL]

SKYMTL, is it the S2 or the S1 rev. 2 that fits on the card? On SVC.com I only see those two options, so I'm not sure if there was a typo in the review on the page about non-stock cooling with the HR-03 GT? I want to clarify as they are much cheaper than the HR-03 GT and I'd like to buy one right away for my incoming 4870 :).

36 hours without sleep will do that to ya. S1 Rev.2. It may not have th appropriate mount of VRM sinks though.

[GoldenTiger]

Thanks Sky!

EDIT: Apparrently because SVC doesn't carry the turbo module as well, it would be a waste to buy the S1 Rev. 2 from them and the turbo module from newegg due to shipping. So, it's really a $13 difference total for the HR-03 GT + a fan, and the S1 Rev. 2 + the turbo module for me. I like that the S1 Rev. 2 is smaller in terms of using only 3 slots total instead of the HR-03 GT's 4 slot profile, but would the HR-03 GT outperform it by much? It doesn't look to but not sure if I'm missing something :). I have a few random spare RAMsinks I could use to cover up any extra VRMs that would need to be cooled.

[Spawne32]

sky that review is down right awesome, and the addition of the HR-03 test was fantastic

[AriciU]

All that was missing was two 4870's in crossfire, to put the hurtin on the GTX 280 at the same/lower price :) I'm sure it'll come. Would've been interesting too as you clocked the CPU at ~3.9ghz vs 3.2ghz Anand.

[Jowy Atreides]

very nice temps with an aftermarket cooler :D idle+load down significantly

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/2151/palithd487084fh1.jpg

.........wow :eek:

is the stock cooler really that bad?
or is it that monkeys are applying the thermal compound/pads?

[GoldenTiger]

.........wow :eek:

is the stock cooler really that bad?
or is it that monkeys are applying the thermal compound/pads?

Kinda wondering that myself... not sure whether just re-applying the thermal compound would help those numbers a lot, or if an aftermarket really is the way to go for this card (i.e. truly a huge difference)...

[AriciU]

I think significantly lower temps have been reported for the 4850 with a remount and reapplication of some good thermal compound. I think it would be the case for the 4870 too but still... you won't get near the temps provided by aftermarket cooling.

[halo112358]

So.... who has this in stock in the US for overnight delivery? :D

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

I think significantly lower temps have been reported for the 4850 with a remount and reapplication of some good thermal compound. I think it would be the case for the 4870 too but still... you won't get near the temps provided by aftermarket cooling.

well once you can turn that 12watt fan to 80-90% + remount you might get close to after market, but im gonna get me 2 of those sexy thermalright t-rad's ASAP (not released yet)

[msimax]

GO AMD GO :sofa: :lsfight: :slash:

[zerazax]

http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/video/atirv770/architecture/

rage3d has their architecture preview up

http://www.rage3d.com/image.php?pic=/reviews/video/atirv770/architecture/pics/Architecture/rv7701.jpg&comment=

that pic is just pure awesome

[twwen2]

GO AMD GO :sofa: :lsfight: :slash:

+1 I will definately be getting one of these for my upcoming build! It's a shame that the stock heatsink/cooler struggles, it's so damned sexy:yepp:

[LOE]

Cool, AMD is back in the game big time :welcome:

RV770 totally wipes the ground with the 280, when you keep die size in mind. I understand why AMD is holding the dual RV770 card back - CF is not working in most of the games. And when they fix it and launch the 4870x2 they will easily take the performance crown by a huge margin, nvidia can forget sticking 2x chips on a single card until they go down to 45nm.

I am curious about the approach amd will use for the 4870x2 - will it be regular CF, or will share resources in a more advanced way, that will allow good scaling even with 3 and 4 gpus.

Congrats AMD for the great HARDWARE, now do the SOFTWARE as well!

damn, all those amd doomsayers must be choking right now :rofl:

[ceevee]

RV770 totally wipes the ground with the 280, when you keep die size in mind. I understand why AMD is holding the dual RV770 card back - CF is not working in most of the games. And when they fix it and launch the 4870x2 they will easily take the performance crown by a huge margin, nvidia can forget sticking 2x chips on a single card until they go down to 45nm.


damn, all those amd doomsayers must be choking right now :rofl:

Actually last I checked 2x GTX280 in SLI pretty much owns 2x 4870 in crossfire and will own 4870x2, so where do you get:

And when they fix it and launch the 4870x2 they will easily take the performance crown by a huge margin

[zerazax]

4870x2 might be 2 GPU's. but it still one card so comparing it 2 discrete cards in SLI doesn't make any sense

[Dan_c]

Where can I find them in stok in Romania?!
:ROTF:

Told I was off to change my sig....

[Solus Corvus]

Actually last I checked 2x GTX280 in SLI pretty much owns 2x 4870 in crossfire and will own 4870x2
Will 2x GTX280 own 2x 4870x2? :sofa:









...
I don't know either, I was just wondering. :up:

[Chickenfeed]

He gets off saying that due to the fact a 4870x2 should consistently match or beat the GTX 280 but at a lower price point. We are talking single PCB here, not multi gpu. Sure 3 GTX 280s are the fastest high end out currently but at close to $2100 its not exactly anything to cheer about. If they manage to get 4870x2s to scale well in crossfire they may even take out tri SLI 280s, again at a lower price.

[metro.cl]

Here is ours, erally complete and compared to HD4850,GTX 260 and 9800GTX
http://www.chw.net/Revisiones/Tarjetas-de-Video/AMD-ATi-Radeon-HD-4870-200806252037.html

[halo112358]

4870x2 might be 2 GPU's. but it still one card so comparing it 2 discrete cards in SLI doesn't make any sense

Wrong, it's two GPUs on one board, or crossfire for people without crossfire motherboards (the mainstream). A 4870x2 should be _very_ close to two 4870's or the engineers made some big mistakes.

You really need to look at how each GPU is performing here, not how each board is performing, because scaling is the important thing with multiple boards/chips/etc, not "but it's one PCB ZOMG itz bettar than teh other brandz0rs cardz."

Personally for a single slot solution the 4870x2 looks like it's exactly what I want, awesome price, and if they get their crossfire in order awesome performance for my money.

[ceevee]

Will 2x GTX280 own 2x 4870x2? :sofa:









...
I don't know either, I was just wondering. :up:

I would guess 3x GTX280 will defeat 2x 4870x2. But you guys are comparing a card that is 2-3 months away to a card that is out today.

We don't know if AMD will have to reduce the clocks alot for 4870x2 because of the incredible heat and power consumption. We don't know if in 3 months Nvidia will have gone to 55nm and 750Mhz stock frequency, we don't know if in 3 months GTX280gx2 may be coming soon.

You are giving ATI this huge advantage in the assumptions you are making but NOT giving the benefit of those same assumptions to NVidia.

For the record I may be biased because I just ordered another GTX280 tonight to go SLI.

However, when I look at the scores of what is available today 2x GTX280 SLI blows away anything else that is out there.

[emuexport]

Heres another review from Tweaktown (http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1481/sapphire_radeon_hd_4870_in_crossfire/index.html)

[zerazax]

It does, and if you have the money for it, it is well worth it. But for a lot of people, getting 80-90% of the performance for 1/2 the cost is a no-brainer for them.

[LordEC911]

I would guess 3x GTX280 will defeat 2x 4870x2. But you guys are comparing a card that is 2-3 months away to a card that is out today.
Where are you pulling this BS 2-3 months?
2 months max and more like ~4 weeks.

[LOE]

Actually last I checked 2x GTX280 in SLI pretty much owns 2x 4870 in crossfire and will own 4870x2, so where do you get:

Judging from your avatar it will be much wiser arguing with the wall instead of you ;)

A product is not simply FPS, there are many more aspects that you cannot see, or choose to ignore.

The 4870 is less than 1/2 the size of the 280, less than 1/2 it's price, in terms of performance it is that close to the 280, that you can actually ignore it, and the 4870 manages to actually beat the 280 in some tests

now, you can choose to be a blind fanboy, and insist that amd sucks, or you can take all facts into account and admit they have a SUPERIOR product

Anands test shows RV770 has to offer more performance per die size, so amd could easily make a mammoth version of the chip, with even more shaders and texturing units that would easily beat the 280 by a wide margin, but for the first time in many years AMD chose NOT TO SHOOT ITSELF IN THE FOOT, like nVIDIA did. Do you think nVIDIA is happy with the 280? I can only imagine their yield, they would be happy if they manage to make a 50 working chips out from a wafer. And for what? For a few more FPS VS a chip thats virtually half of whan nvidia is chopping? :shrug:

The 65nm process is not to blame, even if you ignore it, you still have 1.4 billion transistors versus 0.9 - that speaks of the product's efficiency

Job well done AMD - thats all I have to say.

[Solus Corvus]

I would guess 3x GTX280 will defeat 2x 4870x2. But you guys are comparing a card that is 2-3 months away to a card that is out today.

...

You are giving ATI this huge advantage in the assumptions you are making but NOT giving the benefit of those same assumptions to NVidia.
No, I'm not making any assumptions. The fact is that I can't afford a $600 card today, but I can afford a $300 card and have enough left over for a water block. And I play Quake Wars at 1920x1200. Hmm, which card should I get?

In 2-3 months, I probably will have enough money to blow thousands on graphics cards. What should I get then? I don't know, maybe you can speculate for me.

But speaking about assumptions, what if we assume that the person buying crossfire or SLI plays Bioshock or CoD4 a lot? Wouldn't it be wise for them to get 2x4870s since they beat 2xGTX280s in those games? Or are assumptions only good when they agree with your particular usage scenario?

[ceevee]

You guys are hilarious. I care about performance only. Show me a battery of tests (10+ tests) that show that either:

4870 > GTX280 on average

or

4870CF > GTX280SLI on average

You won't because there aren't any. You may be able to point to one or two red herrings where that is the case. However if you average the results across many many games GTX280 still owns 4870 and SLI scales better across more games than CF currently does.

You guys remind me of the HD DVD fanboys who said HD DVD was better because it was cheaper. (we all know how that eventually turned out ;))

I don't care if you think AMD is more "efficient". Power consumption and heat say otherwise anyway.

Show me the FPS. :D

[Mortal]

Just ordered one now. I've never actually owned an ATI card in my computering life (yeah, I had a rubbish FX card when ATI was the only logical choice 'cause I was poor and someone gave me it v.v), so I look forward to this!

[madmossy]

I think the X2 will actually be faster than 2x4870's in Xfire, mainly because if ATI's new "hub" is what I think it is and the xfire side port built into the gpu core is what I think it is then the x2 should scale extremely well, infact I wouldnt be shocked if the x2 actually behaved like 1 large gpu rather than 2, also looks like shared memory could be on the cards which again is another huge bonus.

[Solus Corvus]

You guys are hilarious. I care about performance only. Show me a battery of tests (10+ tests) that show that either:
Nobody will show you that because nobody is arguing that a GTX280 isn't the fastest card at the moment. But since you care about performance only, does that mean that you will sell your 280s and get 2x 4870x2 if they are faster?

Living within your means is hilarious? :shakes:
If that's so, I developed something the other day that should have you rolling. I think I will call it....a budget. :rofl:

[Motiv]

You guys are hilarious. I care about performance only. Show me a battery of tests (10+ tests) that show that either:

4870 > GTX280 on average

or

4870CF > GTX280SLI on average

You won't because there aren't any. You may be able to point to one or two red herrings where that is the case. However if you average the results across many many games GTX280 still owns 4870 and SLI scales better across more games than CF currently does.

You guys remind me of the HD DVD fanboys who said HD DVD was better because it was cheaper. (we all know how that eventually turned out ;))

I don't care if you think AMD is more "efficient". Power consumption and heat say otherwise anyway.

Show me the FPS. :D

Agree, if you have the money and want better performance go for it. I would if I had the cash :yepp:

Personally I will get the 4870 now, it's just within my budget and I need a new card for cod5 when it finally arrives :D

[iTravis]

You guys are hilarious. I care about performance only. Show me a battery of tests (10+ tests) that show that either:

4870 > GTX280 on average

or

4870CF > GTX280SLI on average

You won't because there aren't any. You may be able to point to one or two red herrings where that is the case. However if you average the results across many many games GTX280 still owns 4870 and SLI scales better across more games than CF currently does.

You guys remind me of the HD DVD fanboys who said HD DVD was better because it was cheaper. (we all know how that eventually turned out ;))

I don't care if you think AMD is more "efficient". Power consumption and heat say otherwise anyway.

Show me the FPS. :D

IDK if you're clearly biased or such a huge Nvidia fanboy or an uber rich dude who only care about performance and demand the best but your statements don't make any sense at all. First you compare the GTX 280 which is a high end video card to a performance HD4870 then you start making assumption about Nvidia next card like the GTX280GX2 (I got one for you right below, maybe you're the only one who can afford that) and blah blah blah
Pls keep in mind that not everybody here have the money to spend like you, yeh sure you can get 2xGTX 280 and pwns the HD4870 in CF but considering the GTX 280 is about 13% faster than the HD4870 but with more than twice the price, is it really worth it?

Dunno if it's legit or not but it seems 2xHD4870X2 can beat GTX 280 in Tri-SLI.
http://en.hardspell.com/doc/showcont.asp?news_id=3605

And here's your GTX280GX2:
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/1638/5303bfggtx280gx2zw4.jpg

[adamsleath]

too hard to choose right now.

http://media.arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/ati-4800-series-review.media/4850-70-05.png
a fan of dx10 i am not.

[ceevee]

IDK if you're clearly biased or such a huge Nvidia fanboy or an uber rich dude who only care about performance and demand the best but your statements don't make any sense at all. First you compare the GTX 280 which is a high end video card to a performance HD4870 then you start making assumption about Nvidia next card like the GTX280GX2 (I got one for you right below, maybe you're the only one who can afford that) and blah blah blah
Pls keep in mind that not everybody here have the money to spend like you, yeh sure you can get 2xGTX 280 and pwns the HD4870 in CF but considering the GTX 280 is about 13% faster than the HD4870 but with more than twice the price, is it really worth it?

Dunno if it's legit or not but it seems 2xHD4870X2 can beat GTX 280 in Tri-SLI.
http://en.hardspell.com/doc/showcont.asp?news_id=3605

I think the 4870 is an amzing card and AMD deserves :clap:.

However I do not understand people saying it has the performance crown when it clearly does not, not to mention you are saying this about a card that may not even be released for 2 MONTHS.

Anyway here is GTX280 in tri-SLI so you can see that it handily beats your x12000 score from 2xHD4870x2:

http://planetimagehost.com/images/14128_2l9gkl.jpg

[adamsleath]

http://media.arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/ati-4800-series-review.media/4850-70-06.png
quite a level playing field at the moment.
it's a far tougher choice betwen ati and nv for me right now.
bang for buck must go to ati....surely?

and as far as i'm concerned g92 is toast. :wave:

[grimREEFER]

i would imagine that 3x factory overclocked gtx 280's would generally beat 2x 4870x2's, losing in maybe some of the games that play really well with amd cards, like cod 4. the price difference is pretty massive as well, the amd cards being much cheaper.
well, when you're dealing with multiple cards of that caliber, i would feel weird with just a 512mb buffer anyway.

[zerazax]

Here's the deal: No one is saying the GTX280 doesn't have the performance crown right now. Most people agree that it clearly does. But, most people are also saying that the 4870 matches the GTX260 (and beats it with price) and gets close to the GTX280 even in certain games and settings. One on one, no one in their right mind is going to say that the GTX280 is slower than the 4870. If the single card performance crown is going to be lost to an ATI offering, it will have to come from the 4870X2 or whatever they call it.

And the biggest issue I see echoed is that the GTX280 is just too damn expensive compared to what ATI is offering. If the GTX280 were $450 it'd be a great price. But as of right now, when the 4870 is offering 80-90% of the performance at 1/2 the cost, you have to want absolute performance despite cost to want the GTX280 at this moment.

PS - those cards are overclocked so at least compare scores w/ non-OC'd cards..

[Solus Corvus]

However I do not understand people saying it has the performance crown when it clearly does not, not to mention you are saying this about a card that may not even be released for 2 MONTHS.
It certainly has the performance/$ crown. I don't see anyone saying that it has the absolute performance crown. Do you?

And you started this ride on the speculation train about a card that isn't released yet when you said:
Actually last I checked 2x GTX280 in SLI pretty much owns 2x 4870 in crossfire and will own 4870x2, so where do you get:
Do you actually know how it will perform any better then the rest of us? My guess is...no.

Anyway here is GTX280 in tri-SLI so you can see that it handily beats your x12000 score from 2xHD4870x2:
And what about at stock clocks? :slap:

[iTravis]

I think the 4870 is an amzing card and AMD deserves .

However I do not understand people saying it has the performance crown when it clearly does not, not to mention you are saying this about a card that may not even be released for 2 MONTHS.

Anyway here is GTX280 in tri-SLI so you can see that it handily beats your x12000 score from 2xHD4870x2:

Are you talking about the HD4870X2 or HD4870 that has the performance crown? Maybe you just misunderstood the point, HD4870 offers the best performance in term of the price you pay for and by judging from the GTX 280 is 13% faster than the HD4870, people have high hope for the HD4870X2 will take the performance crown. Once again, it's just speculation so nobody knows for sure.
And btw, if you look at the site, they say "Though 3-way GeForce GTX 280 got X14717 but it matched Core 2 Extreme QX9650 4.5GHz, the clocks are 710/1528/1196MHz" and 2xHD4870X2 was running at default clock and lower specs. Your score is probably come from a ridiculously high OC on both CPU and GPU so it's understandable.

[Metroid]

Actually last I checked 2x GTX280 in SLI pretty much owns 2x 4870 in crossfire and will own 4870x2, so where do you get:

It does, 2x GTX280 is the best of all, however some things we have to consider before we reach that conclusion, first you have to use a Nvidia chipset to get SLI and that is a negative feedback because Nvidia chipset does not work well with Intel processors unless you go to AMD territory and pick up a Phenom or the previous cheap versions +6000 so that you would eliminate the chipset drawbacks as Nvidia chipset works quite good once running AMD processors.

Second you need to have a powerful power supply to manage its power, third you know that 2x GTX280 = $1300, now tell me is that really necessary?

I would recommend a single HD4850 or a HD4700 as both of them contains what most of us need. I still think a 8800GT is just enough to handle the majority of games at full speed 60 FPS, the HD4850 is amazing and the HD4780 is just the right option for anyone who wants or needs to upgrade.

Metroid.

[Bo_Fox]

I wonder how much closer the 4870 will get to the 280 once it's slapped with 1GB of memory instead of 512mb.

[ceevee]

And what about at stock clocks? :slap:


Those are basically stock clocks for the EVGA card in question. (FTW edition)

[Solus Corvus]

Those are basically stock clocks for the EVGA card in question. (FTW edition)
It would be foolish to think that none of the ATI partners are going to release overclocked versions of their respective cards. You missed the point.

Are 2 of the topend cards from Nvidia going to beat 2 of the topend cards from ATI? I don't know, and I am willing to bet that you don't either.

But I do know that when a low lag 30" monitor comes out I am going to want the absolute fastest graphics card solution available at the time - whichever company that comes from. But in the mean time, a 4870 should work wonders on my 24" and it happens to be in my budget.

[Syn.]

For everyone intreasted in R700 you might want to look at this:

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/4800/hub.png

The CrossFire Sideport

Although AMD isn't talking about it now, the CrossFire Sideport is a new feature of the RV770 architecture that isn't in use on the RV770 at all. In future, single-card, multi-GPU solutions (*cough* R700) this interface will be used to communicate between adjacent GPUs - in theory allowing for better scaling with CrossFire. We'll be able to test this shortly as AMD is quickly readying its dual-GPU RV770 card under the R700 codename.


http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=9

[grimREEFER]

anand has the now $425 9800gx2 beating the 4870 and gtx 280 basically universally, and by some very large margins in some cases.
so, imo, nvidia should just focus on that card more, cause the gtx260 is kinda bs now that the 4870 is out, and the gtx 260 hasnt actually launched yet.

[LOE]

Anyway here is GTX280 in tri-SLI so you can see that it handily beats your x12000 score from 2xHD4870x2:


Yeah, 3 overclocked GTX280 cards, on an overclocker system with a non legit driver (cheat according to futuremark) scores quite high. 14000+ against 12000 for the stock clock, pre-release product with unfinished drivers.

It is a personal choice for anyone, I personally would like to see my dollars doing the most they can. Right now it seems 2x4870 are cheaper and faster than a single 280.

Unlike CPUs, GPU performance depends highly on drivers, and with the 4870 being a brand new product, there is room for polish and improvements. The 3 way 280 SLi VS 2x4870x2 battle will be 90% driver dependent. AMD has very good chances of winning this one - it has the raw power, all it needs is good scaling. 3d mark is not a TWIMTBP product and that will allow for easier optimization, comparing to nvidia sponsored titles that leave amd in the cold intentionally.

The overall difference in performance between GTX280 and 4870 is minimal - settings that are playable on the 280 will also be playable on the 4870, and those, unplayable on the 4780 aren't really playable on the 280.
There is however a difference, it would be hilarious if there wasn't any, but that difference doesn't justify the price difference those products have. It is simply dull spending 650$ on a card that is 10-15% faster than a 300$ card. If you care that much about performance you can always get 2 4870 :) thats still less than what a single 280 costs. And 2 280s will set you back 1300$ - thats even duller IMO.

[AbelJemka]

I think the 4870 is an amzing card and AMD deserves :clap:.

However I do not understand people saying it has the performance crown when it clearly does not, not to mention you are saying this about a card that may not even be released for 2 MONTHS.

Anyway here is GTX280 in tri-SLI so you can see that it handily beats your x12000 score from 2xHD4870x2:

http://planetimagehost.com/images/14128_2l9gkl.jpg
50000 CPU Score :rolleyes:
PhysX... :rofl:

[ceevee]

50000 CPU Score :rolleyes:
PhysX... :rofl:


It seems AMD has had a panic attack because they cannot do physics yet, so they are trying to play dirty and have physics removed from Vantage.

Hopefully we will not have to gimp our systems and remove PhysX support to run the benchmark.

[LOE]

Amd is not in panic, it should have both havoc and phyx support soon, but I think intel will leave nvidia out in the cold for havoc hardware support

[AriciU]

Seriously dude. I don't see you setting any record in Vantage, PhysX or no PhysX. Why do you care so much about a benchmark if you're not trying to get top10 in ORB? I don't think AMD has any power over Futuremark.

[Solus Corvus]

Will Nvidia cards be able to do Havoc on the GPU? Probably not. Will Nvidia fans cry red herring for benches that support Havoc when ATI can do them on GPU? Definitely. That's the nature of a fanboy.

To me, the only thing that will matter is FPS in actual games, everything else is cute, but irrelevant.

[AbelJemka]

It seems AMD has had a panic attack because they cannot do physics yet, so they are trying to play dirty and have physics removed from Vantage.

Hopefully we will not have to gimp our systems and remove PhysX support to run the benchmark.
Lol.
Futuremark drivers rules specified this. Nvidia knows it.

[AriciU]

Lol.
Futuremark drivers rules specified this. Nvidia knows it.

Nah man, AMD bribed Futuremark so they chopped off 2" of Nvidia's e-penis :(

[Motiv]

It seems AMD has had a panic attack because they cannot do physics yet, so they are trying to play dirty and have physics removed from Vantage.

Hopefully we will not have to gimp our systems and remove PhysX support to run the benchmark.

Until you stated this, I was on your side. That really is a terrible response. yes, you want the best card you can buy as of now but to say AMD are panicking, is crazy talk.

As the other poster has pointed out AMD can use physx if they want but they have jumped aboard the industry leader in Havok (intel).

Having Physx in Vantage is stupid as it has no relevance on actual games at the moment and distorts the entire benchmark. It should be removed.

[Insanity]

Having Physx in Vantage is stupid as it has no relevance on actual games at the moment and distorts the entire benchmark. It should be removed.

Furthermore, it was designed to bench on dedicated PhysX cards and CPUs, not on GPUs.

As the PhysX bench running on the PPU/GPU is not very graphic intensive, it has NO sense at all. It practicaly makes the GPU as a dedicated PPU, but in actual games, the GPU will be busy rendering graphics and won't have that much power for physic processing.

[Buck47]

Thanks for the compliment. This is what we get for 24 hours of reviewing since I went to AMD personally yesterday to pick up the card or it would have never got to me in time.... :(


Thanks for all the hard work Sky. Excellent job on the review. :up:

[roadie]

Here is ours, erally complete and compared to HD4850,GTX 260 and 9800GTX
http://www.chw.net/Revisiones/Tarjetas-de-Video/AMD-ATi-Radeon-HD-4870-200806252037.html
This is a great review. Thanks for focusing on minimum fps. All reviews should do this.

On a separate note, the idle power consumption of the 4870 is a little worrying. Hopefully a driver fix can drop the ~40W extra it seems to be using over competing cards.

[jcool]

Great - now where are these 1GB Vram cards, I want two :D

[JohnJohn]

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/atiradeonhd4870_062408145208/17144.png

http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/skymtl/GPU/PALIT-HD4870/PALITHD4870-73.jpg



Who said RV770 consumed like a GTX280????????????????????????????

[AriciU]

Here's another review. Crossfire included :) Looks great.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14990

[STaRGaZeR]

From The Tech Report review:

http://techreport.com/r.x/radeon-hd-4870/etqw-2560.gif

What about this safan? :D

[Macadamia]

From The Tech Report review:

http://techreport.com/r.x/radeon-hd-4870/etqw-2560.gif

What about this safan? :D

Grab one, and rant about microstutter? :D

j/k. :p:

[Miwo]

omg, look at those Assassins Creed "unpatched" scores :)
http://techreport.com/r.x/radeon-hd-4870/assassinscreed.gif
If a little render saving from DX 10.1 can give the RV770 gains like that, NVidia definitely has a reason to and snuff out 10.1 in any way they can

[STaRGaZeR]

Grab one, and rant about microstutter? :D

j/k. :p:

I'm against CF but eh, he wants FPS and here he has FPS :D

[ceevee]

omg, look at those Assassins Creed "unpatched" scores :)
http://techreport.com/r.x/radeon-hd-4870/assassinscreed.gif
If a little render saving from DX 10.1 can give the RV770 gains like that, NVidia definitely has a reason to and snuff out 10.1 in any way they can


Of course none of the reviews show GTX280 SLI for a fair comparison.

[Anemone]

Nvidia has until August to enable SLI on Intel AND rethink their pricing, because the CF 4870 is going to turn their sales of both 260's (for SLI) and 280's to mush. What 2 years of waiting could not do to bring SLI to Intel chipsets, is now absolutely required or they will be forced to sell chips at a loss to get sales at all.

The first adopters will always be there, but a few months of this competition and it will belong to ATI for this round. The 55nm 200 chip won't be fast enough and won't come soon enough to help NV.

It's going to be funny to watch them eat humble pie, and all that while Larrabee moves in to finish off what's left...

[sparks]

Great review SKYMTL and the honesty I felt on the last page was refreshing.

[AriciU]

Of course none of the reviews show GTX280 SLI for a fair comparison.

600$ vs 649$ is a "fair" comparison IMO. If not unfair considering the extra 50$ you have to pay for a single 280.

Anandtech shows it vs GTX 280 SLI anyway. The nvidia cards win in Crysis, Quakewars, Assasins Creed and Oblivion. The 4870's beat 2 x GTX280's in COD4, The witcher and Bioshock. For 1300$ the two GTX 280's should've wiped the floor with the ATI's in any game.

[XSAlliN]

600$ vs 649$ is a "fair" comparison IMO. If not unfair considering the extra 50$ you have to pay for a single 280.

Anandtech shows it vs GTX 280 SLI anyway. The nvidia cards win in Crysis, Quakewars, Assasins Creed and Oblivion. The 4870's beat 2 x GTX280's in COD4, The witcher and Bioshock. For 1300$ the two GTX 280's should've wiped the floor with the ATI's in any game.

Quad CS VS 2X Sli would be fair (price ratio). :up:

[AnXioZ]

Amazing performance from ATI's side. :up:
Now we just wait for quad CF and GTX280 will be completely blown from the market. (Of course if they manage to optimize their driver support)
I think that Nvidia will be adjusting it's prices accordingly, otherwise I don't see them coming out with positive profits.

[AriciU]

Quad CS VS 2X Sli would be fair (price ratio). :up:

I think QUAD CF would give like 1fps :P It's horribly bugged. 2 work the best from what i've seen in Tweaktown's review with 4850's (quad/tri/dual) -> http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1475/

[takamishanoku]

What an awesome card. ATI are FINALLY competitive again. But you have to wonder what games are left that can't run extremely well at high res (where you really don't need that much AA) other than crysis on any half decent graphics card these days. Does it really matter after 60fps??

[ceevee]

600$ vs 649$ is a "fair" comparison IMO. If not unfair considering the extra 50$ you have to pay for a single 280.

Anandtech shows it vs GTX 280 SLI anyway. The nvidia cards win in Crysis, Quakewars, Assasins Creed and Oblivion. The 4870's beat 2 x GTX280's in COD4, The witcher and Bioshock. For 1300$ the two GTX 280's should've wiped the floor with the ATI's in any game.

Actually the only game it really wins in is Bioshock and CoD4 (by about 10 frames). In the witcher 4850CF wins by 1.1 frames which is within any margin of error.


But then there is stuff like this where 4870 is just stomped:

[STaRGaZeR]

But then there is stuff like this where 4870 is just stomped:

http://techreport.com/r.x/radeon-hd-4870/etqw-2560.gif

:confused:

Welcome to the great world of CF, where you'll never know what to expect ;)

[mascaras]

Great - now where are these 1GB Vram cards, I want two :D


oficialy till now there is only 512mb version anounced !




btw: 4870 is great card no doubt!

we must recognize that AMD/ATi done a great job with HD4000 séries :up:


anandtech review is very good !



best regards

[Trunks]

HD4870

me likes :yepp:

[lyl]

Reviews are great! I was really interested in seeing the CF results.

Thanks guys


Are there any retailers selling it yet?

[kryptobs2000]

Is the 4870x2 still scheduled to be released next month?

[SKYMTL]

Of course none of the reviews show GTX280 SLI for a fair comparison.

HD4870 CF = $600

GTX 280 SLI = $1200 - $1300

From every standpoint I can think of, that isn't a "fair comparison".

[y2kbos]

AMD wins single graphics card, Nvidia wins multi gpu

9800gtx + seems to be faster than HD4870 in Sli/ Crossfire, but HD4870 is the faster single card.

[AliG]

no, not at all, xfire scales better than sli, just give the 4800 drivers some time, g92's been out for over half a year now, those drivers are mature already. Also I don't see nvidia winning the multi-gpu high end either, if ati does get the 4870x2 to act as a single gpu, then there's no chance of that, however if it comes down to quadfire vs gtx 280 sli, then that might be a different story since not many games support crossfireX/quad sli very well

[JohnJohn]

AMD wins single graphics card, Nvidia wins multi gpu

9800gtx + seems to be faster than HD4870 in Sli/ Crossfire, but HD4870 is the faster single card.

OMG dude stop bashing ati, the benchs the 9800gtx+ sli won are like 3 and the rest ati wins by a very very healthy margin, and usually the ones the 9800gtx won are the ones were Cf doesnt work at all

[ToTTenTranz]

AMD wins single graphics card, Nvidia wins multi gpu

9800gtx + seems to be faster than HD4870 in Sli/ Crossfire, but HD4870 is the faster single card.

Erm.. no.

[jcool]

I'll wait for the 1GB version for sure. I'm not buying a new GFX card that has actually less Vram than my "old" card, lol.

[Motiv]

I'll wait for the 1GB version for sure. I'm not buying a new GFX card that has actually less Vram than my "old" card, lol.

Isn't that the same as not upgrading from a P4 until the new CPUs have more Mhz?

[jcool]

No, not really. The 4870 is fast, yes, but in order to handle the upcoming games on my 24" properly it will need a lot more than just 512MB.
You don't run a 5Ghz Yorkfield with 1GB DDR3 either... Speed is nothing without capacity.

[grimREEFER]

AMD wins single graphics card, Nvidia wins multi gpu

9800gtx + seems to be faster than HD4870 in Sli/ Crossfire, but HD4870 is the faster single card.

well, iv been saying this for a while now, and ill say it again:
both crossfire and sli use very simliar afr methods to balance the load between the cards, so they basically scale the same. so the card that is the faster single card will generally be also faster in sli/crossfire. exceptions are if that card in question is a dual gpu card. then it gets tricky.

[lyl]

Isn't that the same as not upgrading from a P4 until the new CPUs have more Mhz?

:rofl: ..no

simply put, you're trying to analogize capacity vs frequency.:idea:

[ToTTenTranz]

512Mb isn't enough for high(est)end anymore, that's for sure. I remember seeing a couple of games that scratch the 512Mb usage when in 1920*1200 + filters.

[LOE]

No, not really. The 4870 is fast, yes, but in order to handle the upcoming games on my 24" properly it will need a lot more than just 512MB.
You don't run a 5Ghz Yorkfield with 1GB DDR3 either... Speed is nothing without capacity.

The 4870 doesn't show any signs of being limited by the 512mb vram, most 24" displays have 1900x1200 native resolution, and that GPU is running even higher resolutions pretty well

1gb of vram only adds some size to the e-penis for now, it will take game devs a while to make games that use that much textures. And as far as I know ATi has more efficient texture compression than nVIDIA

GDDR5 must be in really tight supply, hope availability gets better soon

IMO the GPU itself has a lot of headroom for improvement via drivers, I expect a lot more performance gain in CF, and even in single GPU as well

[waver_01]

LOLOLOLOL @ nvidiots in this thread

ceevee are you seriously comparing a $1300 to $600 solution? :rofl:

oh and 4870X2 will take the single card crown, obviously, those are just the hard facts man

[disruptfam]

ati ftw!!!!

how about some 4870 x3 and x 4 :)

[AriciU]

[H] review is up too :up:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUyNCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

LE: Just finished reading it. I'm surprised they only used 3 games to test. It seemed like a very rushed review. Hope they go into more detail with CF and more benches.

[eric66]

haha the only review that saves nvidia is the one that gamespot posted worst of all :ROTF: bad thing is that all gamers will look at that tests before buying

[perkam]

I'm only going to say this once.

Ceevee, the 4870 is $299, the GTX 280 is $649.

The impracticality of your comparison would already be apparent had you gone on a tirade with GTX 260 numbers because even that is a $100 more and not in the same segment. Respect the card for what you get for $299. Had it been $599 your views would have been valid, but it isn't.

The 4870X2 will be the competitor to the SINGLE GTX 280. Prices are what set segments in the GPU market, not your definition of segment equality.

Someone who is considering the 4870 on the ~$300 segment but wishes to see the Nvidia equivalent ISN'T going to check out the GTX 280 just because you want him to. He/She will check out the GX2 (which is $430+) and the GTX 260 at best.

A proper comparison would be 4870CF ($599) vs GTX 280 ($649). You don't compare a Mercedes with a Ferrari, you don't compare a single 4870 with a GTX 280, even if the former's performance comes very close to the latters.

Perkam

[AriciU]

haha the only review that saves nvidia is the one that gamespot posted worst of all :ROTF: bad thing is that all gamers will look at that tests before buying

:ROTF: How the hell did Gamespot get those BS results in COD4 when everyone else shown the card performing the best in that game.

[gOJDO]

Finally, AMD have done something right. It's time to back to ATi again.

[wickedld9]

Another one.... http://www.legitreviews.com/article/734/1/

[Mr.X]

I'm soooo tempted right now to order the GeCube HD4870 for 249 Euros. I'm not sure how long I'll have to wait for it though....

[SKYMTL]

As for the [H] review, it should be said that EVERYONE'S review of these cards was rushed. Reviewers only received their cards earlier in the week which really doesn't leave much time for anything in terms of content.

From all the reviews I have been reading today, the only one that really stands out for me the that Gamespot review. What happened there? :shakes:

[disruptfam]

when are the 1gb version's available?

Would i see much difference @ 1920 x 1200 ???

I'm getting 2 x 4870 on a x48 board.e8400 @ 4ghz

cheeers!!

[zerazax]

Knowing gamespot, they probably got paid by nvidia $ :p:

[shiznit93]

Knowing gamespot, they probably got paid by nvidia $ :p:
Wouldn't put it past them. I don't visit that site anymore since the Gerstman crap (I actually blocked it in the router lol), were their totally different or something?

[AriciU]

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_4850_4870_performance/

GTX 260 beats the 4870 in COD4 according to them...

[natty]

When are we gonna see 4870's on newegg?

[865pe]

Nvidia muss more price cut :down:

[Luka_Aveiro]

Nvidia muss more price cut :down:

I've heard from a relatively reliable source (not usually wrong about his sayings) that a 448MB GTX260 might be on schedule, just like it happened with 8800GTS 640MB/320MB. I don't know it's estimated price, but surely sound like an interesting move from nVidia...

[FischOderAal]

Nvidia muss more price cut :down:

Not so easy with a chip that big ;) They'll have to wait until they get their G200 in 55 nm, then they might cut the price.

[Trunks]

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_4850_4870_performance/

GTX 260 beats the 4870 in COD4 according to them...

Wow, what a surprise... :rolleyes:

[perkam]

When are we gonna see 4870's on newegg?Should be here by the end of this week or first week of July. Around the same time 9800GTX+ should start hitting GTX+s too :)

@Firingsquad numbers. The GTX 260 numbers look inflated. Compare them to GTX 280 numbers. The margin is WAY too small at higher resolutions in COD4.

@Luka. That would be amazing for $299, but the slightly lesser performance might hurt the GTX 260's overall image.

Perkam

[Mr.X]

I couldn't resist any more and just ordered one. :p:
Hopefully I won't be waiting long, I can't stand my pathetic 7900GT any longer!

[perkam]

I couldn't resist any more and just ordered one. :p:
Hopefully I won't be waiting long, I can't stand my pathetic 7900GT any longer!May need to crank that Q6600 a tad higher to avoid bottleneck, but you're good to go with either of the offerings this time around, unlike last time where Nvidia had the undeniable advantage ;)

Perkam

[Luka_Aveiro]

@Luka. That would be amazing for $299, but the slightly lesser performance might hurt the GTX 260's overall image.

Perkam

yap, you're right about that, but GTX260 has some favorable points over HD4870, like slightly lower power consumption, better stock cooling and it has nVidias drivers (yes, I love nVidia drivers + nTune)

I'm not even talking about PhysX, because right now it's nothing but 3 maps in UT3 and a Vantage issue, although some people claim Grid benefits performance improvements with PhysX, I'm not sure if thats true or not, but the game really seems to run smoother at level 8 AA...

Anyway, I think everyone going with an HD4870 should replace stock cooler with an aftermarket solution, the stock cooler sucks.

[emoners]

when are the 1gb version's available?

Would i see much difference @ 1920 x 1200 ???

I'm getting 2 x 4870 on a x48 board.e8400 @ 4ghz

cheeers!!

i would also like to know...does 1gb really make a difference?

[oerekum]

I have a pair of Club3d 4870s on preorder! Can't wait..

[jcool]

The 4870 doesn't show any signs of being limited by the 512mb vram, most 24" displays have 1900x1200 native resolution, and that GPU is running even higher resolutions pretty well

1gb of vram only adds some size to the e-penis for now, it will take game devs a while to make games that use that much textures. And as far as I know ATi has more efficient texture compression than nVIDIA

GDDR5 must be in really tight supply, hope availability gets better soon

IMO the GPU itself has a lot of headroom for improvement via drivers, I expect a lot more performance gain in CF, and even in single GPU as well

Yeah, maybe 512MB with enough compression/optimizations is just enough right now, but that's not the point. Back when I bought my 8800 GTS 640, most people went for the cheaper 320MB version instead, saying the big vram isn't needed. Look where they are now, most games are unplayable in decent resolutions, whereas any G80 with enough ram and decent clocks still owns any game in DX9 mode.
I benched my G80 vs. an 8800 GT in Crysis, and my old G80 kicked the G92's butt in 1920x1200 simply because the GT ran out of vram.

512MB is fine for CF with AFR (IF it works properly, that is) but it's simply not enough to make a card last at least one year.

I seriously hope they will release a 1GB version at all, if not I'll have to go GTX 260 :>

[Lestat]

after all the hype i was expecting better.

and to say it beats some SLI setups' is nothing special since those that it beat,, SLI wasnt even working properly correct? better make sure before you go spouting off that it beats sli...

[CarvedInside]

Great video cards!:clap: It was about time! Can't wait to see the first HIS IceQ version of 4870 or even 4870x2:cool:

Nvidia take a look here, this is The Way It's Meant To Be Played!

[ripken204]

ya i want a 1GB card as well.
my 8800GTS 320MB absolutely sucked when i moved up to 1680x1050.
and my 8800GTS 512MB still chokes in Oblivion with high textures.
a 1GB card better come soon!

[Shadowmage]

after all the hype i was expecting better.


RV770 is actually better than promised by the hype :up:

I don't think anyone expected the 4870 to beat the GTX260. It is amazing that a 260mm^2 chip could do that to a 560mm^2 chip.

[GAR]

I gotta tell you, moving from nvidia to ATI, ATI has good image quality, better than nvidia.

[bowman]

I gotta tell you, moving from nvidia to ATI, ATI has good image quality, better than nvidia.

Really?

There are few comparison screens out there, both of IQ and AA/AF performance. Most reviewers fire up FRAPS and do some pretty graphs, that's it.

Comparison shots would be nice and I wish reviewers would actually do that.

[Clairvoyant129]

LOL @ the Nvidia fanboys... Ceevee etc.

2x HD4870 is a perfect and fair comparison to a single GTX 280. First of all 2x HD4870s are cheaper than a single GTX 280 and not to mention, in half of the cases, 2x HD4870s destroys 2x GTX 280s.

HD4870 is definitely the best card for the price.

Read'em and weep Nvidia fanboys!

A pair of Radeon HD 4850s can come close to the performance of a GeForce GTX 280, and a pair of Radeon HD 4870s are faster across the board - not to mention that they should be $50 less than the GTX 280 and will work on motherboards with Intel-chipsets. Quite possibly more important than the fact that AMD's multi-GPU strategy has potential is the fact that it may not even be necessary for the majority of gamers

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=23

Time to ditch the ****ty nvidia chipsets for Intel chipsets and pick up 2 HD4870s!

[Luka_Aveiro]

I gotta tell you, moving from nvidia to ATI, ATI has good image quality, better than nvidia.

Yes, it does by default, but you can achieve the same color correction with nVidia's cards.

[Kingcarcas]

I didn't know you could cuss in reviews from Canada :D

[eleeter]

:ROTF: How the hell did Gamespot get those BS results in COD4 when everyone else shown the card performing the best in that game.

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_4850_4870_performance/

GTX 260 beats the 4870 in COD4 according to them...

I don't know about Gamespot, they seem to be lost in space with that "review" or whatever it is.

Firingsquad, they show a pattern of making NV look good, no surprise to me.

And if it makes the Nvidia crowd feel better, yes NV still has the performance crown. Problem is, those products/price brackets occupy ~2% of total sales.

[Clairvoyant129]

I don't know about Gamespot, they seem to be lost in space with that "review" or whatever it is.

Firingsquad, they show a pattern of making NV look good, no surprise to me.

And if it makes the Nvidia crowd feel better, yes NV still has the performance crown. Problem is, those products/price brackets occupy about 2% of total sales.

Yea, looking at firingsquad benches, they always make Nvidia look good, I wouldn't trust their benchmarks.

Yea Nvidia has the performance crown, but who in their right mind would pick up 2x GTX 280s, when you can pick up 2x HD 4870s for $700 cheaper. Not to mention, according to Anand, CF has the potential to scale higher than SLI. Once AMD works out the kinks in their drive, I'm sure HD4870s in single and CF will outperform single/SLI GTX 280s more frequently.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

2 HIS 4870's headed my way as we speak, newegg has em boys get em while they're hot!

@whoever commented about a comparison between 8800 320 mb and 8800 640 mb, it doesn't work the same way with different architectures, the ATI cards do MUCH better with clearing large textures out and replacing them so that you dont really need as much vram

[Hard H20]

FYI

3 Flavors of the 4870 are in stock @ the Egg. $309.99 + $7.59 shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=4870

[ripken204]

2 HIS 4870's headed my way as we speak, newegg has boys get while they're hot!

@whoever commented about a comparison between 8800 320 mb and 8800 640 mb, it doesn't work the same way with different architectures, the ATI cards do MUCH better with clearing large textures out and replacing them so that you dont really need as much vram

they must have just put them up!
wow this is getting better and better by the minute!

[Papu]

Yes, it does by default, but you can achieve the same color correction with nVidia's cards.

care to share some of these magic secrets? watching video on this 8600 is bawls

[lyl]

they must have just put them up!
wow this is getting better and better by the minute!

About 25min ago ;)

[Papu]

yap, you're right about that, but GTX260 has some favorable points over HD4870, like slightly lower power consumption, better stock cooling and it has nVidias drivers (yes, I love nVidia drivers + nTune)

I'm not even talking about PhysX, because right now it's nothing but 3 maps in UT3 and a Vantage issue, although some people claim Grid benefits performance improvements with PhysX, I'm not sure if thats true or not, but the game really seems to run smoother at level 8 AA...

Anyway, I think everyone going with an HD4870 should replace stock cooler with an aftermarket solution, the stock cooler sucks.

oh gawd
1- powerplay isn't working , but thats not going to help load issues but only idle heat and power consumption , and maybe load heat if the fan isnt spinning like it should
2- what!! Nvidia drivers are Bawls , nvidia controll panel is such a pain! , CCC is much much better...

bah physX can you say Havok?

cool you have a 4870?...... if not you cant really comment on the stock cooler from reading about it on DA INTARWEBZ:rofl:

you also forgot to mention that the 260 is a good bit more expensive?

[emoners]

FYI

3 Flavors of the 4870 are in stock @ the Egg. $309.99 + $7.59 shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=4870

hmmm which to choose...:rolleyes:

[96redformula7]

Wow, several of the 4850s dropped to about 150 after MIR @ newegg(See slickdeals.net)

[clayton]

That's one hell of a card for $299. It's really close and almost equal in some games to the really expensive GTX 280. I think ATI got this man...

[bill_d]

hmmm which to choose...:rolleyes:

lol OOS

[Linchpin]

Is this card compatible with current HD3870 coolers or not?

[ripken204]

so doing a quick search i see that many people recommend VisionTek??
im coming from NVIDIA so i have no idea for these ATI AIB Partners.

[clayton]

so doing a quick search i see that many people recommend VisionTek??
im coming from NVIDIA so i have no idea for these ATI AIB Partners.

I usually buy from companies in the top 2 warranty. But just so you know, they are no EVGA counterpart for ATI's. :(

[seamumc]

Been a long time since one of my machines sported an ATI (now AMD) video card, (I still remember the 9700 pro fondly). The price/performance is simply too good to ignore; keep in mind I have the money and lack of sense to buy a GTX 280. Just ordered the PowerColor brand and will have it in a couple days, can't wait to see how it performs on my setup.

[seamumc]

Is this card compatible with current HD3870 coolers or not?

Canuk's review list several coolers they found compatible, including the Thermalright HR-03 GT.

For some odd reason I can't access the first page of their review, but if you do a google search you can access all the other pages.

[keninishna]

Is newegg out of stock allready? or were they just updating inventory.

[YMAA]

Is this card compatible with current HD3870 coolers or not?

Apparently the Accelero S1 from Arctic Cooling and the HR03 GT from Thermalright fit. Just from what I've heard on here.

[Luka_Aveiro]

oh gawd
1- powerplay isn't working , but thats not going to help load issues but only idle heat and power consumption , and maybe load heat if the fan isnt spinning like it should

The fan is working, like it should, read expreview review.

2- what!! Nvidia drivers are Bawls , nvidia controll panel is such a pain! , CCC is much much better...

That's your opinion, I have mine. Agree to disagree.

bah physX can you say Havok?

I'm talking about GPU PhysX, not CPU :rolleyes:

cool you have a 4870?...... if not you cant really comment on the stock cooler from reading about it on DA INTARWEBZ:rofl:

Then no one can talk about performance numbers red on DA INTARWEBZ :rofl: :rolleyes:, unless they don't own the cards. :rolleyes:
I thought that was what reviews were for, to give us a slight idea of what the card is, without having to purchase it :rolleyes:
I saw no review talking good about temps or noise, most of them don't even show temperatures, guess a negative point like that would ruin a bit of hype, huh?

you also forgot to mention that the 260 is a good bit more expensive?

I was talking about an hypothetical 448MB GTX260.

care to share some of these magic secrets? watching video on this 8600 is bawls

If magic secrets are ignorance erasers, here you go:

Video Image Settings (http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2006/avideoisgt1.jpg)


Video Color Settings (http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/5795/avideocolorsba5.jpg)


Desktop Color Settings (http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/9649/adesktopcsie3.jpg)

Pictures taken from my desktop, if you would like to learn a little more, feel free to PM me. :)

[seamumc]

Is newegg out of stock allready? or were they just updating inventory.

Woo, looks like I got my PowerColor 4870 in the nick of time. Newegg charged my card and says its good to go and I've never had a stock issue with them in the 7 or so years I've been a customer.

When I ordered mine an hour ago the HIS and PowerColor were in stock, the Sapphire wasn't.

[natty]

keep in mind I have the money and lack of sense to buy a GTX 280

i lol'd

[Hard H20]

Woo, looks like I got my PowerColor 4870 in the nick of time. Newegg charged my card and says its good to go and I've never had a stock issue with them in the 7 or so years I've been a customer.

When I ordered mine an hour ago the HIS and PowerColor were in stock, the Sapphire wasn't.


I made the cut as well, ordered 2, card charged. I'm hoping this was not a stock screw up and they actually had these in stock when we ordered. Now the nervous pace begins until Fedex arrives tomorrow. :up:

[Whokidmo]

im sorry i must have smoked too much good stuff last night after my finals... cause i just read hot hardware review and 4870 SLI beat 1 GTX 280 by 1fps!!!!!!!!!! plus 9800+ beat 4850 and in SLI beat both 4870 and 4850 in CF mode... i'd rather buy 1 gtx280 now and upgrade to SLI or tri-SLI later then buy 2 4870s in CF now or that new RV770 chip... nvidia got it right again just like the 8800gtx... now i just wish SLI worked on an intel chipset :(

[Miwo]

ugh, Newegg sales tax =[

[Heretic]

Best Buy also has (or did, not sure if they still do) the 4870 in stock with free shipping and at MSRP to boot

[SKYMTL]

I didn't know you could cuss in reviews from Canada :D
Shhhhhh....I let that one slip in @ 3:00am. :D

[natty]

Best Buy also has (or did, not sure if they still do) the 4870 in stock with free shipping and at MSRP to boot

and with sales tax to boot

[nr2134]

im sorry i must have smoked too much good stuff last night after my finals... cause i just read hot hardware review and 4870 SLI beat 1 GTX 280 by 1fps!!!!!!!!!! plus 9800+ beat 4850 and in SLI beat both 4870 and 4850 in CF mode... i'd rather buy 1 gtx280 now and upgrade to SLI or tri-SLI later then buy 2 4870s in CF now or that new RV770 chip... nvidia got it right again just like the 8800gtx... now i just wish SLI worked on an intel chipset :(

If you only play Crysis I guess that would be the right choice. If you make a decision like this on one review and results from one game........I guess that really was some good stuff thats still affecting your judgement.

[SKYMTL]

Is this card compatible with current HD3870 coolers or not?

Sorry, we were getting hammered for the last 12 hours. Here is our aftermarket cooler install page. (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review-21.html)

[natty]

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/atiradeonhd4870_062408145208/17137.png

This has to be an error right? Crossfire 4870's scoring over twice as high as a single 4870???

[Clairvoyant129]

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/atiradeonhd4870_062408145208/17137.png

This has to be an error right? Crossfire 4870's scoring over twice as high as a single 4870???

Not an error. Read Anand's conclusion... according to them, crossfire has the potential to scale higher than SLI. Once AMD releases new drivers, I'm sure you will see near or close to perfect CF scaling in more games.

[RedBull78]

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/atiradeonhd4870_062408145208/17137.png

This has to be an error right? Crossfire 4870's scoring over twice as high as a single 4870???

No error. Look at the resolution it was tested on. That's where multi-gpu comes in handy bro.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

woohoo they are all gone from newegg, didn't see that one coming ;)

I'm glad I was the first to get my 2 x HIS :D i did the rush processing so maybe mine will be the fastzors shipped lol

[natty]

Not an error. Read Anand's conclusion... according to them, crossfire has the potential to scale higher than SLI. Once AMD releases new drivers, I'm sure you will see near or close to perfect CF scaling in more games.

The scaling in that picture is better than perfect. How is that possible?

[RedBull78]

My mobo has one 16x and second 4x PCI-e lanes.. how much performance loss would I encounter if i paired 2x4870's in cf mode?

[Clairvoyant129]

The scaling in that picture is better than perfect. How is that possible?

I understand your point, but look at other games where CF scales really, well near perfection.

But you are right, I'm actually not sure either about how it had better than perfect scaling, I'm just going by what Anand said.

[natty]

I understand your point, but look at other games where CF scales really well, near perfection.

I'm actually not sure about how it had better than perfect scaling, I'm just going by what Anand said.

I'm not debating crossfire scaling. I'm pointing to what looks like an error in that pic. Perfect scaling there would be 111.4 fps for the dual 4870's. And it shows 118.4 :confused:

[zerazax]

greater than 100% scaling is due to margin of error combination for both single card and dual card tests in the vast majority of cases.

we also tested single card performance on an nvidia system and crossfire performance on an intel system, so the different computers will also add margin of error.

two card solutions generally don't scale at greater than 100% except in extraordinarily odd situations (where rebalancing loads might help with scaling on both individual cards -- but that's odd and rare).

that was posted by Derek Wilson, an editor on Anandtech about the scaling

[RedBull78]

I'm not debating crossfire scaling. I'm pointing to what looks like an error in that pic. Perfect scaling there would be 111.4 fps for the dual 4870's. And it shows 118.4 :confused:

I think you just want to point out an error in his statement more than what you see in that pic. I think the word perfect should not apply when comes to computuer stuff.

[Unbornchild]

Sorry, we were getting hammered for the last 12 hours. Here is our aftermarket cooler install page. (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review-21.html)

Wow, that thing occupies what, 5 slots??? Or don't i see it right... do you have a horizontally angled picture how tall that cooler actually is?! Anyway, in a crossfire setup these would be impossible, right?

Just asking out of curiousity.
For myself, i wait for new powerplay results with Cat 8.7... and rivatuner of course.

[BrowncoatGR]

My mobo has one 16x and second 4x PCI-e lanes.. how much performance loss would I encounter if i paired 2x4870's in cf mode?
Probably not a good idea

[junkun13]

should i wait for the 4870X2 or get 2pcs of this now?

[Manicdan]

is it dumb for me to ask if my 2900xt full coverage DD waterblock will work on the 4870? im not scared to mod the block as long as the core and ram are in the same spots.

[RedBull78]

should i wait for the 4870X2 or get 2pcs of this now?

Don't wait if you're not planning to run 4gpu's in your system. As for me, since my mobo has only one true 16x pcie I have no choice but to wait.

[natty]

that was posted by Derek Wilson, an editor on Anandtech about the scaling

why are they putting margin of error into benchmarks? still confused :confused:

[RedBull78]

Probably not a good idea

And what about the fact that my mobo doesnt have pcie 2.0?

I can't believe im already behind even tho i upgraded my pc not too long ago...Wow.

[eleeter]

Sorry, we were getting hammered for the last 12 hours. Here is our aftermarket cooler install page. (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review-21.html)

After reading about 8 reviews, yours was probably the best. Especially mounting an aftermarket HSF, nice info and very helpful.

I think [H] did the worst job. 3 games tested? And they state that is more than enough, I strongly disagree.

[zerazax]

why are they putting margin of error into benchmarks? still confused :confused:

Because they probably did more than one run and certain scenarios, the fps in CF was much higher than usual, driving the average of those runs higher and thus appearing to scale > 100%

Either way though, the scaling is apparently excellent in those games

[zerazax]

After reading about 8 reviews, yours was probably the best. Especially mounting an aftermarket HSF, nice info and very helpful.

I think [H] did the worst job. 3 games tested? And they state that is more than enough, I strongly disagree.

I personally thought HardwareCanucks and TechReports were the best overall in terms of technical overview, quality and quantity of games, and settings and so on. Kudos SKYMTL!

[natty]

Because they probably did more than one run and certain scenarios, the fps in CF was much higher than usual, driving the average of those runs higher and thus appearing to scale > 100%

Either way though, the scaling is apparently excellent in those games

Whatever they did it was pretty stupid. People assume they are looking at raw numbers taken from the same exact scenario. And as they admitted, better than 100% scaling only happens in 'extraordinarily odd situations'.

:down: for anandtech

[Eson]

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/atiradeonhd4870_062408145208/17137.png

This has to be an error right? Crossfire 4870's scoring over twice as high as a single 4870???

Nothing is identical, but they can be very similar. So what if the second-slave HD4870 were a few percent better then the master card? You would see an increment of over 100%.

[aMp]

Nothing is identical, but they can be very similar. So what if the second-slave HD4870 were a few percent better then the master card? You would see an increment of over 100%.

Not possible unless they were clocked differently or had different timings. This is a methodology issue, not a hardware issue.

[natty]

Nothing is identical, but they can be very similar. So what if the second-slave HD4870 were a few percent better then the master card? You would see an increment of over 100%.

If that was the case then they should put a footnote at the bottom to explain that one card was better than the other. Anyway, I think zerazax already solved this mystery for us.

[eleeter]

Anandtech's testing has been sloppy at times, I think this is another instance of that.

It doesn't take anything away from the 4870, if that is what some people are getting at, that the review is flawed and the 4870 is not all that. Read the other 20 reviews, the vast majority agree that AMD has the best parts in their price category, especially the 4870. It largely invalidates the GTX260, which needs to drop to $300 to level things out.

[zerazax]

That's why I look at all the reviews then make the judgment for myself based on the general consensus. And in the case of the 4870, the general view overwhelmingly is that it matches the GTX260 easily and at $100 cheaper, it is clearly the best buy

[natty]

Yea, I'm not trying to put down 4870, just the pinheads over at Anandtech for artificially inflating results.

[onewingedangel]

well, i looked at the 4870 specs and assumed that it was gonna perform like a 4850.
i was wrong, and i think im gonna buy a visiontek 4870 now.
has anyone overclocked the card yet?

My HD4870 overclocking for the HEXUS review (even though the clock speeds didn't make it into the final review) weren't great 760MHz/4100MHz (yes only 10MHz extra on the core)

Apparantly theres an issue with the HD4870's fan control much like the HD4850, where the fans aren't spinning up like they're meant to so the overclocking will likely improve when a BIOS update is released (as sapphire have told me they've done for the HD4850) or when you use an aftermarket cooler.

[SKYMTL]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Believe it or not, I appreciate the feedback from the community much more than anything a manufacturer can say. Glad to know the review is going to good use.

Wow, that thing occupies what, 5 slots??? Or don't i see it right... do you have a horizontally angled picture how tall that cooler actually is?! Anyway, in a crossfire setup these would be impossible, right?

This depends on quite a few factors such as:

- space between PCI-E slots
- Height of fan
- Orientation of HR-03

You can mount the HR-03 in two ways; one wrapped around the card with the heatpipes "straddling" the card and one like the way I installed it.

It takes up a total of 4 slots.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

as soon as atitool gets their stuff together well be all set to oc these effectively :D. I think that once thermal paste is reapplied and the oc's get goon were gonna see a 280 beater in quite a few instances

[865pe]

4870 review

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14990

[Tonucci]

Agree with everyone else, great review @ HardwareCanucks. Min FPS and AVG FPS, Several resolutions, AA and quality settings, OC'ed CPU, 4Gb ram, dx9 vs dx10 etc... Everything needed to understand how the cards perform in various situations :)

[Papu]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Believe it or not, I appreciate the feedback from the community much more than anything a manufacturer can say. Glad to know the review is going to good use.



This depends on quite a few factors such as:

- space between PCI-E slots
- Height of fan
- Orientation of HR-03

You can mount the HR-03 in two ways; one wrapped around the card with the heatpipes "straddling" the card and one like the way I installed it.

It takes up a total of 4 slots.

yes awesome review , the graph that shows heat before and after the cooler is replace is amazing :D

[Aberration]

That hardware canucks review is good. Looking at COD4 at the higher res, makes you wonder what the 4870 performance would be with 1GB.

[safan80]

I'm hoping this will force nvidia to allow SLI on intel boards.

[Darkatom]

So what is the best ddr3 intel board to run crossfire with ?

[ceevee]

LOL @ the Nvidia fanboys... Ceevee etc.

2x HD4870 is a perfect and fair comparison to a single GTX 280. First of all 2x HD4870s are cheaper than a single GTX 280 and not to mention, in half of the cases, 2x HD4870s destroys 2x GTX 280s.

HD4870 is definitely the best card for the price.

Read'em and weep Nvidia fanboys!



http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=23

Time to ditch the ****ty nvidia chipsets for Intel chipsets and pick up 2 HD4870s!

WTF is this idiot talking about???

This is why I responded to this thread to begin with, and yeah if you are going to say 4870 has taken the ultimate performance crown then you are wrong.

All the fanboys (like this one) saying that "in half of the cases, 2x HD4870s destroys 2x GTX 280s."

What complete and utter bull:banana::banana::banana::banana:. What part of middle school math was too hard for you?

[ceevee]

I'm only going to say this once.

Ceevee, the 4870 is $299, the GTX 280 is $649.

The impracticality of your comparison would already be apparent had you gone on a tirade with GTX 260 numbers because even that is a $100 more and not in the same segment. Respect the card for what you get for $299. Had it been $599 your views would have been valid, but it isn't.

The 4870X2 will be the competitor to the SINGLE GTX 280. Prices are what set segments in the GPU market, not your definition of segment equality.

Someone who is considering the 4870 on the ~$300 segment but wishes to see the Nvidia equivalent ISN'T going to check out the GTX 280 just because you want him to. He/She will check out the GX2 (which is $430+) and the GTX 260 at best.

A proper comparison would be 4870CF ($599) vs GTX 280 ($649). You don't compare a Mercedes with a Ferrari, you don't compare a single 4870 with a GTX 280, even if the former's performance comes very close to the latters.

Perkam

Perkam,

My issue is with the posters who are claiming that ATI has won the ultimate performance crown over and over in this thread and hurling personal insults at anyone who doesn't agree with them.

ATI has not won the ultimate performance crown. I am not talking about price, or die size or anything other than the fact that Nvidia is still number 1 for the highest maximum performance.

[Shadowmage]

WTF is this idiot talking about???

This is why I responded to this thread to begin with, and yeah if you are going to say 4870 has taken the ultimate performance crown then you are wrong.

All the fanboys (like this one) saying that "in half of the cases, 2x HD4870s destroys 2x GTX 280s."

What complete and utter bull:banana::banana::banana::banana:. What part of middle school math was too hard for you?

I'm not saying that he's right, but you're not right either: you just linked 1x4870 vs. 1xGTX 280 ;)

[Papu]

Perkam,

My issue is with the posters who are claiming that ATI has won the ultimate performance crown over and over in this thread and hurling personal insults at anyone who doesn't agree with them.

ATI has not won the ultimate performance crown. I am not talking about price, or die size or anything other than the fact that Nvidia is still number 1 for the highest maximum performance.

congratulations are in order then for winning that <5% of the market , people who pay 600+ euros on a Gfx are silly..

[ceevee]

congratulations are in order then for winning that <5% of the market , people who pay 600+ euros on a Gfx are silly..

Maybe someone with your personal financial constraints would be silly, please do not judge others that may not have them. ;)

Anyway I'm done with this thread.

cya.

[Papu]

Maybe someone with your personal financial constraints would be silly, please do not judge others that may not have them. ;)

Anyway I'm done with this thread.

cya.
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/9088/moneyir8.jpg

[natty]

the way some people talk it makes you think that they own vast amounts of stock in ATI or Nvidia

[Manicdan]

look at who posts scores on ORB, its was nothing but 8800gts for quite some time.

the question of whos the performance king per price range is different than whos got a card with more stuff packed in