What the point?? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by fireice2
Crank GTX or GT fan 100% and u get? You guess...a crappy noisy stock cooler :ROTF:
Stop telling nonsense please :shakes:
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What the point?? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by fireice2
Crank GTX or GT fan 100% and u get? You guess...a crappy noisy stock cooler :ROTF:
Stop telling nonsense please :shakes:
Having survived X1900 XT cooler in the past, i think i can withstand most if not all stock GPU cooler of todays cards. :D
Just got mine(Sapphire) today @ 4pm dropped like a brick on my doorstep(sure UPS guy hates me).
First Impression's are good, the card is not to long, the hSF is nice and plenty of heat pipe, very similar to the 8800GTS in length and cooler design that it replaces. Could not careless about the women on the card though, ohwell wont see her much anyway=]
at first boot up, of course idle was 79C Did XML fan settings, and made 2 profiles for now. low idle was 42C @74F room temp. Load is in pic with ATITOOL arti scan. Set fan speed to 50% which is damn loud..it was no joke when people said this fan is loud, i tried 100%..but reminded me of Tornando fans or delta..so went back down to 50% for oc settings.no thanks. Made other profile for 2D @ 25%, near silent..good stuff..my system is loud enough
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/...2_Untitled.jpg
ok back to beers tonite, no work tommrow and i want to play some COD4!
BTW enjoy Shay Laren on my desktop
google her, trust me you wont be disappointed!
will try bios and ATI oc tool tommow..so far honestly this card runs fast enough in cod4 even at stock..no need to push it on her first day.
\
Covering up the background there eh?Quote:
Originally Posted by strange|ife
AMD surprise many people with 800 sp, many said "no it has 480sp" and it turned out to be false. I wouldnt be surprise if R700 has 2GB ...
(nordic hwardware was the only site suggest that it has 800sp since like May 15th or something)
but with all that 2GB GDDR5 i hope its not going to be over $550USD, $600 is my limit (499 just sounds a bit too good to be true, sure the lower the better heh) ... i was gonna drop that $650 on GTX 280 .. whew dodged that bullet, and bought a X38 DQ6 for R700 with PCI-E 2.0 slot (vs my old 680i )
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark-Energy
google id yout friend@
most of her pics are slutty
hey I wonder about your rigQuote:
Originally Posted by strange|ife
Is your 4870 bottlenecked with your processor?
Mine is too much bottlenecking :rofl:
4850 CF :ROTF:
He has the same CPU as mine OC to 3.6Ghz, if that bottleneck the HD4870 then I would have a serious problem with my rig. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by XCheater
Mine keeps scaling with more CPU power especially with crossfire, can see loads of difference between 4ghz and 4.25ghz.Quote:
Originally Posted by iTravis
hy to everyone
just mounted a Zalman VF1000 on the Shappire 4850 :welcome:
http://www.zalman.co.kr/images/produ...oler/rhs88.jpg
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7...nvf1000gi8.jpg
temps idle 32\33º more tests to come soon :D
regards
I did see a noticeable difference going from 3.4Ghz to 3.6Ghz but I'm just wondering this only applies to benching or in gaming performance as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mumid
I just got the E8400 and I don't know if I should swap with my Q6600 in my 1st rig or use it for my 2nd rig just died week ago.
For me theres a noticeable difference in 3dmark and in Crysis, talking around 1000 3dmarks + going from 4 to 4.25 ghz and round 3-4 frames higher in Crysis.Quote:
Originally Posted by iTravis
of course runing 4GHZ+ will net you better performance. Although i doubt there is much of a bottleneck running 3.6ghz on a quad with a single 4870..maybe in crossfire. But i dont have the proper board for crossfire. Holding out for the next years procs and mobos.
I havent ran 3dmark yet
crysis is cpu limited, even at high reses -> look the the pcgh test. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mumid
and that are the only 2 things that are cpu limited. :p
valve games scale better with higher cpu , tf2 , halflife 2 , css. :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Hornet331
how much fps you want, 300? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Papu
computerbase also has good reviews about the 4800 series which aren't in the OP:
ATi Radeon HD 4850 (CF) und HD 4870: http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/h...50_cf_hd_4870/
Radeon HD 4870 (CF) vs. GeForce GTX 260 (SLI): http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/h...e_gtx_260_sli/
they're in german though.
It is one of the best review : so many games are tested.Quote:
Originally Posted by RaZz!
I intend to play my CS:S at no less than 600 FPS, otherwise I would get screen lag and i wouldn't be leet pwnzors anymore :( :p:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hornet331
I am not sure if anyone is interested but the 1024MB version of the HD4870 will be out in the UK on the 31/7/08 and is currently priced at £234 ($400ish).
John
Thanks for the info. July 31st is a bit later than I thought though. What brand exactly?
+1Quote:
Originally Posted by cantankerous
I might jump on 4870 512MB for now then! Besides I can get this card for under £170.00 next week :). Decision decisions :p:
Yeah, and so do the rest of the games which are using an engine introduced in 2004.Quote:
Originally Posted by Papu
Seriously, you can play CS:S with GeForce 2. :(
doesnt dispute the fact that the engine scales better with a higher Cpu , i was just making a point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calmatory
and no you cant , an fx5200 gets <20 fps on very lowest settings 800x600.
also just got one of these :D
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/55419/APPROVED.jpg
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5Quote:
Originally Posted by Lightman
That is the link from the e-tailer selling the card (I really should have posted that earlier..sorry)
John
I ordered the evga 790i Ultra and 2x gtx 280's the day after they were in newegg; canceled the order right after I heard about 4870x2 and gtx 280 sub-par price/performance. :rofl:Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip_J_Fry
Glad I waited and got what I have below to serve the R700.
I kinda hope the 4870x2 kills the gtx 280 so i can pick 1 up cheap for sli ;)
more threads, faster video cards, more memory use and it will be a big problem.Quote:
Originally Posted by MpG
here is one that tested som interesting OC
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2740928
I think I have found the culprit: It's the FSB!
I did the following:
- changed my CPU clock from 2400 (9*266) to 1600 (6*266) - no change, 27 FPS
- changed my memory clock from 400 to 266 - no change, 27 FPS
- changed my FSB from 266 to 333 - success, 34 FPS
The FPS actually changed exactly according to my FSB change - a 25% increase in both cases.
It might still be memory bandwidth though, since with Intel CPUs the FSB is the limiting factor.
I have never actually seen any game that is limited by FSB or memory bandwidth nor any mention of such behaviour. I think we have found a new type of bottleneck here.
EDIT: I just ran another test: I decreased the memory clock to 266 while keeping the FSB at 333: Still 34 FPS. So it actually is the FSB.
Time for Nehalem, I'd say.
Did he say what card that was tested on? Gotta be careful now with the some of the nvidia cards overclocking based on the PCI-e frequency.
OkQuote:
Originally Posted by fornowagain
Here is another hint about these fast cards will be bottlenecked buy the FSB
Firingsquad did a review on HD4850 and HD4870 and one strange thing is that they differ more in performance when they are alone compared to running them in crossfire on the C2Q used in the test.
In this test (CoH) they hardly see any difference
http://news.firingsquad.com/hardware...ance/page9.asp
Compare that test with this where a slow Phenom 9600 is much faster than a C2Q (3,2 GHz) which indicate that CoH is very heavy on I/O
http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...l_q9450/14.htm
AMD is has much better I/O performance and that game may need a lot of I/O. HD4850 and HD4870 can handle huge amount of I/O and that has to go through the FSB. It could be that these cards can't perform at 100% on Intel
It seems Phenom rig performance get's better with high resolution. Really weird :shrug:Quote:
Originally Posted by gosh
No it isn'tQuote:
Originally Posted by Cooper
Amd has hypertransport 3.0 wich is much faster than the FSB on Intel. Also it doesn’t need to compete with memory traffic. The FSB on Intel is used for both I/O and memory. That has been enough until this year. Now when new games is scaling to more than one thread, video cards that can handle LOADS of I/O. The FSB on Intel can’t handle all that traffic (maybe if you OC using hydrogen ;) ).
The MHz isn’t that important, it is the speed between hardware that is important.
The fact that there's an explanation doesn't mean it isn't weird. I wonder if upping the PCIe bus will help performance at all. Good news for P45 owners anyway, their ability to get higher FSBs should help out quite a bitQuote:
Originally Posted by gosh
One reason why AMD has set the price for these cards so low could be that they know that the FSB limits Intel rigs using max performance. It would be out sooner or later that AMD will run games better in high res.Quote:
Originally Posted by YMAA
It is logical that AMD doesn’t lose as much FPS as Intel does if Intel is losing FPS because it is limited by the FSB.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnZS
http://www.powercolor.com/Global/pro...ProductID=2241
:up:
btw:
regardsQuote:
Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD4850 Spotted
Fudzilla released the first pictures of an upcoming ATI Radeon HD4850 model from Sapphire, the Toxic Radeon HD4850. This card looks very familiar. It reminds us of the successful Radeon X1950 Pro custom-design by Sapphire using the familiar Zalman VF900-Cu cooler. It uses small aluminum heatsinks over the memory chips, a copper heatsink is used to cool the card's VRM. Expect this card to come with overclocked parameters.
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6227/a3ic8.jpg
http://www.techpowerup.com/img/08-07-11/a1_thm.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/img/08-07-11/a2_thm.jpg
Fudzilla
http://www.techpowerup.com/65500/Sap...0_Spotted.html
I think this guy makes a lot of sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by gosh
I believe, er, someone (had a green name, forgot who he was) said that a pair of 3870 X2's are bottlenecked even @ 5 Ghz.
It's quite possible the GPU's are being starved of data, especially when you consider how slow and ancient FSB is compared to HT.
Maybe this accounts for the 'smoother experience'. I am almost inclined to agree. Moving to an intel E7200 from an SOCKET 939 AMD produced nearly NO difference subjectively for me!
It's too bad that AMD never caught onto this. If they disappear we might really lose this 'little gem' that they've got going.
Ugh so I should be thinking of a spider build since phenoms are better for gameing???
Ugh after I got done thinking up a whole Intel build (I'm sick when it comes to planning things ahead of time :rofl:).
I am glad they are keeping the speed of the memory the same despite the added density of having more/higher capacity chips on board. I was afraid latency would be higher causing even worse performance in games that don't need the extra memory.Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnZS
wow, that card is beautiful.Quote:
Originally Posted by mascaras
like the cooling, the pcb color, everything.
they better make a 4870 like that.
Good thing Intel is finally ditching FSB with X58. :D FSB has been around for so long already. hhehehe
exactly. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by fireice2
also this overclockersclub.com review shows some serious strange behaviour... Q9450 stock faster then a Qx9770 stock?
I dont think so. :p:
HD4850 Vs HD4870 on same core clock speed
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/rv770-2-part3-d.shtml#p18
No (non-russian, english understandable) word about the system setup there., could be that both are bottlenecked by the chipset?
EDIT: wait, i found it. Sorry!
Vista with only 2 GB RAM...Quote:
процессор Intel Core2 Extreme QX9650 (3000 MHz);
системная плата Zotac 790i Ultra на чипсете NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra;
оперативная память 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM Corsair 2000MHz (CAS (tCL)=5; RAS to CAS delay (tRCD)=5; Row Precharge (tRP)=5; tRAS=15);
жесткий диск WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA.
блок питания Tagan TG900-BZ 900W.
операционная система Windows Vista 32bit SP1; DirectX 10.1;
монитор Dell 3007WFP (30").
драйверы ATI версии CATALYST 8.6; NVIDIA версии 175.16 (9ххх серия) и 177.34 (GTX 2xx).
nForce 790i Ultra chipset mobo...
2Ghz DDR3 at 5-5-5-15?
Well, it'sHERE ...Quote:
much more interesting and real timings - 5-5-5-16-1T. DDR3-1333 results of the NVIDIA chipset were obtained with 6-6-6-18-1T timings,
Anyway, i don't know what the Russian text explains about what they maybe did to the card(s), overclock the 4850 or what?
4870 was underclocked to 625MHz. It's right there on the charts :p:
Anyway there should be a translated article soon www.digit-life.com
Quote:
PowerColor Launches World's First 2GB Frame Buffer Graphics Card for PCS HD 4850
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/1429/hd48502gzh5.jpg
TUL Corporation –a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards today announced the industry’s first 2GB memory graphics card — PowerColor PCS HD4850 2GB. As the successful HD4800 series launched around the end of June, PowerColor got many positive feedbacks from both customers and media; in order to provide the greatest solution to the market consistently, PowerColor today provide the new generation architecture — the first 2GB memory graphics card to market.
PowerColor PCS HD4850 2GB based on RV770 core chip, with 800 stream processors and 2GB of GDDR3 high-speed memory, provide the brute power needed to tackle the most intense 3D games, even those with artificial intelligence, physics operations and tessellation.
Besides 2GB solution, PowerColor also offers 1GB/512MB on-board memory with professional cooling system (PCS) design; provide a series of best choice with the complete product line. This new series features Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1, CrossFireX™ technology, also support for PCI Express® 2.0, built-in HDMI with 7.1 surround audio.
Industry’s first 2GB frame buffer and massive memory bandwidth up to 57.6GB/sec. Memory size makes a great impact on performance, even a powerful GPU can suffer from bottlenecks due to slow and insufficient video memory. The more the memory buffer, the more the data graphics can be saved - thus eliminating the need to access system memory and providing faster graphical performance. To satisfy the latest and upcoming games requirements, PowerColor PCS HD4850 2GB can fulfill high video memory request of those games and delivers high throughput for interactive visualization of large models and high-performance for real time processing of large textures and frames, enables the highest quality and resolution full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA).
With PowerColor PCS solution, the unique fan control technology will detect the temperature automatically, and the fan speed will adjust with it. Based on this new technology and PCS cooling system, PowerColor reduce up to 10°C temperature, provide the cool environment for gamer to enjoy the Full HD experience.
PowerColor announced a new image along with new series of products. PCS is the abbreviation of “Professional Cooling System”, which represents an efficient cooling solution, ensures a lower temperature environment.
“We hope this new image could let gamers be much easier to recognize and deepen their impression about our own design Cooling System.” Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation says, “PowerColor PCS solution ensures a cooler operating environment for GPU and memory for overclocking, also extend the product life.”
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/1...ture434cc2.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/65764/Pow...S_HD_4850.html
regards
2gb but still 256bit...
rofl.. 2gb gddr3, screw that, give me 1gb 4870 with gddr5 and im a happy man...
Catalyst 8.7 Leaked from ASUS :
http://www.hisdarkness.de/2008/07/at...aked-von-asus/
First Reports : Huge Improvements in Mass Effect .
:up:
powercolor's cores are @ 665 instead of 625?
right now on newegg, they only have a 512mb @ 625mhz
Quote:
Originally Posted by whocaresbg
Must be older... I have the version from Guru3D, has number 8.52-080625a-066081EQuote:
Der Display Driver trägt die Versionsnummer v8.51.1,
Seeing a gaming card with 2GB i really hope ATI keep the price down on their FireGL series too, instant buy.
Some guys from other forums reports that is an early 8.8 beta .Quote:
Originally Posted by Unbornchild
Oh? Wooopiee!Quote:
Originally Posted by whocaresbg
It is for Vista 32 and 64
Its name:
Catalyst_8.7_beta_(8.52)_WinVista.exe (69,494 KB)
The one on HisDarkness.de
for Vista 64 is 95,96 MB
so the older one is 25 MB bigger?
can you post a link to that forum ?Quote:
Originally Posted by whocaresbg
Quote:
Originally Posted by eric66
from the inf. file .
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8190/74027579ag3.jpgQuote:
0807071320-8.511-080624a
what does that mean ? seems from numbers this one is older am i right ?Quote:
Originally Posted by whocaresbg
Yes:
Asus's is 8.511-080624a,
Guru3D's is 8.52-080625a, so newer.
i just wanna get somethings clarified...which would be better for a 24" LCD, 512mb or the 1gb version? or there's no difference?
The 1GB would be more future proof of course and will allow for high resolution texture mods in current games so I'd say it would be worth it over the 512MB. As for whether there is a measured difference between the two currently, reviews speak for themselves ( eg at 1920x1200, 512MB is enough in current games ; but like I said in the future this will change )
:up:Quote:
PowerColor HD4870 PCS 1GB
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screen..._PCS_1G_01.png
In PCGH test, the Radeon HD 4870 is already very well and the more expensive Geforce GTX 260 times one after another bought from the cutting.
Fans of the new Radeon series but had to wait several weeks until it is now with Power Color the first AMD partner succeeded in creating one's own design of the HD 4870 on the market
In addition to a full gigabyte GDDR5 memory, the PowerColor HD 4870 PCS OC also house the cooling solution PCS based on a zero-Therm model. This according to manufacturer reached up to 20 degrees Celsius lower temperatures than the AMD reference cooler - and despite an increased GPU clock rate of RV770 chips target of around 800 megahertz
More information - for example for HD 4850 with two gigabytes of VRAM - there are at PowerColor.
Details about the release date, price or clock rates are still not sure.
http://translate.google.com/translat...F8&sl=de&tl=en
newer cards will be there then waiting....Quote:
Originally Posted by Chickenfeed
looks excellent :up:Quote:
Originally Posted by mascaras
hmm if it is not more then 250€ its mine. :D
Powercolor's cooler looks great! :up: is Powercolor a good brand?
Looks like a solid cooler with the extra cooling on VRM + the 1GB + 800 MHz core mmm yummy
Cant wait to see what other AIBs have in store such as the Toxic and ICEQ's
btw. anyone knows when ati enables/implants the powerplay features?
it still annoys me to see that the nothing has been done since the release, especial since the cards run most of the time in the idle state.
Something wrong with your card?... it runs my games superbly, and stays quiet. Guru3D's Catalyst 8.7 beta. The only overclock i've done on it is CCC Overdrive. Powerplay must be working...Quote:
Originally Posted by Hornet331
We don't have much choices in our country. :D Powercolor is good based on my client feedbacks. heheheQuote:
Originally Posted by emoners
HTH
Matt, you getting the X2?Quote:
Originally Posted by fireice2
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,65...chbetrachtung/Quote:
Originally Posted by Unbornchild
plus 8.7 it still don't works -> still the same 500mhz idle clock.
I smell you'll never see the clocks changed through drivers, it has been like that for all previous ATI cards. Clocks are controlled by the BIOS. For those with cards with the 500MHz clock the only solution would be a simple flashing. But still the advertised PowerPlay sucks in this generation... wonder why. My guess is lack of stability or flickering at those 160MHz.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hornet331
well in the pcg artikel amd itself says that this feature is gona be implanted by newer drivers. Still as you, i think they busted that feature. Maybe it a silicon bug and needs another revision to work probably...
ASUS released TOP Radeon 4870, 815MHz/925MHz
http://en.hardspell.com/doc/showcont.asp?news_id=3779
Very nice clocks, but I wouldn't buy it based on clocks alone without a different cooler. If someone can get a hold of this bios however that would be well wicked.Quote:
Originally Posted by onethreehill
i agree....the reference clocks are good enough but it's the damn coolers that need to be upgraded :shakes:Quote:
Originally Posted by cantankerous
Hm, if I read and understood everything right, one 4870 ("even" the 512Mb ver.) would be a considerable improvement to 2x 3870's in CF? Everyone agreeing on this please raise your left foot. Thanks!
they just need to fix the fanspeed. seeing as we can fix it on our own with a catalyst profile I dont see why amd cant just release a driver update that improves the fan speed.Quote:
Originally Posted by emoners
Just mod the bios, takes no time at all and works fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by naokaji
Because they want the fan speeds as they're now, and they're perfectly fine for everybody unless you're overclocking.Quote:
Originally Posted by naokaji
Catalyst 8.7 Released .
Who is to say that the non-reference BIOS's dont have fixed powerplay and fan speed? The stock cooler is actually pretty decent on the 4870's when fan speeds are turned up as people often find a sweet spot of good cooling + low noise. The problem is that current 4870's are set way too low so they're overly quiet and not dissipating enough heat. AIB BIOS's will surely fix such problems, as the MSI bios already did.
I have just installed Catalyst 8.7 on Vista and for some reason ATI Overdrive does not work. It says:
ATI Overdrive capabilities have not been properly initialized yet. Please try again later.
Could this be because of the modified BIOS i am using...?
Or somtin' else?
Downclock your card to 750/900 and CCC's overclocker should work.Quote:
Originally Posted by laragirl83
that's a kind of hillarious message... like, uhm, how much later? like time for a smoke and a cup of coffee later? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by laragirl83
Probably because of the modded BIOS. I couldn't turn off overdrive with the modded bios (had it on before I modded). Once I flashed to the stock bios, I could.Quote:
Originally Posted by laragirl83
It depends on how much money I'll still have by the time I return to Davao, after taking the BAR. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by emoners
Blast this exam, costs too much to take. Hinders my upgrade. :rofl:
Anyone know if Power play is working on the official 8.7 catalyst's?
as far as I heard no. I believe it is a bios issue and not a driver issue.
The Sapphire 4850 is already available in the states for ~$240
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102759
What's the estimated price on the 4870 1gb? $320?
I'm dying ot seem some 1gb 4850 vs 4870 comparisons
Us 1920x1200-ers need the extra ram! :D
I want to see some data comparing 4850 1GB to 4870
I've a Crossfire question.
If I would run HD4870X2 + HD4870 together in CF, will they perform like 3 HD4870 in CF ?
or is it like HD4870 + HD4850 in cf ?
like 2.5-3, but i dont know if the drivers are up to date on that configuation yet
So hd4870 will slow down the hd4870x2 to run like hd4870.
but isn't the hd4870x2 suppose to be hd4870 (factory crossfired :D) in one card ?
I guess cf both of them means running tri-cf mode ?
One HUGE problem with the custom coolers that dont vent the air out of the case; its going to become VERY varm inside the case. I have a 4870 in testing right now, and if the hot air werent vented out, I am afraid it would become dangerously warm in there. My case has good cooling, better then most cases.
It is not a problem keeping the 4870 cards at a good temp with the stock cooler, the problem is at about 45% fan speed, its too noisy for some ppl. At that speed the gpu temp reaches about 70 degrees C in a hot summer room playing games. Idles at about 50+ degress C.
So in short I am very sceptical to cutsom coolers that dont vent the air, same goes for any other latest gen gfx cards.
JH_man
Case? What case? Cases are for pussies :D I haven't had a case for something like one year, the motherboard just sits there by itself.
But that's not stock. You have put a fan profile onto it. I didn't, and my card idles at 71 C, full load = 82 ~ 83. and the fan is comfortably quiet in both cases.Quote:
Originally Posted by JH_man
What you did makes the hardware less hot but you have more noise.
dont see a problem with heat in case or atleast i dont have problem with it using a custom cooler. my case is though fully open, no sides are there yada yada.. really ugly but then i dont need any fans either(one cpu fan, 2 fans on the accelero for the 4870, thats it) :P
Bjorn3D small review on the 4870 X2.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1317
http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revi...rk_vantage.gif
http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revi...870x2/card.jpgQuote:
CONCLUSION
While we still want to wait with our final judgement on the HD4870X2 until we got a production board in our hands our initial impression is that this seems to be the card that finally lets AMD compete directly with NVIDIA for the performance crown. As far as we can see from these first tests the HD4870X2 easily will be able to hold its own against the GTX280, in some cases even beating it by a large margin. It is no wonder that NVIDIA got worried and, almost in panic, had to dump the prices of the GTX260 and GTX280 so quick after its launch. It will be interesting to see how AMD prices the card compared to the GeForce GTX280. Competition is great, isn't it?
If there is something we did not like it was the fact that the card ran really really hot (you could not touch the backplate as it was so hot), something probably in part due to the fact that powersaving through Powerplay was not working and thus the card could not throttle down when in idle mode. This is something we also see in the HD4870 so AMD definitely has some work to do if they do not want the HD4870X2 to become a money and energywaster when you are not playing games.
The card is expected to be released in August and we will certainly be back then with a full review of the card. For those of you who cannot wait you already can get near-HD4870X2 performance by combining HD4850 and/or HD4870 in CrossfireX-configurations but then of course you loose the ability to combine two HD4870X2 boards in CrossfireX in the future.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revi...870x2/gpus.jpg
I don't know about you, but I want one ^^
After I have seen what the 4870 1GB can do of course.