Official HD4870X2 (R700) Review Thread

[Aberration]

280 only has 1 frame buffer. I agree that it is microstuttering if you want to be strict on the term, but of course it is going to be worse at the beginning for the reason Cooper said.

[ether.real]

280 only has 1 frame buffer. I agree that it is microstuttering if you want to be strict on the term, but of course it is going to be worse at the beginning for the reason Cooper said.

Then I guess there is nothing wrong with my statement then :P

[nsidious]

sapphire 4870x2 2GB Version on sale for Canada and U.S. at Extreme-pc.ca

http://www.extreme-pc.ca/showproduct...=99&menu3id=39

[Sparky]

question is, is it noticeable? Doubt it if I read some of the charts correctly.

[ceevee]

Grats AMD.

Looks like 1x 4870x2 is about equal to 2xGTX280SLI (except Crysis, where it seems to not do well at all).

The next 6-12 months should be great to see some real competition again.

[naokaji]

Overclockers is very expensive if you look hard enough you can one for around £320 including delivery. Use google mate

yup, either all no stock (or fake stock info *cough* awd-it *cough*) or courier delivery (which is a no go since I live alone, depots are out in the wild I work full time and would get fired for getting stuff delivered to work).

[ether.real]

Looks like 1x 4870x2 is about equal to 2xGTX280SLI (except Crysis, where it seems to not do well at all).

Why do you say that. I thought it did pretty damn well.

[Leeghoofd]

Good thread OP , moff to read

[waver_01]

Grats AMD.

Looks like 1x 4870x2 is about equal to 2xGTX280SLI (except Crysis, where it seems to not do well at all).

The next 6-12 months should be great to see some real competition again.

[clock_ed]

As ATI haven't lowered the clock of the gpu and ram on the X2 the card appears to overclock badly. But still the standard 4870 doesn't oc as well as the gtx 280.

What I'd like to see is Crysis benchies of the highest overclock stock volts of a gtx280 and the 4870x2. Knowing that the 280 clocks well and is good in crysis. It may be in with a chance.

[Oblitus]

People need to freaking read ether.real review turn the freaking AA to x16 on Crysis!!!!!!

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

People need to freaking read ether.real review turn the freaking AA to x16 on Crysis!!!!!!

why? thats pointless and just will show that the cards are crippled when you do that, even 280 trisli

[ether.real]

why? thats pointless and just will show that the cards are crippled when you do that, even 280 trisli

Did you not read the review? 30FPS at 16xAA, 1920x1200. I have been playing it that way all weekend. Its freaking awesome.

[2DIFF]

Disabling Catalyst AI seems to disable dual GPU rendering on this card.

Ok if that's true, the card is ordered. Even though Catalyst A.I. is a mystery to me. As I can see there's nothing but pros in here, so I grab the chance by its head of hair and ask the following (please excuse if this' the wrong thread): Does anybody know a Tool other than the 3DM family (I only use 06 and Vantage) and the Crysis Benchmark Tool that can stress out a CF config? I tried (all in their newest availab. versions):
- the Masaki Kawase Tool (rthdribl)
- the Video Card Stability Test
- Lightsmark
- Furmark
- Cinebench
- ATItool artifact test

The benching is done like this (specs see sig. + pic): CF enabled and two open instances - for each card - of GPU-Z (latest ver. aswell) for monitoring load and temp. Whatever the Catalyst A.I. setting is (Disabled/Standard/Adv.) none of the tools mentioned above is using both cards. Only the "main" one (in Slot 1) is fully stressed. Looking at the screenshot, please don't ask me why the 2nd one - which does nothing - is always hotter than the one that is actually doing all the work...that'll be another discussion (I guess it's the watercooling loop). And something else: resolution or the place on the screen where the test is running never made any difference.
If CF is enabled in 3DM or in Crysis Bench Tool, well -wow- both cards are equally stressed. And if it comes to Catalyst A.I. in these tests, I never noticed any difference to whatsoever it was set to.
Thanks a lot for any comment and/or advice.

[jmke]

People need to freaking read ether.real review turn the freaking AA to x16 on Crysis!!!!!!

only if you have Vista
Under XP the HD4870X2 doesn't cope well with AA

[jaredpace]

why? thats pointless and just will show that the cards are crippled when you do that, even 280 trisli

sounds like he didnt read it

[ether.real]

only if you have Vista
Under XP the HD4870X2 doesn't cope well with AA

THat has definitely been an interesting correlation.

[SKYMTL]

Did you not read the review? 30FPS at 16xAA, 1920x1200. I have been playing it that way all weekend. Its freaking awesome.

Well, I don't know about everyone else here but when playing at higher resolution I can't see one bloody difference between 4XAA and 16XAA. Nor should I considering the high resolution pretty much smooths edges out without the need for AA.

[STaRGaZeR]

Did you not read the review? 30FPS at 16xAA, 1920x1200. I have been playing it that way all weekend. Its freaking awesome.

Dude, do you know that ATI cards only have 2x, 4x, 8x and then all the Custom AA modes? All your tests with 8xQ, 16x, and 16xQ are useless. Also I don't know what game are you playing, Crysis on ATI cards doesn't support 16xAA from the game, and the last time I tested it from CCC it was not possible to force AA in Crysis

Or are you using 2x, 4x and 8x with some combination of CFAA modes?

[Leeghoofd]

Well, I don't know about everyone else here but when playing at higher resolution I can't see one bloody difference between 4XAA and 16XAA. Nor should I considering the high resolution pretty much smooths edges out without the need for AA.

Canadian Sirs don't say the B word... good review mate, at least you bundled the card with a decent CPU... waht's the use in bundling this card with a 3ghz CPU... totally ridicilous to me...

[SKYMTL]

Al lright 2Diff, lets see if I can clear a bit of this up.

Does anybody know a Tool other than the 3DM family (I only use 06 and Vantage) and the Crysis Benchmark Tool that can stress out a CF config? I tried (all in their newest availab. versions):
- the Masaki Kawase Tool (rthdribl)
- the Video Card Stability Test
- Lightsmark
- Furmark
- Cinebench
- ATItool artifact test

None of the tools listed above properly support Crossfire. As you mentioned, 3DMarks do as does the Devil May Cry benchmark tool but those are the only ones I can think of that are completely free and will show real benefits from CF.

The benching is done like this (specs see sig. + pic): CF enabled and two open instances - for each card - of GPU-Z (latest ver. aswell) for monitoring load and temp. Whatever the Catalyst A.I. setting is (Disabled/Standard/Adv.) none of the tools mentioned above is using both cards.

Do the same thing with 3DMark06 looped on the Batch Size Test at the highest resolution possible. You wil lsee both cards being used. Then try it with AI disabled and you will see a noticeable change. You won't really see a difference relative to where the slider is but rather a difference between checking off the "Disable Catalyst AI" box.

[SKYMTL]

Canadian Sirs don't say the B word... good review mate, at least you bundled the card with a decent CPU

The "F" bomb is not accepted.

[Catalyst2211]

only if you have Vista
Under XP the HD4870X2 doesn't cope well with AA

You're saying it'll be slower in XP with AA? Is this true?

[jmke]

Here you have the HD4870X2's first Spanish (from Spain) review:

Todoreviews.net - ATI Radeon HD4870X2.




Regards.

enable AA to see the HD4870X2 dominate, the onboard 2Gb allosw for almost "free" 4xAA

[jmke]

Ok if that's true, the card is ordered. Even though Catalyst A.I. is a mystery to me. As I can see there's nothing but pros in here, so I grab the chance by its head of hair and ask the following (please excuse if this' the wrong thread): Does anybody know a Tool other than the 3DM family (I only use 06 and Vantage) and the Crysis Benchmark Tool that can stress out a CF config? I tried (all in their newest availab. versions):
- the Masaki Kawase Tool (rthdribl)
- the Video Card Stability Test
- Lightsmark
- Furmark
- Cinebench
- ATItool artifact test

The benching is done like this (specs see sig. + pic): CF enabled and two open instances - for each card - of GPU-Z (latest ver. aswell) for monitoring load and temp. Whatever the Catalyst A.I. setting is (Disabled/Standard/Adv.) none of the tools mentioned above is using both cards. Only the "main" one (in Slot 1) is fully stressed. Looking at the screenshot, please don't ask me why the 2nd one - which does nothing - is always hotter than the one that is actually doing all the work...that'll be another discussion (I guess it's the watercooling loop). And something else: resolution or the place on the screen where the test is running never made any difference.
If CF is enabled in 3DM or in Crysis Bench Tool, well -wow- both cards are equally stressed. And if it comes to Catalyst A.I. in these tests, I never noticed any difference to whatsoever it was set to.
Thanks a lot for any comment and/or advice.

do note that running in Windowed mode does put the card into 3D clocks mode and you'll be running at 500/500; to properly load test you need to run full screen 3D app (3Dmark looped, 3DMark01 Nature is very good test)