ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series discussion

[Extelleron]

I'm a bit worried about the power consumption though, 3870X2 is already at 200+W @ load, you'd expect 4870X2 to consume more

HD 4850 is way faster than HD 3870 in benchmarks, yet it consumes less power.

HD 4870 will consume just a bit more power than the 3870; the 4870 X2 will likely consume just a bit more than the 3870 X2. This time around 8 pin will likely be required, like on GTX 280 / 9800GX2. But I don't think power consumption will go up by much. Especially since 3870 X2 uses 1GB of GDDR3, 4870 X2 uses 1GB of GDDR5. Memory probably doesn't mean much, but it should make a small difference.