Quote Originally Posted by Tonucci View Post
30% is probably best case scenario...I dont see this kind of performance jump being the average, just with higher clocks...Yes ddr5 is MUCH faster, but I dont think the card is starving for bandwidth like that.
30% is hardly the best case scenario. The 4870 has almost twice the bandwidth, and (for some models) a twice larger frame buffer. It's not hard to think of situations where the 4870 will be several times faster than the 4850. Right now that means the 4870 will need high res, aa, and aniso to really pull ahead of the 4850. Sure, at lower settings the difference will be negligible, but that's not what matters (If it runs > 60 FPS who cares what the performance numbers are?). Future games will take advantage of the added memory and bandwidth at lower and lower resolutions. Just look at where the GTS 640 and GTS 320 are today vs. where they were at launch.