HD 4850 Previews

[GGuyZ]

The results are impressive but I wouldn't rush to buy a new board. Crysis has the biggest improvement because it's bandwidth hungry. The rest of the games have moderate differences which may make you reconsider your next board, but I wouldn't replace the current board just for that reason.

That's my opinion anyway

[hurleybird]

They'd better fix that, i fully plan on playing through The Witcher again when my new build is complete

Wait for the free update to the enhanced edition in September. Gameplay improvements, much improved graphics and character expressiveness, completely redone voice acting with longer scrip, etc.

[Unbornchild]

So you need an expensive x48 or similar motherboard to get the best out this series?

Well no. Any x38 allows the same. They've sunken in price. Make sure to take a DDR2 one.

[wideband]

Wait a minute, does this mean I need to have two 16x pci-e lanes for a HD4850 crossfire setup to perform to its fullest???

The answer is yes m8, if you require high resolutions and play games like Crysis and Flight Sim. Only realised this myself over the past week after alot of googling. The other solution is to aquire an x2 card

Below is an example of the information you can pickup.

Intel P45 Vs. X48 Crossfire Performance
Final Thoughts

This is really a very interesting article and is something people need to be taking note of. The first thing you need to be checking is if you're reading a review where Crossfire is being tested. Make sure that the board there using is a x16 / x16 motherboard. The results really do speak for themselves and it’s clear that there is a performance difference between a x16 / x16 configuration which the X48 offers, and the x8/x8 one on the P45.

If you’re really thinking about going down the Crossfire path, we would be highly recommending that you spend the extra money to go to an X38 or X48 based motherboard over the P45. Of course, if you’re not then it doesn’t really matter. With one card the P45 runs at x16, which is exactly what you want.

The thing is, the X48-DQ6 is only about 10% more expensive, so you could easily say that you should just spend the extra money and get that. You may in future go Crossfire without knowing it yet, but admittedly the P45-DQ6 does have some very cool features such as the new ICH10R controller, loads of SATA ports and just some really funky new add-ons like the power buttons on board. Of course, we will cover all these in more detail in our full motherboard review at a later date.

Before you rush out and buy that P45 board thinking that x8 / x8 will be just fine, sit back and have a think if you’re really aiming to go down the Crossfire path in the near future.

Full article here:
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/14...nce/index.html

[Eastcoasthandle]

Great review it's always nice to see reviewers informing the public on issues like this. Have said that, is it really that surprising? Wasn't one of the reasons why Asus came out with crosslinx back then? Were known performance problems with dual PCIe methods (x16/x4). Crosslinx helped by using 8x/8x which turn out to be better (back then). I think Tech Report did a review about it if memory serves me correctly (may have been another review site).

[eric66]

The answer is yes m8, if you require high resolutions and play games like Crysis and Flight Sim. Only realised this myself over the past week after alot of googling. The other solution is to aquire an x2 card

Below is an example of the information you can pickup.

oh my god what a difference nice find

[Unbornchild]

X38 also has 2 x 16x.

The article is x45 (mainstream) vs. x48 (performance).
Same as x35 (mainstream) vs. x38 (performance).

Between x38 and x48 there is no noticeable difference in performance, only some features.
So, buy yourself a Maximus Formula, for instance, and be on top.

[Kai Robinson]

Bugger - no P45 Deluxe with 16-phase power for....just the crappy old P5E *cries*

Put ICH10R on the x38 dammit!

[gojirasan]

I'm getting a little confused here. Is there any (theoretical) problem running a 4870x2 with a P35 chipset if you don't plan to do CrossfireX? Is this an issue only if you are doing multi-slot CF?

[Unbornchild]

Is there any (theoretical) problem running a 4870x2 with a P35 chipset if you don't plan to do CrossfireX?

Nope.

Is this an issue only if you are doing multi-slot CF?

Yes.

May someone correct me if i'm wrong....

[wideband]

Have said that, is it really that surprising?

From what i've read myself there seems to be a lot of confusion out there with regards to the pcie in general with boards running not only 16x/4x, 8x/8x, 16x/16x but in versions 1.xx & 2.0 too. (I think im startin to get the hangoff it now ).
On top of this, the latest GPUs are becoming very powerful requiring alot more bandwith and pushing the bounds of even ver1 16x and I seriously think this is the question: "Will I be able to squeeze the last little bit out of 8x/8x ver2.0 with a P45 chipset which has nice features? or do I go for a x48".

[wideband]

I'm getting a little confused here. Is there any (theoretical) problem running a 4870x2 with a P35 chipset if you don't plan to do CrossfireX? Is this an issue only if you are doing multi-slot CF?

P45 chipset runs equivalent to 16x/16x (ver 1.0) in xfire mode = faster than P35 @ 8x/8x or 16x/4x

P45 chipset runs 16x (ver 2.0) in single card mode = faster than P35 @ 16x (ver 1.xx)

[Kai Robinson]

Thats whats confusing me....surely 8x/8x PCIe 2.0 is enough for CF, its the same as having two 16x PCIe 1.0 slots in terms of bandwidth....are we really needing all 16 lanes of PCIe 2.0 bandwidth per card for CF these days? If so, whats the point of connecting the cards together?

[perkam]

To jas and Kai, you're absolutely right in that you shouldn't be forced to upgrade. However, there is a solution. The SPs on the 4850 should be very bandwith-starved relative to the 4870. If my theory is correct, the performance delta between 2x8 and 2x16 should be smaller with the 4870 than the 4850.
Technically, one could argue that from the money you save from buying two 4850s and ocing them, you can buy the new mobo. Additionally, for those that say that buying the new mobo takes away from the price/performance, that is not true. Because you are paying for more performance for the GPUs and CPUs, it balances out.

The inconvenience stays, however, and users have every right to be mad at AMD/ATI for not addressing this.

Perkam

[Kai Robinson]

the P45 and the X38 are the same in price, i'm just annoyed that i find out NOW after having planned for so long to get a P45....i wanted the ICH10R capabilities with the crossfire capability, but crossfire takes precedence, so once i buy another 500gb drive, all my SATA ports on the ICH9R will be tapped out....and you cant get non-raid addin cards!

Still, if someone could benchmark the CF difference between the P45 and the X38 (in english), it would assist me (and likely others) even further.

[perkam]

the P45 and the X38 are the same in price, i'm just annoyed that i find out NOW after having planned for so long to get a P45....i wanted the ICH10R capabilities with the crossfire capability, but crossfire takes precedence, so once i buy another 500gb drive, all my SATA ports on the ICH9R will be tapped out....and you cant get non-raid addin cards!

Still, if someone could benchmark the CF difference between the P45 and the X38 (in english), it would assist me (and likely others) even further.

Check the 4Ghz 4850 Tweaktown preview, they have the comparison there.

Perkam

[Macadamia]

Thats whats confusing me....surely 8x/8x PCIe 2.0 is enough for CF, its the same as having two 16x PCIe 1.0 slots in terms of bandwidth....are we really needing all 16 lanes of PCIe 2.0 bandwidth per card for CF these days? If so, whats the point of connecting the cards together?

What about latency, X38 tuned for performance and unpolished P45 BIOSes?


Everything can be taken into consideration, but the X38 seems to be worth it with prices being much more tame than when it was released.

[Kai Robinson]

The performance of the X38 isnt in question - its the fact the X38 only has the ICH9R....which has been around so long, i have it on my ancient P5B-E!

[Kai Robinson]

Aaah this one, you mean:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/14...nce/index.html

[y2kbos]

the P45 and the X38 are the same in price, i'm just annoyed that i find out NOW after having planned for so long to get a P45....i wanted the ICH10R capabilities with the crossfire capability, but crossfire takes precedence, so once i buy another 500gb drive, all my SATA ports on the ICH9R will be tapped out....and you cant get non-raid addin cards!

Still, if someone could benchmark the CF difference between the P45 and the X38 (in english), it would assist me (and likely others) even further.

You could just keep your current mobo and get a HD4870 X2

As you know the 4870 X2 doesn't use an internal CF bridge to connect the cores... it has some other means ( I dont believe it, but people here says its fact ), if thats true the scaling should be nearly 100 %, as there would be now scaling as the whole point of the 4870 X2 is for the innovation of the gpu industry...

There would be absolutely no point in making if it couldnt do it.

I personally think that tech is much too complex, but if true it should perform better than a 4870 CF... by how much... probably 15 - 25 %

None of that micro stuttering bollix to deal with either

[perkam]

Aaah this one, you mean:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/14...nce/index.html

Bingo

Perkam

[Kai Robinson]

Theres no way in hell i'm keeping my P965 board....i cant even break 373Mhz FSB without it nearly melting...its been a good board, but i need to upgrade anyway to something newer, i was hoping that the P45 would be it. Now, having looked at that review at Tweaktown, i thought...'hmm, i can take a 10% performance hit' and seeing as i have a 1440x900 monitor, the hit was negligible, but once it got to Crysis....ouch - talk about a hit :/

Looks like the X38 is it for me i think....

*sigh*

[onethreehill]

Hexus: ATI Radeon HD 4850 - benchmarked against mid-range and high-end GPUs
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=13953

[Dark-Energy]

Hexus: ATI Radeon HD 4850 - benchmarked against mid-range and high-end GPUs
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=13953

hmm, those scores seem a bit low to me.

[onethreehill]

Legit Review: ATI Radeon HD 4850 Versus NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/731/1/