[Autopsy] ATI Radeon HD 4870 Update: Review

[YMAA]

did no one else notice that it appears that the card pictured has no cross fire capability?

Wouldn't the bridge "port" be at the top of the card near the PCI bracket? Didn't see a picture of that area, just assumed it was there.

[chew*]

um the first pic clearly shows the PCI bracket and a solid pcb where the crossfire link would be. I see no traces or solder points there either.

[kryptobs2000]

How much more are the 1gb versions supposed to run? I thought that 4870 was 1gb period, I didn't know they were first going to have a 512mb variant (at the price point I was thinking for 1gb). Now I'm really not sure what to do. The 260 and 280 don't seem worth the money to me, and the 4850 simply isn't a big enough of a performance increase coming from an 8800gt. Guess I'll just have to wait for some reviews, but I'm tired I waiting .

[Hornet331]

Which card and which game? What framerate is considered playable? Not doubting your opinion, just want some more information

as we all know 9800gtx has higher core clock, still 8800gtx beats the 9800gtx -> vram limited.

[Xoulz]

u guys make it like the 512MB @ ati runs high rez heroically.. it doesnt!

max high quality + no antialiasing @ 1920x1080 = not very playable

Please explain more... because my understanding is that 512mb @GDDR5 (3.5ghz) would be fine at 19x12. Not that there isn't going to be a 1g version, just find your comments somewhat "illogical".

[STaRGaZeR]

And, it beats GTX 260, in price and performance. Our review will be out in days, keep tuned.

Do want.

But with 1GB.

[YMAA]

as we all know 9800gtx has higher core clock, still 8800gtx beats the 9800gtx -> vram limited.

We were debating ATI vs. nVidia max quality no AA 1920 x 1080, not nVidia vs. nVidia high quality 4xAA 1920 x 1080.

Also, Napalm, we never said an ATI card with less VRAM would automatically run a max quality high-res game heroically, the meaning was that an ATI card would generally do better at higher resolutions than a comparable nVidia card. Perhaps we should have been more specific.

um the first pic clearly shows the PCI bracket and a solid pcb where the crossfire link would be. I see no traces or solder points there either.

Doesn't really show it that clearly, the bracket is still sort of in the way. Not a clear shot of the top, I'd still like a better picture.

[NapalmV5]

512MB just isnt enough for 1920 rez be it ati/nvidia

illogical? maybe those of you not running high rez.. why u guys arguing with those of us @ high rez?

i can go back 5 years.. hell ill go back 10 years @ warzone 2100

your ati/nvidia 512MB craps itself @ 1920

[munim]

Just gonna pop in for a quick question: Do you guys think it's relevant that a card is faster at 1920x1200 with AA enabled etc. than another card, yet the absolute framerate isn't playable anyway?

[The Coolest]

Click the link, they stripped the card and there are CF connections present.

[adamsleath]

Just gonna pop in for a quick question: Do you guys think it's relevant that a card is faster at 1920x1200 with AA enabled etc. than another card, yet the absolute framerate isn't playable anyway?

chuckles; it's like you can now have 150fps+ in some games or <20fps in others, much the same as before.

look; if i was buying now id have a 4850 bang for buck,

and nitpicking the neck and neck perf. of the 4870 and a 9800gtx+...

i think the gtx260 will beat 4870, but i'll be pleasantly surprised if it is the other way around, cos the gtx2xx's are pretty darn expensive

ati have just played catchup with the g92 series, which means they should gain significant marketshare, but really they've only matched wot nv has had for a long while.
will 4870 dominate the g92's? , and yet sit under gt200.

i wish there were some graphs and such for 4870 already.

[Miwo]

Looks like a decent stock cooler, at least compared to the RV670 heatsink. How thick are those heatpipes? Looks at least 8mm
Interesting results from the Techreport review. Have not seen it before and its making me think twice on waiting for the 1GB cards. I game at 1920x1080

[AliG]

as we all know 9800gtx has higher core clock, still 8800gtx beats the 9800gtx -> vram limited.

Its not just about the v-ram, in general the 9800gtx takes a far harder hit than the 4850 (which mind you has less bandwidth and same amount of memory) which goes to show that it also is about how much back end power the g80 cards have (which is good for ati since their 800 shaders has proved to be more than enough for aa)

[Donnie27]

Do want.

But with 1GB.

I'd much rather they used a 512bit bus to either that 512MB or 1GB of RAM. It will end up choking when compared to other 512bit cards. Doesn't mean it will suck but it wil be like running WinXP with 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB.

[xlink]

as we all know 9800gtx has higher core clock, still 8800gtx beats the 9800gtx -> vram limited.

or perhaps it's just memory bandwidth limited...
and the fact of the matter is, if you had an 8800ultra, the frame rate is so darned low you'de be reducing settings anyway.


and the second example shows a 3870x2 beating a 8800ultra... observe how the 3870 only has 512mb addressable space...

[Helmore]

Looks like a decent stock cooler, at least compared to the RV670 heatsink. How thick are those heatpipes? Looks at least 8mm
Interesting results from the Techreport review. Have not seen it before and its making me think twice on waiting for the 1GB cards. I game at 1920x1080

Well, going from 512MB to 1GB on a RV670 made absolutely no difference, not even on a 25x16 res. Just check this review:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14654
Not sure how that will translate to what an RV770 will do with the extra RAM.

EDIT: @Hornet331: How is it possible for the 3870 to be faster than a 9800GTX on those settings? Especially in crysis which generally favors the NVIDIA cards.

[madmossy]

Considering how well the 4850 does with 512mb @ 1920x1200 or 2560x1600, I doubt 512->1Gb will make that much of a difference for the 4870.

[Helmore]

I think the future headroom for a 4870 can be useful, I don't think it will mater to anyone whom will dispose of his card when something better for the price comes around. Like a next year refresh for example.
1GB is probably pretty useless on a 4850 though.

[Miwo]

Yeah I know ^^ , i was just saying that I have not seen the review until reading this thread , not the other way around. I just woke up!

[RPGWiZaRD]

Stock cooler looks very nice. Would be interesting to see a 512MB vs 1GB comparision of these cards.

[Jakalwarrior]

You guys hate that fan? I LOVE that fan on my 2900pro. If it didnt have it there would be no way I could hit the overclocks I do. You dont HAVE to run it loud, it just an option if you want to clock higher on the stock cooler!

[Macadamia]

far from it

the unofficial 1GB 3870 was released @ the end of last earth cycle.. bit late

u ati fanatucii should take some chill pills.. huh?

im by no means nvidias

Thanks for making this discussion go nowhere though.

[RickCain]

512MB just isnt enough for 1920 rez be it ati/nvidia

illogical? maybe those of you not running high rez.. why u guys arguing with those of us @ high rez?

i can go back 5 years.. hell ill go back 10 years @ warzone 2100

your ati/nvidia 512MB craps itself @ 1920

Hardly....... I have ZERO problems playing any of my games at 1920X1200 w/ 8AA and 16AF on my CF4850's. Only exception is Crysis because the engine just sucks.

[STaRGaZeR]

I'd much rather they used a 512 mega bit bus to either that 512MB or 1GB of RAM. It will end up choking when compared to other 512mb cards. Doesn't mean it will suck but it wil be like running WinXP with 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB.

Not at all, it doesn't matter if it's 2GHz GDDR3@512bit bus or 4GHz GDDR5@256 bit bus, the amount of bandwidth is the same, and nothing else matters. Once you have that, the amount of Mb per GDDR chip also doesn't matter as long as the bandwidth/latency is the same.

Availability and price of 1024Mb GDDR5 chips should be a great inconvenient, I'm sure ATI wanted to have 1GB cards at launch.

[NapalmV5]

Hardly....... I have ZERO problems playing any of my games at 1920X1200 w/ 8AA and 16AF on my CF4850's. Only exception is Crysis because the engine just sucks.

lol so you too want to argue/oppose me..

im talking single 512MB

2 x 512MB is not same