ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series discussion

[azza21]

Just a quick question for anyone who can help me. When the 4870x2 is released are Ati going to be releasing a 2GB variant of the card? I am sure i read somewhere Ati are going to let other manufacturer's decide to whether they want to add extra's such as more ram etc to the cards... Ati allowed Diamond to do this with the hd2900 cards, there was a limited number of diamond 1gb hd2900 cards around.

Also do you think more ram say 2GB would bring any significant advantage other the other cards. I know the Diamond 1GB 2900 cards didn't improve the performance much, only a couple of fps.

[YukonTrooper]

Also do you think more ram say 2GB would bring any significant advantage other the other cards. I know the Diamond 1GB 2900 cards didn't improve the performance much, only a couple of fps.

2GB of memory won't be beneficial, at least in a gaming environment.

[azza21]

2GB of memory won't be beneficial, at least in a gaming environment.

So what are we looking at a 1GB 4870x2 available at launch or less? Also will the 1GB gddr5 x2 cards cost alot more then the 512mb versions? Anyone have any idea of the price at this time or is a it a guessing game at the mo?

[YukonTrooper]

So what are we looking at a 1GB 4870x2 available at launch or less? Also will the 1GB gddr5 x2 cards cost alot more then the 512mb versions? Anyone have any idea of the price at this time or is a it a guessing game at the mo?

512MB at launch for sure, and I think 1GB to follow soon after. Due to price, availability, demand, and practicality, a 2GB version will probably never see the light of day. If there is one, it will probably be way after initial launch due to the above reasons.

As for price, I think we'll hear many different numbers up until launch, but so far I believe it's estimated in the $500 range. However, considering AMD's recent success and Nvidia's decline in the stock market, and the possibility of the X2 stomping the GTX280, we may see a card as high as $700.