ATI HD4800 Review Thread

[perkam]

I couldn't resist any more and just ordered one.
Hopefully I won't be waiting long, I can't stand my pathetic 7900GT any longer!

May need to crank that Q6600 a tad higher to avoid bottleneck, but you're good to go with either of the offerings this time around, unlike last time where Nvidia had the undeniable advantage

Perkam

[Luka_Aveiro]

@Luka. That would be amazing for $299, but the slightly lesser performance might hurt the GTX 260's overall image.

Perkam

yap, you're right about that, but GTX260 has some favorable points over HD4870, like slightly lower power consumption, better stock cooling and it has nVidias drivers (yes, I love nVidia drivers + nTune)

I'm not even talking about PhysX, because right now it's nothing but 3 maps in UT3 and a Vantage issue, although some people claim Grid benefits performance improvements with PhysX, I'm not sure if thats true or not, but the game really seems to run smoother at level 8 AA...

Anyway, I think everyone going with an HD4870 should replace stock cooler with an aftermarket solution, the stock cooler sucks.

[emoners]

when are the 1gb version's available?

Would i see much difference @ 1920 x 1200 ???

I'm getting 2 x 4870 on a x48 board.e8400 @ 4ghz

cheeers!!

i would also like to know...does 1gb really make a difference?

[oerekum]

I have a pair of Club3d 4870s on preorder! Can't wait..

[jcool]

The 4870 doesn't show any signs of being limited by the 512mb vram, most 24" displays have 1900x1200 native resolution, and that GPU is running even higher resolutions pretty well

1gb of vram only adds some size to the e-penis for now, it will take game devs a while to make games that use that much textures. And as far as I know ATi has more efficient texture compression than nVIDIA

GDDR5 must be in really tight supply, hope availability gets better soon

IMO the GPU itself has a lot of headroom for improvement via drivers, I expect a lot more performance gain in CF, and even in single GPU as well

Yeah, maybe 512MB with enough compression/optimizations is just enough right now, but that's not the point. Back when I bought my 8800 GTS 640, most people went for the cheaper 320MB version instead, saying the big vram isn't needed. Look where they are now, most games are unplayable in decent resolutions, whereas any G80 with enough ram and decent clocks still owns any game in DX9 mode.
I benched my G80 vs. an 8800 GT in Crysis, and my old G80 kicked the G92's butt in 1920x1200 simply because the GT ran out of vram.

512MB is fine for CF with AFR (IF it works properly, that is) but it's simply not enough to make a card last at least one year.

I seriously hope they will release a 1GB version at all, if not I'll have to go GTX 260 :>

[Lestat]

after all the hype i was expecting better.

and to say it beats some SLI setups' is nothing special since those that it beat,, SLI wasnt even working properly correct? better make sure before you go spouting off that it beats sli...

[CarvedInside]

Great video cards! It was about time! Can't wait to see the first HIS IceQ version of 4870 or even 4870x2

Nvidia take a look here, this is The Way It's Meant To Be Played!

[ripken204]

ya i want a 1GB card as well.
my 8800GTS 320MB absolutely sucked when i moved up to 1680x1050.
and my 8800GTS 512MB still chokes in Oblivion with high textures.
a 1GB card better come soon!

[Shadowmage]

after all the hype i was expecting better.

RV770 is actually better than promised by the hype

I don't think anyone expected the 4870 to beat the GTX260. It is amazing that a 260mm^2 chip could do that to a 560mm^2 chip.

[GAR]

I gotta tell you, moving from nvidia to ATI, ATI has good image quality, better than nvidia.

[bowman]

I gotta tell you, moving from nvidia to ATI, ATI has good image quality, better than nvidia.

Really?

There are few comparison screens out there, both of IQ and AA/AF performance. Most reviewers fire up FRAPS and do some pretty graphs, that's it.

Comparison shots would be nice and I wish reviewers would actually do that.

[Clairvoyant129]

LOL @ the Nvidia fanboys... Ceevee etc.

2x HD4870 is a perfect and fair comparison to a single GTX 280. First of all 2x HD4870s are cheaper than a single GTX 280 and not to mention, in half of the cases, 2x HD4870s destroys 2x GTX 280s.

HD4870 is definitely the best card for the price.

Read'em and weep Nvidia fanboys!

A pair of Radeon HD 4850s can come close to the performance of a GeForce GTX 280, and a pair of Radeon HD 4870s are faster across the board - not to mention that they should be $50 less than the GTX 280 and will work on motherboards with Intel-chipsets. Quite possibly more important than the fact that AMD's multi-GPU strategy has potential is the fact that it may not even be necessary for the majority of gamers

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=23

Time to ditch the ****ty nvidia chipsets for Intel chipsets and pick up 2 HD4870s!

[Luka_Aveiro]

I gotta tell you, moving from nvidia to ATI, ATI has good image quality, better than nvidia.

Yes, it does by default, but you can achieve the same color correction with nVidia's cards.

[Kingcarcas]

I didn't know you could cuss in reviews from Canada

[eleeter]

How the hell did Gamespot get those BS results in COD4 when everyone else shown the card performing the best in that game.

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_...0_performance/

GTX 260 beats the 4870 in COD4 according to them...

I don't know about Gamespot, they seem to be lost in space with that "review" or whatever it is.

Firingsquad, they show a pattern of making NV look good, no surprise to me.

And if it makes the Nvidia crowd feel better, yes NV still has the performance crown. Problem is, those products/price brackets occupy ~2% of total sales.

[Clairvoyant129]

I don't know about Gamespot, they seem to be lost in space with that "review" or whatever it is.

Firingsquad, they show a pattern of making NV look good, no surprise to me.

And if it makes the Nvidia crowd feel better, yes NV still has the performance crown. Problem is, those products/price brackets occupy about 2% of total sales.

Yea, looking at firingsquad benches, they always make Nvidia look good, I wouldn't trust their benchmarks.

Yea Nvidia has the performance crown, but who in their right mind would pick up 2x GTX 280s, when you can pick up 2x HD 4870s for $700 cheaper. Not to mention, according to Anand, CF has the potential to scale higher than SLI. Once AMD works out the kinks in their drive, I'm sure HD4870s in single and CF will outperform single/SLI GTX 280s more frequently.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

2 HIS 4870's headed my way as we speak, newegg has em boys get em while they're hot!

@whoever commented about a comparison between 8800 320 mb and 8800 640 mb, it doesn't work the same way with different architectures, the ATI cards do MUCH better with clearing large textures out and replacing them so that you dont really need as much vram

[Hard H20]

FYI

3 Flavors of the 4870 are in stock @ the Egg. $309.99 + $7.59 shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scription=4870

[ripken204]

2 HIS 4870's headed my way as we speak, newegg has boys get while they're hot!

@whoever commented about a comparison between 8800 320 mb and 8800 640 mb, it doesn't work the same way with different architectures, the ATI cards do MUCH better with clearing large textures out and replacing them so that you dont really need as much vram

they must have just put them up!
wow this is getting better and better by the minute!

[Papu]

Yes, it does by default, but you can achieve the same color correction with nVidia's cards.

care to share some of these magic secrets? watching video on this 8600 is bawls

[lyl]

they must have just put them up!
wow this is getting better and better by the minute!

About 25min ago

[Papu]

yap, you're right about that, but GTX260 has some favorable points over HD4870, like slightly lower power consumption, better stock cooling and it has nVidias drivers (yes, I love nVidia drivers + nTune)

I'm not even talking about PhysX, because right now it's nothing but 3 maps in UT3 and a Vantage issue, although some people claim Grid benefits performance improvements with PhysX, I'm not sure if thats true or not, but the game really seems to run smoother at level 8 AA...

Anyway, I think everyone going with an HD4870 should replace stock cooler with an aftermarket solution, the stock cooler sucks.

oh gawd
1- powerplay isn't working , but thats not going to help load issues but only idle heat and power consumption , and maybe load heat if the fan isnt spinning like it should
2- what!! Nvidia drivers are Bawls , nvidia controll panel is such a pain! , CCC is much much better...

bah physX can you say Havok?

cool you have a 4870?...... if not you cant really comment on the stock cooler from reading about it on DA INTARWEBZ

you also forgot to mention that the 260 is a good bit more expensive?

[emoners]

FYI

3 Flavors of the 4870 are in stock @ the Egg. $309.99 + $7.59 shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scription=4870

hmmm which to choose...

[96redformula]

Wow, several of the 4850s dropped to about 150 after MIR @ newegg(See slickdeals.net)

[clayton]

That's one hell of a card for $299. It's really close and almost equal in some games to the really expensive GTX 280. I think ATI got this man...