ATI HD4800 Review Thread

[demonkevy666]

ATI has two great cards on their hands. 4850 for mid range, and 4870 for the high end. Then when the 4870X2 comes and stomps the GTX 280 for cheaper. Props to AMD/ATI. Back to the days of the X800 and X850 when ATI was really on their game.

Edit I may have to grab an 4870. Sell both my GTS and GT to get the 4870.

won't beat 280GTX because of phisycX enable on vantage scores.

dose get really close.

I wonder if ATI will get some sort of physic code/drive going form havok or will they have to go to agie/Nvidia to get it on there cards.

[vengance_01]

won't beat 280GTX because of phisycX enable on vantage scores.

dose get really close.

I wonder if ATI will get some sort of physic code/drive going form havok or will they have to go to agie/Nvidia to get it on there cards.

Your right but 3dmark is not high on my list, but playing games is. I still might wait it out with my GTS G92 core. Its got a volt mod and I get solid performance from it.

[Xoulz]

It does, 2x GTX280 is the best of all, however some things we have to consider before we reach that conclusion, first you have to use a Nvidia chipset to get SLI and that is a negative feedback because Nvidia chipset does not work well with Intel processors unless you go to AMD territory and pick up a Phenom or the previous cheap versions +6000 so that you would eliminate the chipset drawbacks as Nvidia chipset works quite good once running AMD processors.

Second you need to have a powerful power supply to manage its power, third you know that 2x GTX280 = $1300, now tell me is that really necessary?

I would recommend a single HD4850 or a HD4700 as both of them contains what most of us need. I still think a 8800GT is just enough to handle the majority of games at full speed 60 FPS, the HD4850 is amazing and the HD4780 is just the right option for anyone who wants or needs to upgrade.

Metroid.

Lets not forget that nVidia is not being allowed to make chipsets for the new Intel quad-core architecture, the Nehalem.

So, keep that in mind when thinking of SLI or porting your card to your new system in the fall.

The 1gig Radeon HD4870 is the clear winner. If that isn't enough power, then wait for the x2 for about $499 and you have a top performer for $150 less.

nVidia lost this match!
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[Luka_Aveiro]

hmmmm.. correct working powerplay?




http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/...ssage/30312532

I guess that deals with the thermal issues

Seems it's watercooled to me, no fan connected to the card, that's why you get 0% spinning.

[zerazax]

Well the GPU clocks at that speed seem to be the correct values for powerplay though

[gojirasan]

3. You only have one pcie slot with appropriate speed. (though I would consider this to be no biggie to fix if you have the money for the GTX280 handy in the first place.)

You forgot to mention microstuttering. And the lack of dual slots is not only a money issue. I'm not aware of any uATX motherbaords with dual PCIe 16x slots. Although shuttle may have a barebones shoebox that has them. So for people with small (non-shuttle) computers dual slot is not really an option for any price.

[waver_01]

Seems it's watercooled to me, no fan connected to the card, that's why you get 0% spinning.

even if that's true it doesn't change the fact it's running at 160mhz @ idle

[purecain]

cool power play fixed in new bios... MSI bios 011.004
i was going to use duorbs on my 4870's but that might not initially be neccessary now...


@waver 01 - lol you beat me to it

[STaRGaZeR]

Seems it's watercooled to me, no fan connected to the card, that's why you get 0% spinning.

That value didn't show the current actual spinning value, but the spinning value set by the BIOS at that temp. If you're watercooling, even with the fan disconected, that value will show 10% or whatever the BIOS wants. I've had this "issue" with my both 2900XT and 3870 watercooled, will check this when my 4870 arrives in a few days

It has been said lots of times: the real idle frequency of the RV770 chip is 160MHz, not 500MHz, hence the extremely high power consumption at idle that every review has shown. Stupid movement by ATI, not having Powerplay done at launch. Now lots of people thinks the card sucks a lot of power at idle.

Now give me a fixed 4870 BIOS please

[initialised]

very nice temps with an aftermarket cooler idle+load down significantly

Any chance we could get a retest of all the benchmarks and power consumption with the HR-03 fitted?

Why do I ask?
From what I've seen there are situations where the RV770 frame rate appears to be limitted (relatively flat performance across resolutions/IQ settings) and I'm not yet convinced that this is down to memory bandwidth, CPU or number of ROPs.

Anti aliasing flatness especially under DX10 could be down to hardware level edge detection anti aliasing in the AA optimised render backends.

Why should it be different?

The above shows that card will throttle to reduce power consumption and temperature. Power consumption is current squared multiplied by resistance. Resistance is proportional to temperature. So it follows that a ~40C reduction in temperature will result in a proportional reduction in resistance since less current is required for a given voltage, hence lower power consumption. So if the card does throttle based on power consumption then performance would increase if this was reduced.

For those who don't yet understand the difference between 4850 and 4870, basically the GDDR3 on the 4850 has a 256bit memory interface whilst the GDDR5 (QDR) on the 4870 has an effective 512bit memory interface.

I'm guessing that the 480 stream processor assumption from previous leaks came from the 50% increase in transistor count.

One thing I find interesting about the architecture is that each stream processor has a separate unit for handling branching which GPUs are not supposed to be good at if you listen to Intel bigging up ray tracing, the Ruby Whiteout Demo features GPU ray tracing.

If I get the chance I will compare 48x0 and GTX2x0 folding performance.

[Clairvoyant129]

WTF is this idiot talking about???

This is why I responded to this thread to begin with, and yeah if you are going to say 4870 has taken the ultimate performance crown then you are wrong.

All the fanboys (like this one) saying that "in half of the cases, 2x HD4870s destroys 2x GTX 280s."

What complete and utter bull. What part of middle school math was too hard for you?

Did I say the HD4870 has taken the ultimate performance crown? No you ****ing idiot. I said, 2 HD4870s are cheaper than a single GTX 280. Better performance for better price, maybe you should be the one who needs to go back to school? Also, CF scales better than ****ty SLI, so there are instances where 2 HD4870s, even though it lost in the single GPU performances, win in the multi-GPU scenarios against the GTX 280 SLI.

LOL, good lucking SLIing your GTX 280, hope you have a nuclear power plant in your backyard. I'll be enjoying my HD4870s in CF which totally dominates the GTX 280 for $50 less.

And how the **** am I a fanboy when I used Nvidia since the G70 days? It's clear you're the biggest fanboy.

[adamsleath]

youre a fanboy!
no, youre a fanboy!,
no, you are!
omg your such a fanboy!,
like noway, im not a fanboy; youre a fanboy!

sounds like 2 blondes arguing at the mall

[Spawne32]

youre a fanboy!
no, youre a fanboy!,
no, you are!
omg your such a fanboy!,
like noway, im not a fanboy; youre a fanboy!

sounds like 2 blondes arguing at the mall

add a "like whatevrrrrr" to the end of that and you will nail it right on

[Luka_Aveiro]

That value didn't show the current actual spinning value, but the spinning value set by the BIOS at that temp. If you're watercooling, even with the fan disconected, that value will show 10% or whatever the BIOS wants. I've had this "issue" with my both 2900XT and 3870 watercooled, will check this when my 4870 arrives in a few days

Yap, you're right. I just checked it with my watercooled 8800GT, thought since the fan was disconnected, no % values, but I was wrong

[adamsleath]

add a "like whatevrrrrr" to the end of that and you will nail it right on

yeah thats it
Frank Zappa's 'valley girl'

[The[R]eaper]

so outa these cards which company is best?

was thinking the sapphire or HIS.

been outa the ati loop since my 9600se

which company had best rma/support? just in case something happens.

thanks

[Xoulz]

WTF is this idiot talking about???

This is why I responded to this thread to begin with, and yeah if you are going to say 4870 has taken the ultimate performance crown then you are wrong.

All the fanboys (like this one) saying that "in half of the cases, 2x HD4870s destroys 2x GTX 280s."

What complete and utter bull. What part of middle school math was too hard for you?

You do realize that @ $650 bucks, Nvidia has shot it's load...? The GTX280 is already a 1gig card, etc. While the HD4870 is only a 512MB card @ $299 (thats $351 cheaper) and counterparts with 1gig and OC will be on the shelves within weeks!

It doesn't take a retard or an idiot to understand than for about the cost of the lowly GTX260, you'll probably be able to pick up a HD4870 1gig with aftermarket cooling and a slight overclock that actually outperforms the GTX280 for roughly $250 less (IE $380~390). The HD4870 is a good card, but with an extra $300+ to play with, OEMs will be able to match the numbers of the GTX280 for alot less.

Or are you suggesting to us that your incappable of recognizing that these two card currently occupie different price markets...?

I think even a retard could figure out what we are talking about here, let-alone an idiot.
*******************

[iTravis]

Hate to ask again but will there be any differences in OC capability between the 512MB and 1GB version?

[SKYMTL]

Why the lack of 19x12 benches Hardware Canucks?

Simply put, I needed to draw the line somewhere. The 1280 x 1024 resolution takes care of the 17-19" crowd. 1600x1200 takes care of the 20-22" guys and the 2560 x 1600 takes care of the all or nothing guys. Unfortunately, the 24" users were left out.

[gojirasan]

you'll probably be able to pick up a HD4870 1gig with aftermarket cooling and a slight overclock that actually outperforms the GTX280

Clearly you are an AMD stockholder. Uttering speculation like its fact. Where are you pulling that out of? The GTX280 has at least as much overclocking headroom as a HD4870. A single HD4870 isn't going to beat it no matter how much you cool it. But maybe if you repeat your speculations enough some people will believe you. It might beat a GTX260 though. Although I doubt it because it looks like the GTX260 has a lot more overclocking headroom than the HD4870. I think if you overclock both cards you will find that the GTX260 clearly beats the HD4870 in most benchmarks due to the additional headroom. And for only $50 more than a 1 gig HD4870. Although that is just MSRP. Post rebate street prices will tell the real story. At stock the two cards are about equal, but fully overclocked (and maybe volt modded) on water I think the GTX260 would waste the HD4870. Of course that's just more speculation.

[SKYMTL]

The above shows that card will throttle to reduce power consumption and temperature.

The small chart you are refering to only shows how clock speeds and voltage will be lowered when not running a 3D application. As far as I know the thermal thrttling limit on these cards is set to about 125C so I am 99.99999% sure there isn't any throttling taking place.

[LordEC911]

Clearly you are an AMD stockholder. Uttering speculation like its fact. Where are you pulling that out of? The GTX280 has at least as much overclocking headroom as a HD4870.

How so?
How did you come to that conclusion?

A single HD4870 isn't going to beat it no matter how much you cool it.

You seem to have forgotten where you are...

But maybe if you repeat your speculations enough some people will believe you. It might beat a GTX260 though. Although I doubt it because it looks like the GTX260 has a lot more overclocking headroom than the HD4870. I think if you overclock both cards you will find that the GTX260 clearly beats the HD4870 in most benchmarks due to the additional headroom. And for only $50 more than a 1 gig HD4870. Although that is just MSRP. Post rebate street prices will tell the real story.

Where are you pulling MSRPs for a 1Gb 4870?

At stock the two cards are about equal, but fully overclocked (and maybe volt modded) on water I think the GTX260 would waste the HD4870. Of course that's just more speculation.

LoL. I like how you fight his comments, i.e. "speculation, with your speculation...
Fighting fire with fire?

[onethreehill]

Radeon HD 4870 In CrossfireX at 4GHz

SUMMARY: Already impressed with the HD 4870, we strap three of them into IBP’s 4GHz rig and see what happens.

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

[disruptfam]

is tweaktown a aussie site?

[ceevee]

I think the 4870 is an amzing card and AMD deserves .

However I do not understand people saying it has the performance crown when it clearly does not, not to mention you are saying this about a card that may not even be released for 2 MONTHS.

Anyway here is GTX280 in tri-SLI so you can see that it handily beats your x12000 score from 2xHD4870x2:

not sure if you ve seen these results... 12k vantage score with just 2 4870's... not X2's ....

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/148...age/index.html

I realize this is an easy mistake to make, but it needs to be pointed out:

Tri-SLI gets X15310, at EXTREME SETTINGS

You link to 2xHD4870CF getting P12000 at PERFORMANCE SETTINGS, if you actually read the chart that you linked you will see clearly that 2x4870CF scores X6433 at EXTREME SETTINGS, so 2x4870CF is about 1/3 of GTX280 SLI, or 6433 vs. 15310.

Again Nvidia has the ultimate performance crown, even if it doesn't have the lowest cost.