Official HD4870X2 (R700) Review Thread

[cegras]

Damn, we've finally hit the CPU ceiling this time around. Just in time for Q4 stuff from intel / AMD.

[mascaras]

With Catalyst 8.8 beta we get a Big Boost



Crysis
1680x1050
Very High
Average = 40 FPS









more tests later here >> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=198045



regards

[SKYMTL]

CPU bottleneck is DEFINATELY an issue this time around, there is no doubt about that. If one card is bottlenecked by a QX9770 at 3.85Ghz at some resolutions, I don't think there is a CPU on this planet that is 25 / 7 stable which can take advantage of two of those cards.

[drizzt5]

my 4870 is doing fine for my 24" 1920x1200 resolution, no point in spending 600 bucks now when in 6 months a newer card will arive, 40nm. If you already have a GTX or a 4850/4870 IMO its better to wait till early next year. No new games coming out anyway. Anything that comes is a console port which even an 8800GTX should still be holding ground.

+1 agreed. I was going to crossfire 4850's or get a single 4870, but then I looked at the new games coming out and was like....

"Wait...4850 should be fine..."

I'll probably take your advice and when "early next year" rolls around I'll get another card (or crossfire)

Then 4870x2 seems to not be a disappointment How long is it expected to be performance king?

[iTravis]

So the HD4870 pretty much rapes the GTX 280 in every game except Crysis and up until now we can't still find a card to max out Crysis at good gameplay (60fps or above) on 1920x1200. It seems Crysis is well optimized for Nvidia and end up favor Nvidia card more than ATI. This is my result for Crysis @ 1920x1200 Very high settings with no AA and 4xAA on HD4870CF, Q6600@ 3.6Ghz, Dx10.

No AA


4xAA


Btw thanks Mascaras for the head up, I'm gonna try 8.8 beta and see if I can get any gain in performance.

[Mumid]

CPU bottleneck is DEFINATELY an issue this time around, there is no doubt about that. If one card is bottlenecked by a QX9770 at 3.85Ghz at some resolutions, I don't think there is a CPU on this planet that is 25 / 7 stable which can take advantage of two of those cards.

Agreed. My system is bottlenecking two 4870's at 4.25ghz CPU with the setup in my sig. Hopefully Nahalem will be able to handle 4870x2 XFire properly and then we can the see the true potential of this setup. We will just have to wait and see.

[y2kbos]

CPU bottleneck is DEFINATELY an issue this time around, there is no doubt about that. If one card is bottlenecked by a QX9770 at 3.85Ghz at some resolutions, I don't think there is a CPU on this planet that is 25 / 7 stable which can take advantage of two of those cards.

What about one card?

This card is incredible, well if it was a Crysis killer it would be.

Anyway would Q9450 @ 3.60ghz bottleneck the card @ 1920 x 1200?

Im finding it hard to believe two of these cards could be bottlenecked @ 1600p, with a 4ghz Dual.

[Mumid]

Seriously guys, Crysis is very playable with this card at 22" Monitor size @ DX10 Very high:



At this fps it is totally smooth and playable. Be interesting to see what the performance is like once the sideport is enabled in the drivers and whether or not it would help a title like Crysis. EDIT -

Just seen this:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3372&p=3

The CrossFire Sideport is simply another high bandwidth link between the GPUs. Data can be sent between them via a PCIe switch on the board, or via the Sideport. The two aren't mutually exclusive, using the Sideport doubles the amount of GPU-to-GPU bandwidth on a single Radeon HD 4870 X2. So why disable it?

According to AMD the performance impact is negligible, while average frame rates don't see a gain every now and then you'll see a boost in minimum frame rates. There's also an issue where power consumption could go up enough that you'd run out of power on the two PCIe power connectors on the board. Board manufacturers also have to lay out the additional lanes on the graphics card connecting the two GPUs, which does increase board costs (although ever so slightly).

AMD decided that since there's relatively no performance increase yet there's an increase in power consumption and board costs that it would make more sense to leave the feature disabled.

The reference 4870 X2 design includes hardware support for the CrossFire Sideport, assuming AMD would ever want to enable it via a software update. However, there's no hardware requirement that the GPU-to-GPU connection is included on partner designs. My concern is that in an effort to reduce costs we'll see some X2s ship without the Sideport traces laid out on the PCB, and then if AMD happens to enable the feature in its drivers later on some X2 users will be left in the dark.

I pushed AMD for a firm commitment on how it was going to handle future support for Sideport and honestly, right now, it's looking like the feature will never get enabled. AMD should have never mentioned that it ever existed, especially if there was a good chance that it wouldn't be enabled. AMD (or more specifically ATI) does have a history of making a big deal of GPU features that never get used (Truform anyone?), so it's not too unexpected but still annoying.

Looks like it might be a long wait!!

EDIT - Just saw that you posted this news earlier in the thread Fornowagain, sorry mate, my bad.

[y2kbos]

So the HD4870 pretty much rapes the GTX 280 in every game except Crysis and up until now we can't still find a card to max out Crysis at good gameplay (60fps or above) on 1920x1200. It seems Crysis is well optimized for Nvidia and end up favor Nvidia card more than ATI.

I dont think thats the case at all, at least not with regard to single gpu. Where the HD4870 is where it should be, between Gtx 260 and Gtx 280.

Sli seems to scale better alright but when you add AA and such at high res's it becomes Ati ground in price vs performance again.At 1080p crossfire scales at 50% with beta drivers, but its minimum fps is much higher.No real advantage for Nvidia in that game with regard to price vs performance, infact it favours Ati now imo.

[iTravis]

I dont think thats the case at all, at least not with regard to single gpu. Where the HD4870 is where it should be, between Gtx 260 and Gtx 280.

Sli seems to scale better alright but when you add AA and such at high res's it becomes Ati ground in price vs performance again.At 1080p crossfire scales at 50% with beta drivers, but its minimum fps is much higher.No real advantage for Nvidia in that game with regard to price vs performance, infact it favours Ati now imo.

I'm not even talking about SLI/CrossFire scaling here. And if I remember correctly then the HD4870 can't keep up with the GTX 260 in Crysis, which is the one it should go head to head with for the price ratio at the same settings.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my HD4870 and clearly it's a winner for the price/performance ratio but definitely not in Crysis. But once again, I don't build a system to play Crysis as I know lot of people see this game as more like a tool to check graphics hardware than simply enjoying it.

[SKYMTL]

What about one card?

This card is incredible, well if it was a Crysis killer it would be.

Anyway would Q9450 @ 3.60ghz bottleneck the card @ 1920 x 1200?

Im finding it hard to believe two of these cards could be bottlenecked @ 1600p, with a 4ghz Dual.

First of all, trust me...they are bottlenecked which is why I refused to add any CrossfireX testing to my review. I did a few short tests on my system at my nominal 3.85Ghz and a somewhat quick and unstable overclock to 4.2Ghz and I saw some very significant increases in framerates with a pair of these cards. We are talking about increases which are above and beyond what an additional 400Mhz overclock can achieve.

At for a quad @ 3.60Ghz bottlenecking it @ 24" resolution. If you start jacking up the AA and AF then no but if you run without higher IQ presets, then there is that chance. However, even IF it gets bottlenecked you are still pretty much guaranteed high performance.

[jmke]

Seriously guys, Crysis is very playable with this card at 22" Monitor size

The HD4870X2 is definitely meant for use with 1920x1200 and preferably 2560x1600; so that's 24"~27" and 30" TFT screens.

At 22" 1680x1050 you are better of buying HD4870/GTX 260 , will offer a better price/performance point; unless you really really want to use 24xAA/16xAF in all your games (except Crysis) on your 22"

[Mumid]

The HD4870X2 is definitely meant for use with 1920x1200 and preferably 2560x1600; so that's 24"~27" and 30" TFT screens.

At 22" 1680x1050 you are better of buying HD4870/GTX 260 , will offer a better price/performance point; unless you really really want to use 24xAA/16xAF in all your games (except Crysis) on your 22"

Oh yeah defo mate if price/performance is your main objective, however, that is'nt the case for all of us!

Besides, I also play many PC games @ 1080p on my 40" HDTV.

[y2kbos]

I'm not even talking about SLI/CrossFire scaling here. And if I remember correctly then the HD4870 can't keep up with the GTX 260 in Crysis, which is the one it should go head to head with for the price ratio at the same settings.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my HD4870 and clearly it's a winner for the price/performance ratio but definitely not in Crysis. But once again, I don't build a system to play Crysis as I know lot of people see this game as more like a tool to check graphics hardware than simply enjoying it.

I havent used the HD4870 myself, but I did read loads of reviews before I went off and got myself a Gtx 260 ( I like to be different ) and it was a bit faster than my gtx 260 when both are at stock speeds.

[jmke]

Oh yeah defo mate if price/performance is your main objective, however, that is'nt the case for all of us!

Besides, I also play many PC games @ 1080p on my 40" HDTV.

you didn't mention that last part ;-)
how far away are you from that 40" HDTV? because at 3+ meter difference between 1080p and 720p is nihil and you can just run at 1280x720 with all the AA/AF turned up.

[Danger30Q]

It's great to see the 9800GX2 holding in there at the 1920x1200 resolution. Considering the card can be found for $300 in some places, you still get your best bang for the buck with the 9800GX2.

[Mumid]

you didn't mention that last part ;-)
how far away are you from that 40" HDTV? because at 3+ meter difference between 1080p and 720p is nihil and you can just run at 1280x720 with all the AA/AF turned up.

About a metre away when im playing games on it. Sure beats the graphics a 360 puts out, everything rendered in true 1080p instead of upscaled lol. Makes me laugh when 360 and PS3 advertise 'full HD' as one of thier features.

[jmke]

don't spoil your eyes though
plan to install a racing seat in front on my 42" HDTV

[iTravis]

I havent used the HD4870 myself, but I did read loads of reviews before I went off and got myself a Gtx 260 ( I like to be different ) and it was a bit faster than my gtx 260 when both are at stock speeds.

Hm...well then I guess you're right, I think I read the review that the GTX 260 pull ahead the HD4870 in Crysis in Hardocp or Tweaktown. But I just read some others and found out the 4870 does beat the GTX 260 by a small margin.
Regardless, both are still very good card for the price/performance anyway.

[AnXioZ]

How about that?

[disruptfam]

q5550 @ 3.8-4ghz 1920 x 1200 1 x 4870x2 am i good?

no bottlenecking?

[Akabeth]

Finally its out :yep:

I gotta see if QX9770 @ 4gHz is still a bottleneck in the next few days... long wait is finally 'almost' over.

[2000army]

where is it available for purchase?

[perkam]

Crysis is the only abode left for Nvidia here, and even that, only in half the reviews.

The GT200b will half to be something else to beat this. The performance crown has shifted, that is undeniable.

Perkam

[SKYMTL]

Crysis is the only abode left for Nvidia here, and even that, only in half the reviews.

The GT200b will half to be something else to beat this. The performance crown has shifted, that is undeniable.

Perkam

Considering the testing I have been doing with a couple of overclocked GTX 280 cards, I agree. The clocks on a 55nm 200-series would have to be insanely high to compete with the X2. But, I wouldn't put that past Nvidia.