Official HD4870X2 (R700) Review Thread

[SKYMTL]

where is it available for purchase?

Rumor had it that NCIX had a couple of Diamond cards for purchase this morning but I can't seem to confirm that.

[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.

Well that's not the only problem. In order to catch up to the 4870X2, Nvidia would have to make a high clocked GT200b faster than GTX 280 SLI in some cases 0_0

Perkam

[azza21]

thread crapping inc, uk pricing sucks... linky.

Overclockers is very expensive if you look hard enough you can one for around £320 including delivery. Use google mate

[Jon Boy Deluxe]

I wonder if this is worth upgrading to over my gx2 (using a 24" monitor)??? My q6600 is getting old and is only stable at 3.5/6ghz these days...

Opinions please?

[Xanadu]

Rumor had it that NCIX had a couple of Diamond cards for purchase this morning but I can't seem to confirm that.

They still have them up for sale, and in stock right now. It's listed under Diamnod D1, and not 4870X2. The $510 price tag should help you find it.

[naokaji]

where is it available for purchase?

for usa, give the shops a few hours to update the websites.
europe:
alternate.de
digitec.ch
overclockers.co.uk
have stock atm.

[pablorodano]

Here you have the HD4870X2's first Spanish (from Spain) review:

Todoreviews.net - ATI Radeon HD4870X2.









Regards.

[2DIFF]

@ether.real: The review is very well done, congrats. The only thing I missed was a word about the non-possibility to run only one GPU. The game I play most (RBR) doesn't like 2 GPU's at all, and as cracy as it seems, that's reason enough for me to buy 2 cards instead of an X2.

[SKYMTL]

@ether.real: The review is very well done, congrats. The only thing I missed was a word about the non-possibility to run only one GPU. The game I play most (RBR) doesn't like 2 GPU's at all, and as cracy as it seems, that's reason enough for me to buy 2 cards instead of an X2.

Disabling Catalyst AI seems to disable dual GPU rendering on this card.

[vmsein]

Has anyone that has been testing these cards notice any "micro" stuttering in any of the games that have reportedly shown stuttering in previous cards? I don't think it has been mentioned in any of the reviews that I've been able to pull up. I've been trying to access the AnandTech review but their server is getting hammered right now.

[vmsein]

These cards are now available at Newegg at higher than MSRP:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...eon+HD+4870+X2

[ether.real]

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.

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

Actually, the card rapes the 280 in Crysis too:

[ether.real]

Has anyone that has been testing these cards notice any "micro" stuttering in any of the games that have reportedly shown stuttering in previous cards? I don't think it has been mentioned in any of the reviews that I've been able to pull up. I've been trying to access the AnandTech review but their server is getting hammered right now.

Yes, microstuttering still exists, its just not very bad. I get it in the first minute or so of gameplay and then it smooths out. I talk about it a little....

[vmsein]

Yes, microstuttering still exists, its just not very bad. I get it in the first minute or so of gameplay and then it smooths out. I talk about it a little....

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad to hear that at least it's less pronounced on this new hardware. Off to read your review

[mrcape]

Sorry for last minute post on this topic, but now that it's officially launched, what is the MSRP and what do you speculate the price to be in 2 weeks to a month?

[Shintai]

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

What a joke.

Sounds abit like nvidias purevideo and the HD part in 2900 series. And perhaps abit like 5000 series SM2.0 support, tho that did work....sota

[ether.real]

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.

I agree completely. My graph seems to confirm some serious CPU bottleneck action going on.

[ether.real]

Sorry for last minute post on this topic, but now that it's officially launched, what is the MSRP and what do you speculate the price to be in 2 weeks to a month?

Its $549 now, I bet it drops to $499.

[Solus Corvus]

Sounds abit like nvidias purevideo and the HD part in 2900 series. And perhaps abit like 5000 series SM2.0 support, tho that did work....sota

A negative comment. That was unexpected.

[vengance_01]

Good Job AMD/ATI. The King of price and performance is still the 4850/4870 cards. But for people with a 30inch LCD and lots of money, man I would love to have that card and LCD.

[eleeter]

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

Agreed.


Some people need a little perspective here. If someone had told me 3 months ago that ATI was going to release a card that would give the same performance as G200 in SLI, quite honestly I would have thought they were nuts. The X2 is a performance beast.

[Cooper]

Yes, microstuttering still exists, its just not very bad. I get it in the first minute or so of gameplay and then it smooths out. I talk about it a little....

It's NOT microstuttering. textures are pre-loading to the framebuffer, thus the performance is low.

[Aberration]

Yep. And thats why it drives me nuts to see people only showing the frame/time difference of the first 30seconds. Its BS.

[ether.real]

It's NOT microstuttering. textures are pre-loading to the framebuffer, thus the performance is low.

Not sure I agree with that. Never had that issue on the 280, and its not like the X2 is hurting for memory bandwidth.

[Sparky]

Diamond in stock at newegg for $570 (ouch)