HD 4770 Previews/Reviews

[SKYMTL]

pcgameshardware got 900MHz out of the "big" cooler, which kind of dents the theory that the cheaper cooler is better. Perhaps there's just a large variability in the amount of OC headroom in these chips? Would make sense seeing as these are the first chips on the new process.

No. My 830 Mhz overclock was not held back by the cooler but rather the CCC.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Extremely nice catch!

Time to post that in their forums and stir a ruckus?

I had a guy try to tell me on bit-tech yesterday (a moderator) that 2 x 4890's in CF was about equal to a single GTX 280

[jmke]

DATA mining time: 9 reviews, 1 chart http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f...e-chart-63314/

[tenebre]

This is the first time I see a company afraid they made a card too good

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...13401&Itemid=1

Update: ATI not thrilled

Update: ATI has officially confirmed that it does not allow partners to overclock the HD 4770, at least not for the time being.

EPIC!

[SKYMTL]

This is the first time I see a company afraid they made a card too good

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...13401&Itemid=1


EPIC!

Nvidia sort of did the same thing with the GTX 275 but actually limited its overclocking potential through component choices and voltage.

[tajoh111]

Something like 136mm2

If thats the case, I could easily imagine the rv870 having the specs of this times two.

1280 shaders, 256mb memory bus, 32 ROPs, 64 texture. All under 300mm at 40nm.

[ahmad]

Revolutionary. I imagine profit margins are quite good on these puppies. If I was ATI I would discontinue the HD4850 right about now... and start making an HD4790.

DATA mining time: 9 reviews, 1 chart http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f...e-chart-63314/

Brilliant. Thanks for the effort.

To comment on the nvidia out selling ati... the problem with that is it must be true. Simple reason is: I don't know anything about hardware, yet I have heard of "Geforce" and "nvidia", and I probably figure a $130 investment in a video card makes sense, so I buy whatever is in that price range and fits the bill.

Of course I am referring to Americans (who probably make up the biggest market). In europe, this might not be the case at all. On average, people in europe and asia are more knowledgeable in these matters.

In addition, retailers often stock a lot more nvidia variety (oems) than ati. Mostly due to demand and availability...

[Eastcoasthandle]

I had a guy try to tell me on bit-tech yesterday (a moderator) that 2 x 4890's in CF was about equal to a single GTX 280

That should tell you how often to trust their reviews. Like I said before, there is something wrong with a website that only shows one company's video card always beating another, no matter what.

[SKYMTL]

I haven't found Bit-Tech's articles to be biased one way or another. Am I missing something?

[Caveman787]

It'd be nice if 900/1000 or more becomes standard overclocking potential for these card. It'd make for an amazing cheap powerful crossifre setup. It'd be nice if they release the 3870 style stock cooler version for the same price as an aftermarket cooler needed for overclocking a $100 card is a fair amount of the card price.

The good thing is seeing the potential of these cut down cards it makes the potential of the 40nm 5000 series cards seem very promising.

[informal]

I dunno about bit tech being biased or not,but 2x4980(CFX) is definitely not equal to GTX280 but way faster than that and roughly equal to GTX295... Maybe that mod got confused somehow and said 280 instead of 295.

[demonkevy666]

these cards are now on newegg $109

but it's the cooler shown in the reviews.

no triple support and no quad even though they're be really nice too nice for ATI to do so >_>....
-_- disappointing.

[hurleybird]

No. My 830 Mhz overclock was not held back by the cooler but rather the CCC.

Not referring to yours. Just saying that that's the highest OC on both coolers now.

[tenebre]

needs faster mem:

The performance benefit from the 20 percent overclocking for the GPU and 25 percent for the memory is impressive: On average the card is running 25 percent faster, that indicates a relative bandwidth limitation by the 128 Bit interface.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...eviews/?page=3

[tajoh111]

needs faster mem:



http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...eviews/?page=3

Which it won't get because this is meant to be a budget card.

[hurleybird]

Which it won't get because this is meant to be a budget card.

It already has faster ram, or at least the review samples do. The chips are rated at 4GHz, but are downclocked to 3.2GHz. Heck, I don't even think they make GDDR5 rated that low.

[tenebre]

I'm hoping 1000/4800 with a better cooler and ramsinks.

That would one heck of a marketing bonus, 1GHZ for a HD4790..

[AuDioFreaK39]

ATI doesn’t want overclocked HD 4770's



Not for now

We've talked with some top ATI guys today and they wanted to make it clear that for the time being there won't be any overclocked Radeon HD 4770.

As you can read here, Asus obviously jumped the gun disobeying ATI’s instructions and naturally this made a huge reaction from people like Sapphire, XFX and other ATI partners that would like to overclock their own cards.

Today, ATI doesn’t want to see any overclocked card, but this might change in the future, as overclocking potential is there. ATI just recently started letting its partners overclock, but the big issues here is if Asus starts shipping such an overclocked products, the others will want to do the same, and ATI loses control.

We believe that this decision is strategic as it can offer second sales wave once the overclocked cards are eventually introduced, and Nvidia often uses the same strategy. One thing is clear, there won’t be any overclocked HD 4770 anytime soon.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...13407&Itemid=1


(Follow up to: Asus has the first overclocked HD 4770)

[LightSpeed]

overclocked would mean itl be equal to 4850 speeds, and that could be a problem i guess

1ghz mem is too easy for this card, and that alone would boost speeds by quite a bit

[Eastcoasthandle]

I find it odd that reviewers are comparing at HD4770 to a GTS250/9800GTX+ . This card is targeted for the 8800GT/9800GT and what would have been the GTS 240. And if I remember correctly the the Sparkle and Asus verison of the GTS 250 uses 2 PCIe 6 pin connectors. Furthermore, the GTS 250 cost more then a HD4770 even at their current markup price. Heck I've even checked NCIX and the GTS 250 still cost more then a HD4770. So I honestly don't see why the HD4770 is compared to the GTS 250 specifically.

[Caveman787]

This card is amazing in CROSSFIRE. They have a review over on Expreview that shows 80% scaing overall through a bunch of games and with 2 4770's the crossfire setup is on average 20% faster than a 4890.

This is insane imagine what it could do with 2 in crossfire with good cooling (Trad2/Twin Turbo/S1 Rev.2) and overclocked to 900/1000-1,000/4,800 could do. I think we may have found ATI's 8800gt finally.

Eastcoasthandle, I think it's because it often outperforms those at it's price point by such a margin that it's a better comparison between the next higher priced cards.

Ninja edit: That assus card above is claiming 971/4,600 with their volt mod software. So we may hit that magical 1,000/4,800 mark with rivatuner and perhaps if needed a slightly higher voltage.

[SKYMTL]

I find it odd that reviewers are comparing at HD4770 to a GTS250/9800GTX+ . This card is targeted for the 8800GT/9800GT and what would have been the GTS 240. And if I remember correctly the the Sparkle and Asus verison of the GTS 250 uses 2 PCIe 6 pin connectors. Furthermore, the GTS 250 cost more then a HD4770 even at their current markup price. Heck I've even checked NCIX and the GTS 250 still cost more then a HD4770. So I honestly don't see why the HD4770 is compared to the GTS 250 specifically.

Personally, I think it is because of the performance of the HD 4770 in certain games when compared to the GTS 250 / 9800 GTX+. While I find it is important to test against a wide variety of competitors, there is no denying that the performance of this card is in some cases close to or exceeds that of the GTS 250. However, testing the HD 4770 against ONLY a GTS 250 shouldn't be done due to price factors.

[trinibwoy]

So I honestly don't see why the HD4770 is compared to the GTS 250 specifically.

Most of the reviews are comparing it to both 9800GT and 9800GTX+/GTS250. Which makes sense given it falls between them both price and performance wise.

[LightSpeed]

SKYMTL, based on your tests, do you think at 825/950 (which should be doable) this will match the 4850 or exceed it?

[tenebre]

SKYMTL, based on your tests, do you think at 825/950 (which should be doable) this will match the 4850 or exceed it?

I don't know about SKYMTL but I'm certain that most cards (>90%) can do 800/1000 at stock voltage. Mem is rated at 1000 so it can do 1000 no prob, core is hugely undervolted for it not to cannibalize HD4850 and save power.