HD 4770 Previews/Reviews

[Nedjo]

i specifically asked amd "does it support triple or quad configurations?" their answer was "By design, the 4770 is limited to two cards in CrossFireX"

one more reason to get MSI G70, and four HD 4770 cards

[jmke]

Need some help here plz.

Do I wait for the 4770's to be released in SA & go crossfire. Or get 2 1GB 4850's or one 4890?

single GPU will be your best choice,
less heat, and if CF support in games fails, the single GPU keeps on trucking

[ownage]

Im not saying its retarded in terms of eye cacthing. But all the practical issues etc. Same space one takes you use 2 "old" etc. Plus even for carry its a wierd shape.

It isn't practical, but when you buy one all your n00bz0r friends think your are 1337

[ToTTenTranz]

???

all 4770s are QuadFire capable!

That gives me idea... for a price of this single item:
CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115200

You can buy all these items:
CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103674
MOBO:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130223
VGA
4x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127432
MEMORY:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227297
HDD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136073

Please.. not 4 GPUs with 512MB.. it would be such a waste..




About mixed Crossfire, don't mind that chart:

As shown in the graphs above, we did see performance increases over single card mode when using the mixed card CrossFire. In the case of Call of Duty 4 the gain was nowhere near that of true 3870 configuration but it did make our tested settings playable. World of conflict was much more impressive with a doubling of minimum framerates over a single 2900 XT.

We would imagine that this loophole will be locked down in future drivers but it was certainly interesting to see what was possible.

Source.


The capability is certainly there, it's probably just a driver lock.

[onethreehill]

Finally, Techreport's review
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16820

[oohms]

Why would you want to crossfire different model cards anyway? ATI have enough driver problems with regular crossfire (but getting better), crossfiring different models is just asking for trouble.

[grimREEFER]

perhaps triple and quad crossfire disabled over stuttering concerns.

[Wadkiller]

single GPU will be your best choice,
less heat, and if CF support in games fails, the single GPU keeps on trucking

Is there a lot of titles that don't support crossfire? Would that also be the case if you were to use a x2 model?

The 4770's will be cheapest solution of the lot. Heat won't be a problem since i would be watercooling them

[onethreehill]

Radeon HD 4770 Media Edition VS Retail Edition

Besides Radeon HD 4770 retail edition, AMD has actually prepared another edition for media’s test. The two editions look quite differently, but perform almost equally. As you can see below, the media edition is designed elegantly with a more effective cooler.

The media edition brings 2-3℃ lower temperature than retail edition, but it causes more noises when the fan runs at maximum speed. Let’s check out together what differences they have. The above one of each group is media edition, and the other one is retail edition .........

http://en.expreview.com/2009/04/30/r...html#more-3356

[ToTTenTranz]

Radeon HD 4770 Media Edition VS Retail Edition

http://en.expreview.com/2009/04/30/r...html#more-3356

wow... the crappy cooler version has 8 less capacitors and 4 less MOSFETs (I think those are mosfets)...

[Tuvok-LuR-]

Is there a lot of titles that don't support crossfire?

Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe doesn't

[SKYMTL]

Radeon HD 4770 Media Edition VS Retail Edition

http://en.expreview.com/2009/04/30/r...html#more-3356

If this was Nvidia, everyone would be arming the mob and getting out the pitchforks.

[kemo]

The media edition brings 2-3℃ lower temperature than retail edition, but it causes more noises when the fan runs at maximum speed

Funny thing is that the retail edition will always run at max speed

[marten_larsson]

If this was Nvidia, everyone would be arming the mob and getting out the pitchforks.

Probably if the clocks were different and with additional memory. The GPU and memory will probably perform within 0,1% of each other between "review" and "retail". Maybe the OC is different but it seems like everyone is hitting the 830MHz boundary so that doesn't seem to stop it.

[SKYMTL]

Funny thing is that the retail edition will always run at max speed

No. The fan on the retail edition runs at 30% and has small spikes to ~60% fan speed when temperatures hit the mid 60s.

[SKYMTL]

Probably if the clocks were different and with additional memory. The GPU and memory will probably perform within 0,1% of each other between "review" and "retail". Maybe the OC is different but it seems like everyone is hitting the 830MHz boundary so that doesn't seem to stop it.

830Mhz is the upper limit of the CCC so the fact that everyone is hitting that doesn't come as a surprise. Judging from what I see, power consumption may be different between the two cards as well.

What I am saying is that ATI sent a product out to reviewers knowing full well their board partners would be releasing slightly "cheaper" versions to retail. If Nvidia did this, Charlie and the whole Nvidia Hate Train would pull up at the station and have their way with it. I know there is no "balance" in this industry or in the minds of people but I personally think someone with both cards should conclusively test one versus the other's power consumption.

If I was one of those reviewers who received the version that won't be available at retail until XFX releases their card, I would be pretty ticked off.

[onethreehill]

XFX First to Use Premium Reference Design for Radeon HD 4770

XFX continues to show enthusiasm with its ATI Radeon line of products, by coming up with the first Radeon HD 4770 accelerator for the market to use the premium reference design for Radeon HD 4770 (model: XFX 4770ST D5 512MB). AMD had come up with two choices of coolers for its partners. Most of them choose the one which is more cost-effective, so the sales margins could be improved in an already tight pricing-segment.

XFX used the premium reference-design cooler and PCB, with a major difference that it comes in black instead of red. XFX has so far had a knack of trying as hard as it can, to color its cards black. The company did so with the Radeon HD 4870 reference design accelerator recently. This card retains the reference clock speeds of 750 MHz (core), and 800 MHz (memory). Given that XFX chose the more expensive parts in making this card, it will pass on the premium to the consumer, making it slightly more expensive than the reference design cards in its league.

http://www.techpowerup.com/92862/XFX...n_HD_4770.html

[marten_larsson]

830Mhz is the upper limit of the CCC so the fact that everyone is hitting that doesn't come as a surprise. Judging from what I see, power consumption may be different between the two cards as well.

What I am saying is that ATI sent a product out to reviewers knowing full well their board partners would be releasing slightly "cheaper" versions to retail. If Nvidia did this, Charlie and the whole Nvidia Hate Train would pull up at the station and have their way with it. I know there is no "balance" in this industry or in the minds of people but I personally think someone with both cards should conclusively test one versus the other's power consumption.

If I was one of those reviewers who received the version that won't be available at retail until XFX releases their card, I would be pretty ticked off.

Well, after looking at your review and Anandtech's it seems like the power consumption is the same. At idle, it's a bit worse than 4830 (~8W) but at load is better(~18W). Compared to the 9800GT it's about the same too. And I assume by what you wrote and previously written that you have a retail card.

The OC potential is locked by AMD to 830MHz, no one should be complaining about not getting to OC above that level IMO.

So maybe it's just you blowing things out of proportion?

[SKYMTL]

So maybe it's just you blowing things out of proportion?

I'm not complaining since I got a retail version. What I was saying that that people seem to react differently to ATI's flubs than they do to Nvidia's. It was more a comment about human nature rather than anything else.

The OC potential is locked by AMD to 830MHz, no one should be complaining about not getting to OC above that level IMO.

Since people will soon be (and some are already) using RivaTuner which can clock the card FAR above 830Mhz, it could become an issue.

[kemo]

No. The fan on the retail edition runs at 30% and has small spikes to ~60% fan speed when temperatures hit the mid 60s.

I can only see only two wires powering the fan so i though no PWM = no fan control

[Soultaker52]

I'm not complaining since I got a retail version. What I was saying that that people seem to react differently to ATI's flubs than they do to Nvidia's. It was more a comment about human nature rather than anything else.



Since people will soon be (and some are already) using RivaTuner which can clock the card FAR above 830Mhz, it could become an issue.

Yeah, I was thinking about buying one of these to play around with, in addition to recommending them to some of my friends. This development of the lack of some hardware on the board has really turned me off to this card though. ATi, it isn't liked when nVidia does it, what makes you think it won't be minded when YOU do it? As the picture above shows, even the XFX board is missing the same hardware. No thanks.

[oohms]

The missing hardware (mosfets, capacitors) will make 0 difference, unless you are running LN2 and you absolutely need to run 1.6v through the card

[Wadkiller]

I hope your right oohms, cause i just pulled the trigger on two XFX 4770's. Will probably get them end next week.

[Frodin]

I can only see only two wires powering the fan so i though no PWM = no fan control

Regulate the voltage to the fan, and you'll regulate the fan speed. It's perhaps not as "smart" as PWM control, but it should work if the bios/software allows it.

[SKYMTL]

The HD 4770 uses direct voltage control to make sure the fan runs at an acceptable speed.