[Autopsy] ATI Radeon HD 4870 Update: Review

[AriciU]

Grr, i can't wait for the damn reviews already. Was it not supposed to be Monday? Or the 25th?

[xlink]

everyones going on an on and on about the damn radeons. THey are good as is at their price point. period.
And why would you stick a gig of gddr5 on a 256bit bus? thats like filling a pool with a garden hose it seems.

it's more comparable to filling a pool with 256 garden hoses with the water moving really fast.

as compared to filling it with 512 hoses with much slower moving water.

[Chickenfeed]

A pool which in the end is filled either way. Its just down to each sides respective design decision. ATI found it cheaper to stick with a 256bit bus ( a larger bus would just raise R&D as well as chip costs ) and opt for the GDDR5 while Nvidia decided to go for a wider bus ( which is more expensive in both die size and cost ) but use the cheaper, more plentiful GDDR3. Both methods achieve the same end goal however but I still think ATIs method is the better one for the consumer, as long as GDDR5 supplies don't run thin that is. Both designs should offer considerable bandwidth for some time to come.

[cookerjc]

OK, the Chinese review done, i am translating it, put it to the en. site.

http://translate.google.com/translat...sl=zh-CN&tl=en
if you dont want to wait, just follow the link but it will be really slow for oversea readers

[AriciU]

OK, the Chinese review done, i am translating it, put it to the en. site.

http://translate.google.com/translat...sl=zh-CN&tl=en
if you dont want to wait, just follow the link but it will be really slow for oversea readers

Finally! Thanks man!

[Jowy Atreides]

awesome, it beats the 260 almost across the board for a smaller pricetag!

I wonder if the 1gb version will compare more favourably to the 280?

[eric66]

great results

[kite7]

Finally, ati is back in the game!


I've always been green but I just can't help but feel happy for ati

[Glow9]

I'm having a hard time buying some of these results, with the rig in my sig I get 91fps average in COD4 and a 9800GX2 gets 114 eh?

[Cooper]

OK, the Chinese review done, i am translating it, put it to the en. site.

http://translate.google.com/translat...sl=zh-CN&tl=en
if you dont want to wait, just follow the link but it will be really slow for oversea readers

In DX9 HD4870 takes the crown versus GTX260.

Are DX10 tests will be performed later too ?

[JohnZS]

I hope the HD4870 1GB is a fair bit cheaper (£80) than the GT260GTX card it is tempting to crossfire them I bet in Crossfire it will beat the GT280GTX!
John

[AriciU]

Great success! 4870 CF here i come Little less performance then GTX 280 at almost half the price I'm surprised it even beat the 280 at 1900 res with AA turned to the max

[MomijiTMO]

Holy smokes.

Me <3 4870

Crank up the AA and enjoy the show.

[Jowy Atreides]

Great success! 4870 CF here i come Little less performance then GTX 280 at almost half the price I'm surprised it even beat the 280 at 1900 res with AA turned to the max

and the 280 has 1Gb onboard memory

I'm anticipating the 4870 1024 reviews will show a great card

[zerazax]

The (lack of) 8xAA hit from 4xAA is pretty amazing for the 4800's so far. Weird to see how the ATI architecture has matched the 4xAA hit versus the GTX 200's but seems to beat it soundly with 8xAA applied.

R700 please

[aintz]

very solid performance, nvidias gonna have to drop some prices.

[AriciU]

I wonder how much the 280 will cost in about one month. You can almost get 2 x 4870's for the price of a single GTX 280 ffs. I'm glad ATI finally slapped those lazy asses around.

[Shadowmage]

Holy crap, I don't believe this!!!!

4870 DEFEATS OR TIES GTX 260 ACROSS THE BOARD!!!

[twwen2]

Holy crap, I don't believe this!!!!

4870 DEFEATS OR TIES GTX 260 ACROSS THE BOARD!!!

+1
Some of the experienced members here had already hinted that this would be the case, it's great to finally see some competition from DAAMiT again.

[Unbornchild]

Holy crap, I don't believe this!!!!

:

Hmmm... i DO believe this.

[MomijiTMO]

The (lack of) 8xAA hit from 4xAA is pretty amazing for the 4800's so far. Weird to see how the ATI architecture has matched the 4xAA hit versus the GTX 200's but seems to beat it soundly with 8xAA applied.

R700 please

Yeah I know and it is the one thing we didn't know from all the rumor talk. Now nVidia takes a bigger hit.

[Shadowmage]

+1
Some of the experienced members here had already hinted that this would be the case, it's great to finally see some competition from DAAMiT again.

This is seriously unbelievable!

GTX260 uses more power, costs more, has a wider memory bus, has more transistors... the reviews were calling this the "best buy" when it came out. Now it has been obsoleted in a week!

ATI is back!!!

[HKPolice]

92C load on the 4870 W.T.F

Also uber high wattage usage too!

[Shadowmage]

92C load on the 4870 W.T.F

Also uber high voltage usage too!

Can you link me to the high voltage?

The 92C is easily explainable: reapply the TIM with some better stuff and everything will be better. The 4850 experienced a 20C drop after doing so (71C idle to ~50C idle)

[AriciU]

Only thing that sucks is the cooling. I'm pretty sure it's caused by the fan speed they use. I think i saw like 30% fan speed at full load on the 4870... temps are normal for that setting IMO. But... if you turn the fan higher then you have to wear headphones. Swaping the cooling setup or bearing more noise is ok in my book for the performance / price the card offers.

Anyone know a cooling solution that would work for Crossfire? I don't think 2 x HR-03-GT's would fit.