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First Review: HD 4870 and HD 4850 - ExPreview

post #1 of 24
6/24/08 at 11:11am
Thread Starter 
This is the first comprehensive review available (review dated June 24th) I am aware of on the HD 4870 (512mb GDDR5). The review includes comparisons on the full gambit of current cards, including the GTX 280/260, 9800GX2, 9800GTX, HD 3870X2, and HD 3870.

Noteworthy remarks:

Quote:
The Good:

So, numbers can talk for itself. With the price tag $199(HD 4850) and $299 (HD 4870), RV770 is the BEST bang for the buck. Compare to GTX 260, A $299 only HD 4870 is a smarter choice. Yes, using this kind of word seems quite biased, but if you read all numbers from our review you will see my point.

Compare to GTX 260, HD 4870 is only 3/4 of its price while test items show the card have almost the same firepower!

HD 4850’s rival is 9800GTX, and we can see while their price keeps the same, HD 4850 have more than 15% leading.

The Con:

But, RV770 also have lot’s of weak points. First, the card is HOT, i am afraid that if you are not going aftermarket coolers or water the card can not stand long.
Second, RV770 TDP is quite terrible. HD 4870 in stress mode almost can catch up with GTX 280. Is it still a AMD card? And the second Gen PowerPlay is not as good as AMD saids, seems can not lower the clock effectively.

Quote:
The huge impact of Radeon HD 4800 series force NVIDIA drops price for the Geforce 9800GTX to $199, and introduces the GeForce 9800 GTX+ at $233 which supports PhysX or other CUDA programs. However, it can’t threaten HD 4850 on price or performance with that price. HD 4850 has flooded out everywhere and HD 4870 is just around the corner. It will be launch on June 25th or July 8th.

Besides, we have benchmarked two or three HD 4800 in CrossFireX, and the the review is coming soon.
The reviewer stated on another forum that "HD 48xx crossfire rocks..."

Source: ExPreview
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post #2 of 24
6/24/08 at 11:32am
I can't have my cards be hot... based on where my PC is located...
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post #3 of 24
6/24/08 at 1:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve@NBF View Post
I can't have my cards be hot... based on where my PC is located...
between your legs?

I'll wait for some solid marks and comparisons before my faith is restored in ATi...

would love to see them come back for some good competition against nvidia, but I swore off giving my money to ATi since the x850's
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post #4 of 24
6/24/08 at 1:33pm
Thread Starter 
I feel your pain Yang. I had the X850XT...

Think I'm gonna give the 4870 a go...maybe 2 if drivers are ready.
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post #5 of 24
6/24/08 at 2:57pm
Water cooling my 4870x2 cards is a no brainer, as soon as the water blocks are out I am on it.
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post #6 of 24
6/24/08 at 4:20pm
well since the x850 desktop was the last desktop I owned, I opted for the 280...which barely fits my SFF anyway...

but I hope the 4870 is a huge success...more competition = better stuff & pricing for us
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post #7 of 24
6/24/08 at 11:20pm
<3 Hope ATi kicks some ass this time around.
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post #8 of 24
6/25/08 at 3:00am
I don't particularly care for ATI (had bad experiences) but I love competition.

AMD woke up Intel from slumber, and look where that's lead us. Let's hope that DAAMIT can wake up NVIDIA for more competition as well. It's the best thing for everyone.
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post #9 of 24
6/25/08 at 3:28am

AMD Wins at $199 and $299










http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=1[/quote]
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post #10 of 24
6/25/08 at 7:03am
Thread Starter 
Overclockersclub Review:

Quote:
Conclusion:

I went into this review with high expectations after testing the HD 4850 and seeing how well it did. I kept asking myself, is this the smoking gun that ATI has brought to the table in the Russian Roulette game between the two major video card manufacturers? Will this be what ATI needs to finally bring a hurt to NVIDIA and show that it still has the guts and glory to bring to us consumers what we crave? Just like the HD 4850 review I did a few days ago, ATI has really come out and produced a wonderful series of video cards. The HD 4870 provided performance once only seen in cards that were so expensive only a few could afford one. Here you have a frame busting card for not a lot of money. The raw performance produced from the HD 4870 is earth shattering considering its price to performance ratio. PowerColor has once again outdone itself bringing us the HD 4870 video card.
The heating issues still seem to plague the HD 4800 series. Be it a driver problem or lack of cooling hardware, something needs to be done to bring these temperatures down for me to be comfortable running this card in a machine that stays on 24 hours a day. I would recommend either purchasing an aftermarket cooler to bring down the temperatures or be patient until a fix is available, be it a BIOS update or a third party tool that can be used to adjust the fan speed. Eighty six degrees Celsius under load is scary. Beyond that, I see the HD 4870 taking the market by storm.

Pros:
  • Performance equal to or better than the GTX 280
  • GDDR5 memory
  • Inexpensive compared to other cards in its class
  • CrossfireX support for multi-GPU setups
  • On-Chip HDCP
  • 55nm manufacturing process
  • Built-in HDMI and 7.1 surround sound support
Cons:
  • Still has the heating issue
  • GPU not as overclockable as the memory
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post #11 of 24
6/25/08 at 7:08am
Thread Starter 
@ Hardware Canucks
@ AnandTech
@ Hot Hardware
@ Elite Bastards
@ Expreview
@ MadBoxPC
@ Ars Technica
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post #12 of 24
6/25/08 at 8:09am
Thread Starter 








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post #13 of 24
6/25/08 at 10:47am
awesome, some benchmarks at high resolutions
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post #14 of 24
6/25/08 at 11:00am
This is quite impressive, I can't wait to see Dave-P's quadfire setup in action.
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post #15 of 24
6/25/08 at 1:51pm
Glad to see ATi coming out and giving nvidia some competition...

about damn time!
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post #16 of 24
6/25/08 at 5:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdonket View Post
This is quite impressive, I can't wait to see Dave-P's quadfire setup in action.
neither can I, lol

Wish the x2 cards were out today I would have them by friday
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post #17 of 24
6/25/08 at 7:23pm
I can't wait for my 4870x2 in cf
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post #18 of 24
6/26/08 at 3:08am


$299 vs $650 crazy.


Anyone notice the 9800GX2 beats the GTX280 in a bunch of reviews?
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post #19 of 24
6/27/08 at 10:10am
Thread Starter 
Added OCClub PowerColor 4870 review.

Again, impressive.
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post #20 of 24
7/7/08 at 3:40pm
Tiger Direct now has a Visontek HD 4870 listed for $ 365.99 Woot

4870x2 not too much farther away
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