ATi 4870/4850 Review Thread

[ViRGE]

Picking up from where we left off

---
As reviews trickle in they will be updated. We welcome links and/or personal reviews in this thread.


Architecture Only
Rage3D
Hexus
XBitlabs (AA comparison)



Reviews - 4870
AnandTech
Expreview
Hardware Canuks
Hot Hardware
Arstechnica
Hardware FR
Tech Report
FudZilla (keep your sodium iodine granules handy)
Elite Bastards
Tweak Town
PC Perspective
Bjorn3D
ExtremeTech
Firingsquad (AA modes tested)



Reviews - 4850
AnandTech
HardwareFR - 4850 Preview
TweakTown 4850 in CrossFire test
PC Perspective Performance Preview
What If Gaming (includes AA comparison)
Computer Base
PCGH
ExtremeTech
Hot Hardware
Firingsquad
TechPowerUp
Hardspell (includes Bluray playback)
Tom's Hardware

 

[videogames101]

The 4870 looks to be an amazing buy as it can easily outperform the 260 at a price point $100 less, looks like AMD has won this round.

 

[Paratus]

Damn it's impressive for a $299 card

 

[chewietobbacca]

The 4870 looks like it will absolutely fly off shelves

 

[ddarko]

And in certain games, the $300 4870 outperforms the $650 GTX280. Talk about getting owned.

 

[chewietobbacca]

Other reviews:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com...phics-card-review.html
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=13972
http://www.hothardware.com/art...RV770%5FHas%5FArrived/

 

[OCGuy]

ATI has price/performance with the 4870, NV still has the performance crown. Pretty much what we expected...except some were claiming 4870 would actually beat 280.

Will NV launch GTX260++-- in response? Or are they going to eat thier margin on an expensive chip to produce? Or will they just let AMD take the $300 spot??

 

[Sylvanas]

Sweet it is what we expected, and then theres more to come with the 4870X2....now to make my mind up on which one to get.

Also Hardware Canucks review is up they tested the 4870 with an HR-03 GT and saw near a 40c drop in load temps :thumbsup:

 

[qliveur]

It's even better than what I expected. Why buy a GTX280 for $650 (ridiculous!) when you can get pretty close for less than half the price?

Power consumption is a bit of a disappointment, though.

 

[ddarko]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
ATI has price/performance with the 4870, NV still has the performance crown. Pretty much what we expected...except some were claiming 4870 would actually beat 280.

Really? Before these launches, people were expecting that a $650 card would get beat even once by a $300 card? Bioshock at 1680x1050, 1920x1200, 2560x1600:

GTX280: 109.2, 96.7, 63.9
4870: 118.9, 107.7, 70.2

Sure, it's only one game and but it's a popular game and the fact that it happens at all demonstrates you're unqualified statement is simply wrong: 4870 actually can and does beat the 280. I'm not aware of a card ever before in ANY game beating another card that costs over twice as much. It's an unprecedent milestone.

 

[gigahertz20]

The Anandtech review is missing some things on page 21, page 21 is labeled "Power Consumption, Heat and Noise" in the drop down page box, but it only lists power consumption figures. What about the heat and noise? Is it loud, quiet? What did the temperatures measure at idle and load?


Anyways, the 4870 looks like an awesome card, I'm hoping we will see good availability. It would be sweet to buy one on e-bay and get 25-35% off from it using the current Microsoft live cashback e-bay deal posted in the Hot Deals thread. I just hope the 35% comes up again, ($300 - 35% off = a $195 4870

 

[sourthings]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
ATI has price/performance with the 4870, NV still has the performance crown. Pretty much what we expected...except some were claiming 4870 would actually beat 280.

Will NV launch GTX260++-- in response? Or are they going to eat thier margin on an expensive chip to produce? Or will they just let AMD take the $300 spot??

Until 4870x2 hits in August. Then ATI will have both. :beer:

What's more they will have performance crown for less money, forcing the ridiculously overpriced and underperforming GTX 280 down in price. :laugh:

And regardless, we're talking for half the price you get 90% of the performance of a GTX 280. The 280 is going to tank now that these benches are out. Not even worth buying.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Nvidia better adjust their prices or they will lose market share quickly. GTX280 @ $400 and GTX260 @ $300.

 

[qliveur]

@sourthings:
Heh. Was it ever?

 

[Sylvanas]

I am surprised AT didn't mention the other cool things like Dual Bitstream Playback for HD content, full 7.1 channel output through HDMI and Video Transcoding available in the upcoming Power Director 7. I would hope there is an upcoming follow up review including these things and OC results etc.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: gigahertz20
The Anandtech review is missing some things on page 21, page 21 is labeled "Power Consumption, Heat and Noise" in the drop down page box, but it only lists power consumption figures. What about the heat and noise? Is it loud, quiet? What did the temperatures measure at idle and load?

They know, they know. They're struggling to meet the 12:01am NDA expiration, it's basically an exercise in live editing. The data should be added at some point.

 

[ksherman]

Originally posted by: SylvanasAlso Hardware Canucks review is up they tested the 4870 with an HR-03 GT and saw near a 40c drop in load temps :thumbsup:

Just saw that, pretty slick! I love aftermarket heat sinks for video cards. And if those numbers are indeed accurate, wowie! If ever I get around to building a PC again, this card is on the top of my list!

 

[Goosemaster]

impressive indeed.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: gigahertz20
The Anandtech review is missing some things on page 21, page 21 is labeled "Power Consumption, Heat and Noise" in the drop down page box, but it only lists power consumption figures. What about the heat and noise? Is it loud, quiet? What did the temperatures measure at idle and load?


Anyways, the 4870 looks like an awesome card, I'm hoping we will see good availability. It would be sweet to buy one on e-bay and get 25-35% off from it using the current Microsoft live cashback e-bay deal posted in the Hot Deals thread. I just hope the 35% comes up again, ($300 - 35% off = a $195 4870

4870 for $195 would be crazy :! ...

 

[ViRGE]

There is one thing that troubles me about the 4870: It's only a 512MB part. 512MB is getting pretty long in the tooth when 768MB+ has been the high-end standard for over a year and a half now. I know ATI has certain margins to hit, but something that fast and that pricey should be backed by more RAM. At some point games are going to push past 512MB of data and it's going to get clobbered.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
There is one thing that troubles me about the 4870: It's only a 512MB part. 512MB is getting pretty long in the tooth when 768MB+ has been the high-end standard for over a year and a half now. I know ATI has certain margins to hit, but something that fast and that pricey should be backed by more RAM. At some point games are going to push past 512MB of data and it's going to get clobbered.

Well we have already seen some leaks of 1GB cards- my guess is, like the previous few generations it will be up to AIB partners to add additional memory if they see fit, just like how we will no doubt see non-reference design cooling start to turn up a few weeks after release.

Asus already have a 1GB 4850 waiting in the wings, a 1GB 4870 should be round the corner.

 

[qliveur]

There's a 1GB part in the works, isn't there?

 

[GoodToGo]

Excellent review, card does very well...With AA on, the card catches up big time with the GTX 280. No AA on with crysis?

BTW they haven't reviewed the 1GB version yet?

 

[Toonces]

Originally posted by: Anand Lal Shimpi

The CrossFire Sideport

Although AMD isn't talking about it now, the CrossFire Sideport is a new feature of the RV770 architecture that isn't in use on the RV770 at all. In future, single-card, multi-GPU solutions (*cough* R700) this interface will be used to communicate between adjacent GPUs - in theory allowing for better scaling with CrossFire. We'll be able to test this shortly as AMD is quickly readying its dual-GPU RV770 card under the R700 codename.

Interesting... could this mean an earlier release of RV700 based cards than the previous "August" time line given by AMD?

With an abundance of 4850's available (early) in the channel, the 4870 showing up on NewEgg before being quickly taken down, and SKYMTL hinting at availability very soon for the 4870 stateside (on Hardwarecanucks) maybe they'll be showing up sooner than previously believed.

And I wonder what performance gains we'll see with improved scaling from the CrossFire Sideport... Interesting.

 

[s44]

That's a ridiculous power draw from the 4870.