ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series | 4870X2 4870 4850 4600 | Reviews | Discussion | See OP!!

[Kliphoth]

hey got my two 4870's today, could only put one in untill i get my new psu (monday) then i can xfire them

question is, i got 14146 3DMarks in 36 mark 06, but with my 8800gtx i was getting 13395, i was expecting more of a jump then that?

useing catalyst 8.7 leaked beta drivers, not crashing at all runs fine overclocked it to 790/1100,

other system specs are E8500@4.05 4gig 1066cosair ram 5-5-5-15

but yeah does that sound about ok fo 3dmark 06 score? i was hopeing for more of a jump, still not tested in games or vantage, i never done vantage before i will go download it now

[FiShy]

Originally Posted by Domokun

I was considering purchasing a 4870 mid next week (as that's when I get paid). However, there were rumours floating around that the 4870X2 might be released next week to compete with the release of the 9800GTX+. Does anyone know if this is true, and what the prices are going to be for the 4870X2? I apologise if this has already been covered.

Since a single 4870 is close toa 260/280 why do they need to lunch a X2 to beat a older gen card?

[gumble85]

Originally Posted by Kliphoth

hey got my two 4870's today, could only put one in untill i get my new psu (monday) then i can xfire them

question is, i got 14146 3DMarks in 36 mark 06, but with my 8800gtx i was getting 13395, i was expecting more of a jump then that?

useing catalyst 8.7 leaked beta drivers, not crashing at all runs fine overclocked it to 790/1100,

other system specs are E8500@4.05 4gig 1066cosair ram 5-5-5-15

but yeah does that sound about ok fo 3dmark 06 score? i was hopeing for more of a jump, still not tested in games or vantage, i never done vantage before i will go download it now

For one card that is very good. You'd may get 15-18k with the second card. So 14.1k is good for one card. I would not be majorly worried. Keep us posted on the new 3dmark06 score with both cards in.

[DiGiTaL MoNkEY]

PowerColor Equips Radeon HD 4850 with 2GB of Memory

While the word 'overkill' comes to mind, together with 'extra cost with no real (performance) gain' it's nice noting that PowerColor is currently building a Radeon HD 4850 card with no less than 2GB of on-board memory, four times the 'regular' amount. Equipped with one 55nm, 800 Stream Processors-boasting RV770 GPU clocked at 665 MHz (625 MHz stock) and 2000 MHz-clocked memory, the upcoming card features CrossFireX, DirectX 10.1 and PCI-Express 2.0 support.

For the new card PowerColor has dumped the reference cooler and used a larger, dual-slot system with an all-copper heatsink. No word on pricing or availability.

http://en.expreview.com/2008/07/10/p...r3-on-hd-4850/

[leebaldock]

Originally Posted by Kliphoth

hey got my two 4870's today, could only put one in untill i get my new psu (monday) then i can xfire them

question is, i got 14146 3DMarks in 36 mark 06, but with my 8800gtx i was getting 13395, i was expecting more of a jump then that?

useing catalyst 8.7 leaked beta drivers, not crashing at all runs fine overclocked it to 790/1100,

other system specs are E8500@4.05 4gig 1066cosair ram 5-5-5-15

but yeah does that sound about ok fo 3dmark 06 score? i was hopeing for more of a jump, still not tested in games or vantage, i never done vantage before i will go download it now

Yeh you should see a better jump in Vantage and games. I think 3DMark06 doesn't show the true power of these cards at all.

I got more than a doubling of my score in Vantage from my 8800GTS 640MB to the 4870 whereas I only got a 3000 point jump in 3DMark06.

Here's some benchmark graphs blah blah

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi..._hd4870/14.htm

and some more here:

http://hothardware.com/Articles/ATI_...rrived/?page=5

[prezident doom]

Originally Posted by DiGiTaL_MoNkEY

PowerColor Equips Radeon HD 4850 with 2GB of Memory

Wow... talk about overkill. All i can see that doing is increasing the cost of the card.

[DiGiTaL MoNkEY]

Originally Posted by prezident doom

Wow... talk about overkill. All i can see that doing is increasing the cost of the card.

I guess its only GDDR3 which is cheap as chips...but still 1GB should be enough!

[G51]

I keep hearing about people worried about power consumption.. how much power do these babies use?

[Dass Booty]

About PCIe 2.0.. My mobo (ASUS M2N 430 MCP) is, i think, PCIe 1.0. Am i likely to run into problems with a PCIe 2.0 card?

[DiGiTaL MoNkEY]

Originally Posted by Dass Booty

About PCIe 2.0.. My mobo (ASUS M2N 430 MCP) is, i think, PCIe 1.0. Am i likely to run into problems with a PCIe 2.0 card?

Nope, you should be fine. http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs/pcie2.0_faq/

Q4: It sounds as if both speed grades are supported in the PCIe 2.0 specification?
A4: The PCIe Base 2.0 specification supports both 2.5GT/s and 5GT/s signaling rates, in order to retain backward compatibility with existing PCIe 1.0 and 1.1 systems. Aside from the faster bit rate, there are a number of improvements in this new specification that allow greater flexibility and reliability in designing PCIe links. For example, the interconnect can be dynamically managed for platform power and performance considerations through software controls. Another significant RAS feature is the inclusion of new controls to allow a PCIe link to continue to function even when some lanes become non-operational.

Q5: Then PCIe 2.0 must be backward compatible with PCIe 1.1 and 1.0?
A5: Yes. The PCIe Base 2.0 specification supports both the 2.5GT/s and 5GT/s signaling technologies. A device designed to the PCIe Base 2.0 specification may support 2.5GT/s, 5GT/s or both. However, a device designed to operate specifically at 5GT/s must also support 2.5GT/s signaling. The PCIe Base specification covers chip-to-chip topologies on the system board. For I/O extensibility across PCIe connectors, the Card Electromechanical (CEM) and ExpressModule™ specifications will also need to be updated, but this work will not impact mechanical compatibility of the slots, cards or modules. Currently, the PCI-SIG is defining the PCIe CEM 2.0 specification which has been released to members for review at v0.5. There are currently no plans to adapt the PCIe Mini CEM specification for the faster bit rate as the market need has not yet materialized.

[Domokun]

Originally Posted by FiShy

Since a single 4870 is close toa 260/280 why do they need to lunch a X2 to beat a older gen card?

I'm not sure what you mean. I have an X48 motherboard, so the plan was to purchase a 4870 next week and purchase another later on to use in "crossfire" (if needed). However, if the release of the 4870X2 was being moved forward I would prefer to purchase one of them instead (as there would be less cables and spinning fans within my case).

[TaroT]

easy
they have given an upercut a left hook and now a roundhouse to finish the match off

as long as the pricing is aggressive and the performance better than 2 4870's in crossfire then it's a 10 count for this round

[snoozeys]

Very much an overkill and visually it doesnt win any awards

[rav.dusty]

would it be worth selling my xfx 9800 gx2 black edition and getting two 4870s on crossfire considering i only have an x38 mobo?

[renel]

I Have a e8400 + P5N-E [nvidia chipset] + HD4850, on saturday im going to be purchasing either a Asus P5E (x38) or Gigabyte X48-DS4.

I was thinking would i get any decent performance gains selling my HD4850 and just purchasing a HD4870? Selling it second hand would get me about $200 dollars + an extra $120 would = a HD4870.

Cpu would be clocked at around 4ghz, any massive bottleneck you guys could see with that a a single HD4870?