AMD Radeon HD 4800 Series @ [H]

I would like to see a clock-per-clock comparison between the 4850 and 4870 at the same core and memory speeds to show what advantage GDDR5 gives the 4870.
 
Would I see a good benefit going from a 8800GTX to a 4850 or 4870? Is the 8800GT on the chart a good point for comparison for me?
 
Any idea on an ETA for the power consumption tests for this review? I'm interested to see how much power a single card will use, I've got a 550VX in my PC so I'd think it would be enough... but better safe than sorry eh

EDIT// Also, I'm not familiar with companies that sell ATI cards, is there one or two in particular that are especially reputable (like evga is to nvidia) ?
 
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a very new game. This MMORGP is very graphically advanced for this style of gameplay, and we’ve seen it bring current video cards to their knees when trying to maximize the in-game graphics options.

New breed of game, I see.

:D
 
duffman03 said:
EDIT// Also, I'm not familiar with companies that sell ATI cards, is there one or two in particular that are especially reputable (like evga is to nvidia) ?
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VisionTek has a lifetime warranty. I had a VisionTek ATI Radeon X850 XT PE way back when, and never had a problem with it.
 
Riptide_NVN said:
Anyone else notice how the GTX 260 gets better minimum framerate figures, particularly in Crysis? What's the issue?
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Drivers for the architecture are probably more optimized, keep in mind this AMD architecture has been changed quite a bit, every component of the GPU has been changed in some way, I'd say driver optimizations will yield improvements.
 
BillParrish said:
Looks like these are going to be wildly popular (I have already sold 4 in yet to be built systems and I havent even laid hands on one to play with. ). I have found posts where existing aftermarket cooling was modified to work but it was a bit of a kludge.

How about an quick article on the availability of existing (none probably) and upcoming 3rd party cooling solutions, a couple of phone calls would do it I bet. And my most pressing question which is 'what is the options/dimensions/hole sizes around the cpu area?' if any, and what existing waterblocks could be fitted.

Just a thought, off now to see if anyone has already done this work up.
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The HR03GT fits fine as per the hardware canucks review. AFAIK, the hole pattern around the GPU is the same as the 3800's so any waterblock or cooler that is mounted only via the GPU holes should work. Full cover water blocks probably won't work (on the 4850 it might work, 4870 im pretty sure it wont since capacitors are in the way) but the MCW60 supposedly works just fine.
 
i picked up the 4850 today based off this review. Sweet fucking card. big upgrade over my older 7950GX2
 
CounTDookU23 said:
Would I see a good benefit going from a 8800GTX to a 4850 or 4870? Is the 8800GT on the chart a good point for comparison for me?
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I think the 8800GT would be a good reference point. Anandtech's reviews included the 8800GTX so I would go have a look there as well.

As a current 8800GTX owner with a card that is OC'd to stock Ultra speeds, I would not go with a single 4850. I would go with a single 4870 or 2 4850's for CF. From what I have read that would be a much better upgrade path then a single 4850 replacing an 8800GTX.

I have a 620W Corsair PS so I think those are the only 2 options I have without replacing it with a more powerful unit. I would imagine two 4870's would require more power then I currently have. Looks like the 2 4850's would work fine though from the power consumption charts I read at anandtech.

I am probably going to get a single 4870 once it goes down in price a little and the drivers mature by late summer. By then maybe 1GB units or X2 units will also be out so I can consider them as well. If I go with one 4870 then in early fall I can add another with a new Power Supply, probably the new one from Corsair. Just in time for War :)
 
A 620HX might be okay with 2 4870's. The fella in the general video card section said he was running 2 of em in CF on a 620HX so maybe ask him how his power usage is. Either way, I have a 620HX and its a damned fine power supply. Been running 3 HD's (including a Raptor X) with a P35, OC'd Q6600 and OC'd 8800Ultra and I draw 320 at the wall at load so maybe 260 total at PSU assuming 80% efficiency. I can't see the 4870 drawing that much more power than the 8800Ultra and another one in there you might be near the sweet spot of 50-60% of full PSU ability at load.
 
ZerazaX said:
A 620HX might be okay with 2 4870's. The fella in the general video card section said he was running 2 of em in CF on a 620HX so maybe ask him how his power usage is. Either way, I have a 620HX and its a damned fine power supply. Been running 3 HD's (including a Raptor X) with a P35, OC'd Q6600 and OC'd 8800Ultra and I draw 320 at the wall at load so maybe 260 total at PSU assuming 80% efficiency. I can't see the 4870 drawing that much more power than the 8800Ultra and another one in there you might be near the sweet spot of 50-60% of full PSU ability at load.
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Well that would be just flat out awesome to not have to replace the 620HX, as I love it as well. I got worried when I read the load charts at anandtech. I believe it was drawing over 421W at load in CF (4870) with the system he used to test with.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=22

I am no power expert but the stats you mention make sense to me, and since we have somebody who tested it already? Thats even better! Thanks :)
 
I feel so sick right now. I have a shiny new 4870 sitting uselessly on my desk. I got a new rig and the motherboard was broken. gg. now i have to wait for rma. What's worse, I also got a new 24" V2400W monitor which is also useless without a high end rig. It's like a bad beat in RL.
 
i always love [H] reviews, theyre different and gives a different perspective to things
 
Excellent review. I know you've read this a few times, but one more couldn't hurt. I was late reading it, but I still wanted to give a shoutout. I am mad because I just bought Mass Effect... well not really. Hella good game!! But I could've got the "special edition" of Mass Effect for $200 and it would've come with a free 4870 Radeon card!!! That would've been such a steal.... :D
 
Thanks for the review. It's led me into the purchase of a visiontek 4850, though the one with the mass effect box art and no mass effect inside.

Amazing card.
 
All I can say is my faith has been well placed. Finally price, performance, and more user-centric business practices are found in one product from one company. And my faith in [H] as well, in delivering a fair review. To all the [H] staff, I apologize for maligning you over the last year.
 
Pepsiennis said:
All I can say is my faith has been well placed. Finally price, performance, and more user-centric business practices are found in one product from one company. And my faith in [H] as well, in delivering a fair review. To all the [H] staff, I apologize for maligning you over the last year.
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Oh I am sure we will be paid off fanbois in your eyes soon again. Just wait till we have another opinion that differs with yours.
 
It took them long enough. Still doesn't out perform the GTX 260 in most test but does cost less. Guess it depends which route you want to take. Price or performance. Going performance with the GTX 280 =D. Until I see what this 4870x2 is all about. Still sucks for AMD though since Nvidia has an iron grip on retailers such as Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. Won't see these AMD cards in a majority of there builds =/.
 
Every review ive read shows the 4870 handing the 260 its ass in at least half the tests, and handily at that. It's also over 100 bucks cheaper making it by far the better deal for equal or in many cases better performance
 
pxc said:
Who gives bigger bags of cash: AMD, nvidia or Intel? :p
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Intel definitely gives out a ton of engineering samples and freebies where I work. Our AMD rep buys the entire company (> 50 people) pizza whenever he stops in. :D
 
I read a bunch of reviews and I'm still confused on this 7.1 audio support. Does this mean it is basically a sound card too? If I have onboard sound will this automatically take over? How do I connect it to my receiver? Can I use both the DVI outputs at the same time? One would go to the monitor and another to the receiver via HDMI adapter?
 
The 4850 looks very, very good. I'd buy one if I didn't already have an HD3850.

Good review Kyle and Brent. I'm glad you have the balls to call NV's $600 monstrosity and their "advertised price" policy what they are: a big rip-off.

The 4850 is particularly nice for two reasons:
- It's single slot
- It only requires 1 PCIe connector

There are a lot of us who don't have 600W PSUs, and who don't have $500 to blow on a graphics card.

As for the NV advertising policy: I frigging hate those "see price in cart" things, and I think everyone else does too. Shame on NV for pissing on consumers in order to try and control prices.

Hopefully NV will stop this madness and release some solid mid-range cards.
 
DaNotoriousDOM said:
I read a bunch of reviews and I'm still confused on this 7.1 audio support. Does this mean it is basically a sound card too? If I have onboard sound will this automatically take over? How do I connect it to my receiver? Can I use both the DVI outputs at the same time? One would go to the monitor and another to the receiver via HDMI adapter?
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No, the 4800 series do NOT contain sound cards. They simply have pass through logic that allows the user to run a single HDMI output to carry both video and sound.
 
I would like to suggest not using 2560x1600 resolution on midrange graphics cards. Or at least try x8 AA settings first. That resolution is kind of pointless on these cards. IMO A person with a 30" monitor is not going to buy a $200 video card for gaming. Plus, I would rather use my 37" or 50" 1080p HDTV instead (so 1920x1080).

So please try some higher AA settings before jumping above 1920x1200. Ya, sure its cool to know the video card can handle that ultra high resolution, but I cant see many using it. Its just not a practical gaming resolution.

BTW, I loved [H] reviews, so this is just nitpicking criticism.
 
heh, is it me or is the headline "AMD back in the game!" the only headline on [H]! nice, someone from AMD/ATI, take a screenshot - ur the only game in town right now.
 
They don't - they just route it via the PCI-E interface I believe. You do have to enable it via your OS but it's very simple to enable and disable.
 
Pepsiennis said:
It attacked issues such as power consumption (a legitimate issue, but a foible that Nvidia quickly reproduced, to [H]'s silence), and the entirely trivial 'fan noise'. Really, what enthusiast gives a whit about fan noise in relation to performance?
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Who cares about noise? I'm not sure if I should take this seriously or not...
 
Volkum said:
Who cares about noise? I'm not sure if I should take this seriously or not...
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The noise level of the 2900XT I was referring to earlier was never so excessive that it interferred with the computer experience. In an enthusiast system with a number of case fans running, it was not noticable. Here's a recent graph from techreport's review of the 4870. Notice the recent Nvidia offerings are on a par with the 2900XT in terms of noise produced under load.

http://www.techreport.com/r.x/radeon-hd-4870/noise-load.gif
 
wow those charts are horrible also why is the settings / res different for each card when your comparing them .........wtf?
 
Other then crysis, what would be a good game to test out the 4870 on. I've maxed out CoD4 /w 1920x1200 and C&C3. No lag on both. I want to see the limits of my 4870. ;)

supreme commander maybe? :confused:
 
Damn, these cards look really tempting right about now. Too bad I'm so broke ahah
 
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