Tuesday, June 16th 2009
Sapphire Intros Radeon HD 4730 Accelerator
Sapphire today announced its Radeon HD 4730 accelerator. The new GPU surfaced along with Radeon HD 4790. Together these GPUs fill the Radeon HD 4700 series, bringing relief to the demand Radeon HD 4770 created, but is apparently unable to meet due to technical problems with the 40 nm manufacturing node of foundry partner TSMC.
The Sapphire Radeon HD 4730 uses a PCB that is pin-compatible with Radeon HD 4870, as it is based on the same RV770 core with a different configuration. The company used a simple cooler with radially-projecting aluminum fins, which it has been using on inexpensive models of the Radeon HD 4850, and HD 4830. The memory is subjected to its air-flow, while the VRM area has a heatsink of its own. The GPU has 640 stream processors enabled, with a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 512 MB of memory. Sapphire cut down on the number of memory chips used, thanks to the narrower memory bus, while maintaining the memory bandwidth of similarly clocked 256-bit GDDR3. The core is clocked at 750 MHz, while the memory is at 900 MHz (3.6 GT/s effective). The outputs provided on the card are DVI-D, D-Sub, and HDMI. The card takes its power input from two 6-pin power connectors. The card uses a 3+2 phase power circuit. The Sapphire HD 4730 is expected to be priced at 80€.
Source:
Expreview
The Sapphire Radeon HD 4730 uses a PCB that is pin-compatible with Radeon HD 4870, as it is based on the same RV770 core with a different configuration. The company used a simple cooler with radially-projecting aluminum fins, which it has been using on inexpensive models of the Radeon HD 4850, and HD 4830. The memory is subjected to its air-flow, while the VRM area has a heatsink of its own. The GPU has 640 stream processors enabled, with a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 512 MB of memory. Sapphire cut down on the number of memory chips used, thanks to the narrower memory bus, while maintaining the memory bandwidth of similarly clocked 256-bit GDDR3. The core is clocked at 750 MHz, while the memory is at 900 MHz (3.6 GT/s effective). The outputs provided on the card are DVI-D, D-Sub, and HDMI. The card takes its power input from two 6-pin power connectors. The card uses a 3+2 phase power circuit. The Sapphire HD 4730 is expected to be priced at 80€.
26 Comments on Sapphire Intros Radeon HD 4730 Accelerator
But i am so mad at amd!!!!!!!Whats up with them lately?
All this new 47xx family and these cheap models only not to be able to xfire them with the 48xx family that would have been AWSOME and would have sold thousands of cards...
I mean everyone would buy one more 4830 for their 4850 to pt a decent and cheap power increase on their pc but AMD thought that a new incompatibe lineup like 47xx would be wise before the 5xxx...GREAT IDEA!
Only confuses people with all these different cards...IDIOTS...
It's a whole new PR/marketing strategy based on google rankings and web-counts.
SUCKS BIG TIME because for US the USER there is nothing new here. Just recycling yesterdays technology.
So, is ATI going the same route nVidia was going not so long ago, rebranding old (48xx, 55nm) SKU's as new (47xx, 40nm) ones? At least nVidia's last rebranding wanted to simplify SKU's for the customers. The irony...
Thanks, ATI. Really, thanks.
Aren't those stats pretty much exactly what a 4770 are?
They are both biding their time, I'm sure that both companies are working on the next gen products (5k series, gtx 300), but why jump the gun and release them before the competitor?
Might as well continue working on those next gen gpu's and release them at an opportune time (like, say, holiday time this year along with all the new games that come out around then).
This is a stop gap meassure, as the 4770 is in very high demand ( more than ATI expected and is able to produce ) and this card is released for the same price at 80 euros with performance being very close to it.
As far as i know this is a exclusive card for Europe only being sold by Saphire and Powercolor, so I assume this is a temporary offer.
80 Euros is a steal and if you dont care about the powerconsumption differences between this card and the 4770, you might end up with a card that has slightly more OC room.
I think the only reason they went with two is because they are reusing old HD4870 PCBs to get rid of them.
same bandwith cause 128bit DDR5 = 256bit DDR3
its the same speed
but cause of DDR5 its cheaper and slightly less power than a 4830
Though, I guess since this thing can't possibly suck down the power like a 4870 can, I suppose you could just use one of those 2 6-pin splitters for your power supply, and not have to worry about it being underpowered, right?