ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series Video Cards Specs Leaked

[lemonadesoda]

The renumbering of GPUs is causing market confusion. (Perhaps a few TPU experts canbe excepted from the generalisation). Imagine if every year there was a different car model number. The amount of advertising, reposition of brand and model, and confusion in the marketplace as to which model to buy etc.

I think the same thing is true in the GPU market. There used to be some "stability" were the number increases of the cards were in 50s or 100s. Now we have a 1000 change from one Q to the next.

Too much I say. I'm not confused. But I DO HAVE TO SPEND TOO MUCH TIME researching ans staying on top of this product confusion.

Or are the GPU manufacturers doing this DELIBERATELY to get FREE advertising on the various websites and magazines? If they went from 3870 to 3875, perhaps they wouldnt get so much free advertising as when they go from 3870 to 4870 and the "rumours", and the "no tech spec yet", and "tech spec tomorrow", etc. fills the web with all sorts of "brand awareness" copy+paste.

IMO this just goes to show that PR and ad agencies get paid on the WRONG METRIC. They get "paid" for how often information is linked to between websites, and how far up the search engines the information appears.

This only ENCOURAGES smoke and mirrors and tech-site discussion to create page-count to hit the search engines.

AAAARRRGGGHHHH cynic.

Benchmark HD 4870 on beta drivers vs. HD 3870, HD 3870 Crossfire on Cat 8.4 and 8800GT here: HD.3870.3Dmark06=12,590 vs. HD.4870.3Dmark06benchmark.leak.html=21,223 . It's definitely MUCH faster than you were expecting

ROFL WARNING

 

[kylew]

+1!!!

We actually know this is based on R600 tech though, so we know what the worst will be, and consdidering the 3800s panned out the be pretty good cards (8800 G92s actually ended up with a larger AA hit in the end).

 

[kylew]

The renumbering of GPUs is causing market confusion. (Perhaps a few TPU experts canbe excepted from the generalisation). Imagine if every year there was a different car model number. The amount of advertising, reposition of brand and model, and confusion in the marketplace as to which model to buy etc.

I think the same thing is true in the GPU market. There used to be some "stability" were the number increases of the cards were in 50s or 100s. Now we have a 1000 change from one Q to the next.

Too much I say. I'm not confused. But I DO HAVE TO SPEND TOO MUCH TIME researching ans staying on top of this product confusion.

Or are the GPU manufacturers doing this DELIBERATELY to get FREE advertising on the various websites and magazines? If they went from 3870 to 3875, perhaps they wouldnt get so much free advertising as when they go from 3870 to 4870 and the "rumours", and the "no tech spec yet", and "tech spec tomorrow", etc. fills the web with all sorts of "brand awareness" copy+paste.

IMO this just goes to show that PR and ad agencies get paid on the WRONG METRIC. They get "paid" for how often information is linked to between websites, and how far up the search engines the information appears.

This only ENCOURAGES smoke and mirrors and tech-site discussion to create page-count to hit the search engines.

AAAARRRGGGHHHH cynic.

Benchmark HD 4870 on beta drivers vs. HD 3870, HD 3870 Crossfire on Cat 8.4 and 8800GT here: HD.3870.3Dmark06=12,590 vs. HD.4870.3Dmark06benchmark.leak.html=21,223 . It's definitely MUCH faster than you were expecting

ROFL WARNING

It's a new gen, it's how it works. It would be confusing, and pointless, to try and give products names in small increments of say 25. You're trying to base it on a big number = performance way of thinking about it, when we know a 3600 isn't faster than a 2900. It's a way of distinguishing a different tech. Especially considering the 4XXX are new cores, tweaked from an older architecture, the new name is worthy. At least it's a much larger improvement between HD 2 to HD 3 series.

 

[kylew]

I'm sorry, wasn't I thinking about buying an X1950 just one year ago?
How many more numbers are they going to have to increase before people realize that they are repackaging the same old crap?

Did you know that you have an 9800GTX? No? Well you do now

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Not the 4870 but the 4870 X2...

I don't think it's going to be the 4870 that will be most impressive but the 4870 X2 if rumors are true that it will be 2 GPUs recognized as 1 GPU using shared memory. If that turns out to be true then:
-future video cards as we know it will change
-it will leave a Nvidia without a competing card (unless the GT200 is a dual GPU solution)
if done successfully via price, performance and innovation. This is what I really want to know most. The 4870 won't be bad IMO and at it's price it will be a competing card but it's the 4870 X2 I want to see. Only time will tell, can't wait. But remember there is still R800 we haven't seen/heard a peep from yet and it was talked about and rumored to be in development as far as last year (that I know of).

 

[Mussels]

The renumbering of GPUs is causing market confusion. (Perhaps a few TPU experts canbe excepted from the generalisation). Imagine if every year there was a different car model number. The amount of advertising, reposition of brand and model, and confusion in the marketplace as to which model to buy etc.

I think the same thing is true in the GPU market. There used to be some "stability" were the number increases of the cards were in 50s or 100s. Now we have a 1000 change from one Q to the next.

Too much I say. I'm not confused. But I DO HAVE TO SPEND TOO MUCH TIME researching ans staying on top of this product confusion.

Or are the GPU manufacturers doing this DELIBERATELY to get FREE advertising on the various websites and magazines? If they went from 3870 to 3875, perhaps they wouldnt get so much free advertising as when they go from 3870 to 4870 and the "rumours", and the "no tech spec yet", and "tech spec tomorrow", etc. fills the web with all sorts of "brand awareness" copy+paste.

IMO this just goes to show that PR and ad agencies get paid on the WRONG METRIC. They get "paid" for how often information is linked to between websites, and how far up the search engines the information appears.

This only ENCOURAGES smoke and mirrors and tech-site discussion to create page-count to hit the search engines.

AAAARRRGGGHHHH cynic.

Benchmark HD 4870 on beta drivers vs. HD 3870, HD 3870 Crossfire on Cat 8.4 and 8800GT here: HD.3870.3Dmark06=12,590 vs. HD.4870.3Dmark06benchmark.leak.html=21,223 . It's definitely MUCH faster than you were expecting

ROFL WARNING

that 4870 score isnt that high - people are doing that in the 06 thread here in TPU. At a guess, that score is for the x2 version.

 

[newtekie1]

that 4870 score isnt that high - people are doing that in the 06 thread here in TPU. At a guess, that score is for the x2 version.

The 4870 score isn't even real, he is rick rollin' you all.

 

[erocker]

I think I know what "rick-rollin" really means now! Yuck!:shadedshu

 

[jbunch07]

ha nice try lemonadesoda! but my computer comes with "anti rick roll" protection!
i hope these cards turn out good. even though i just bought my 3870...oh well

 

[wiak]

Nice specs and price ranges, but ATi really should hire some folk that actually CAN program drivers... when this happens, their lower prices will beat the hell out of nVidia or at least create some real competition.

you should check you FACt before you say ATi sucks on drivers, last time i checked NVIDIA crashed vista many more times

 

[Easy Rhino]

more graphics card options??? i just got a headache.

 

[newtekie1]

you should check you FACt before you say ATi sucks on drivers, last time i checked NVIDIA crashed vista many more times

NVidia also has a much larger market share, which explains why it causes more Vista crashes.(I believe I actually stated in that news post that some fanboys would try to use those figures to try and say nVidia's driver suck*). The fact is, that if you have more users, you will have more crashes. That doesn't mean anything in terms of drivers. We would need the percentages of people that had problems before we can make that statement.

Just saying "nVidia caused more Vista crashes then ATi, so ATi must have better drivers" is false.

Edit: *-Yep I did:http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=56282

 

[EastCoasthandle]

^^That's incorrect, the number of crashes on Vista was the result of driver itself not how many people used the video card. The number of people has no merit to the fact that the driver caused the problem.

 

[Exceededgoku]

^^ no you're incorrect, it's nearly impossible to find the real cause behind the matter. By your saying 1 person could have crashed a million times and that would be the reason... somehow I don't think so.....

 

[magibeg]

No all of you are incorrect, this thread is about the hd48xx not whose drivers cause more errors.

 

[Mad-Matt]

still the fact remains ...nvidia driver suck, there chipsets suck and if they continue on as they are , there next gpu will suck too

 

[DaedalusHelios]

If you only have an ATi/AMD computer and say Nvidia drivers suck you are an idiot.

How would you know? Thats right you wouldn't.

I have two ATi computers and two Nvidia computers. I have had more display driver crashes with ATi drivers but neither have EVER crashed my entire computer.

 

[das müffin mann]

ok getting away from the drivers thing i cant wait to see some in game benches i wonder how they would stack up compared to nvidia's lineup in game (i dont care about crysis...lol)

 

[eidairaman1]

It is impossible because the claim was never made. However, the 1GHz claim actually WAS made. It is just more marketing BS put out by the graphics cards companies to trap the fanboys.

yet you were trapped by SLI Claiming over 80% performance gain.

 

[eidairaman1]

a 3870 is not the same as a 1950 will its still a good card they are different
nvidia kinda did that with the 9800 series but then again didnt ati kinda do that between teh 2900-3xxx series?

Sorry the 1950 Line Could not Overclock that well, 3870 and 3850 overclock very well and can be modified.

 

[kylew]

NVidia also has a much larger market share, which explains why it causes more Vista crashes.(I believe I actually stated in that news post that some fanboys would try to use those figures to try and say nVidia's driver suck*). The fact is, that if you have more users, you will have more crashes. That doesn't mean anything in terms of drivers. We would need the percentages of people that had problems before we can make that statement.

Just saying "nVidia caused more Vista crashes then ATi, so ATi must have better drivers" is false.

Edit: *-Yep I did:http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=56282

Quick to call people a fanboy I see, you'll get called a fanboy yourself for disregarding the general consensus that ATi drivers are superior to NV's. Even the people who truly know what they are talking about see ATi drivers as being superior. But hey, you know better, because you like NV, they are in every way superior.

Based on the driver gains ATi managed to squeeze from the R600 cores, I find their drivers very impressive, and I'd say one of the reasons NV drives are "inferior" is because they're lazy on driver releases.

 

[das müffin mann]

Sorry the 1950 Line Could not Overclock that well, 3870 and 3850 overclock very well and can be modified.

ok so what does that have to do with what i said?

 

[spearman914]

Thanks to TG Daily we can now talk about the very soon to be released ATI HD 4800 series of graphics cards with more details. One week ahead of its presumable release date, general specifications of the new cards have been revealed. All Radeon 4800 graphics will use the 55nm TSMC produced RV770 GPU, that include over 800 million transistors, 480 stream processors or shader units (96+384), 32 texture units, 16 ROPs, a 256-bit memory controller (512-bit for the Radeon 4870 X2) and native GDDR3/4/5 support as reported before. At first, AMD’s graphics division will launch three new cards - Radeon HD 4850, 4870 and 4870 X2:

• ATI Radeon HD 4850 - 650MHz/850MHz/1140MHz core/shader/memory clock speeds, 20.8 GTexel/s (32 TMU x 0.65 GHz) fill-rate, available in 256MB/512MB of GDDR3 memory or 512MB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1.73GHz
• ATI Radeon HD 4870 - 850MHz/1050MHz/1940MHz core/shader/memory clock speeds, 27.2 GTexel/s (32 TMU x 0.85 GHz) fill-rate, available in 1GB GDDR5 version only
• ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 - unknown core/shader clock speeds, available with 2048MB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1730MHz

The 4850 256MB GDDR3 version will arrive as the successor of the 3850 256MB with a price in the sub-$200 range. The 4850 512MB GDDR3 should retail for $229, while the 4850 512MB GDDR5 will set you back about $249-269. The 1GB GDDR5 powered 4870 will retail between $329-349. The flagship Radeon HD 4870 X2 will ship later this year for $499.


Source: TG Daily

HOLY CRAP at the 4870x2 2 GB vram. I heard someone say in tomshardware the core clock will be 1 GHz. And some say at christmas new versions of 4870x2 will be out at a 3 GHz core clock!!!!!!!!!!! This sounds like the end of nvidia.

 

[Nitro-Max]

Im thinking the core clock on the x2 could be at 1000mhz if not more

 

[eidairaman1]

i was getting at the point the 3800 Line is a totally different animal than the 1950 Line.