Diamond HD 4870 512 MB GDDR5

[W1zzard]

AMD's new Radeon HD 4870 is the first graphics card to feature GDDR5 memory. GDDR5 offers twice the memory bandwidth over previous GDDR generations which helps the HD 4870 gain a nice performance advantage over the HD 4850.

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[newtekie1]

I really hope this makes nVidia start dropping their prices accross the board. I'd love to see the 9800GX2 in the $325 range to compete with this card. $150 8800GTS 512MB cards would be nice too.

I'm glad we are finally starting to see some great competition, that means lower prices and better performance for the customer.

 

[ShadowFold]

Wow look at those scores.. That card is a BEAST. I cannot wait to see what the X2 can do!

 

[nflesher87]

great to see ATI respectfully competing once again

 

[Ravenas]

I really hope this makes nVidia start dropping their prices accross the board. I'd love to see the 9800GX2 in the $325 range to compete with this card. $150 8800GTS 512MB cards would be nice too.

I'm glad we are finally starting to see some great competition, that means lower prices and better performance for the customer.

I would think the would drop the price on the GX2 mainly because the 3870 X2 is an equal if not better card. When the 4870 X2 hits ATI will hold the crown in both the 1GB and 2GB range.

 

[farlex85]

I would think the would drop the price on the GX2 mainly because the 3870 X2 is an equal if not better card. When the 4870 X2 hits ATI will hold the crown in both the 1GB and 2GB range.

Eh, the gx2 is still a more powerful card. The 3870x2 may hold a better value, crossfire may sometimes work better than sli, but side by side the gx2>x2. And the 4870x2 will just have 1gb of vram I believe (2x512mb), but unless nvidia has got a trick up their sleeve, it should take the performance crown.

 

[OnBoard]

Worst idle temps ever. (like gaming 24/7 and still hotter)

They better fix the idle voltage & clocks, then it will be a good card.

edit: seems fan speed tuning would helps a lot already (not that ^above^ wouldn't help also)

...but with the fanspeed hack the card runs nice and cool, idles at 49c with fan at 40% and load at 61-65c, that is with the overclock at 790 and 1100 for the memory.

 

[Ravenas]

Eh, the gx2 is still a more powerful card. The 3870x2 may hold a better value, crossfire may sometimes work better than sli, but side by side the gx2>x2. And the 4870x2 will just have 1gb of vram I believe (2x512mb), but unless nvidia has got a trick up their sleeve, it should take the performance crown.

Lol, so you'll pay nearly 200$ more for a graphics card that performs only slightly better. Therefore, the X2 should be considered better.

Anyhow, back on topic.

 

[Nkd]

How did you manage an 1150 on the memory clock, that is 4600mhz for gddr5 chip, lol. I can do 4400 as that is the highest CCC would allow, but with the fanspeed hack the card runs nice and cool, idles at 49c with fan at 40% and load at 61-65c, that is with the overclock at 790 and 1100 for the memory.

 

[farlex85]

Lol, so you'll pay nearly 200$ more for a graphics card that performs only slightly better. Therefore, the X2 should be considered better.

Anyhow, back on topic.

Look at w1z's charts, it's about 20% better. You consider it however you want, what I'm saying is nvidia still had the performance crown, discluding price. Now it seems as though the 4870x2 will be the top card in the bunch. I personally wouldn't pay over $300 for a card, and favor performance/price, but that's not really relevant to what I said .

 

[Ravenas]

Look at w1z's charts, it's about 20% better. You consider it however you want, what I'm saying is nvidia still had the performance crown, discluding price. Now it seems as though the 4870 will be the top card in the bunch. I personally wouldn't pay over $300 for a card, and favor performance/price, but that's not really relevant to what I said .

Why would I consider it, I have 2 4850s benching a 19k

 

[farlex85]

Why would I consider it, I have 2 4850s benching a 19k

I suppose that's a response....... Anyway nice cards indeed, keep 'em comin ati.

 

[Ravenas]

I suppose that's a response....... Anyway nice cards indeed, keep 'em comin ati.

I agree the GX2 is "slightly" better performing, but not for it's price tag is what I'm saying. Which is why I was agreeing with newteckie.

 

[newtekie1]

Lol, so you'll pay nearly 200$ more for a graphics card that performs only slightly better. Therefore, the X2 should be considered better.

Anyhow, back on topic.

Actually, when you exclude the low resolution CPU limitted benchmarks that were put out there, the 9800GX2 was about 20% better overall than the HD3870x2. Surprisingly, $600 is right about 30% more than $450. The HD3870x2 was certainly not a better or even equal card. Price to Performance it was pretty equal it was actually even better, but performance wise alone it was not equal. Price to performance always goes down drastically as performance goes up though, so it is really not that surprising. That is why most people stay under $300 when buying graphics cards.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Simply amazing. Wtg ATI. Great review as always W1zz.

 

[pentastar111]

Sweet card!

 

[yogurt_21]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261010
cheapest 9800gx2
420$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127326
cheapest 3870x2
290$ (240$ after mail in)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103061
diamond 4870 (they're all teh same price right now)
310$

The gx2 bests the 4870 by 11% but costs ~25% more
the gx2 bests the 3870x2 by ~ 15% (yes I know thats not an accurate way of doing it but whatever) but costs 31% more before mail in. (I'm not a big fan of mail ins so I won't show that percentage)

so i dunno, but If I were looking for a card that gave me desired performance and I had the money, that extra 11% would be worth it to me over the 4870 which I guess happens more often than considering price vs performance. sure a ferarri doesn't beat a corvette by the price ratio difference, but if you had the money you'd still buy one.

quite an interesting realization for me. since I've been a price/perf advocate.

 

[NU(GFX)T]

Nice review!

The Quake4 scores are amazing.

BTW W1zzard I think it's time to use widescreen resolutions in techpowerup benchmarks. Most of the people have already moved to widescreen monitors and I think TP should too.

 

[tkpenalty]

Fast. FAST. I want one D:

 

[candle_86]

hmm i can see a response from Nvidia now, the 9800GX2 stays in production but the cost is lowered to 300 even.

Also i can see one other thing, the GTX280 and 260 fall in price.

Total cost to make the card is about 300-350 from what i gathered so the GTX260 could fall to 320 or so and GTX280 to 400-450 and become the king once more and for the preformance we see it would be worth it. I fully expect a response from Nvidia, we all know they like to compete.

Also the GT200B should be out soon and should lower costs even more than now. What im waiting for is say a GTX250 with a cut down 384bit bus but full shaders just clocked lower, the cut is bus width would save money and allow maybe a 250 card

 

[jaydeejohn]

Nice numbers. Great review. Heres some things I like and Id like to see. Going over all the reviews on the 4870, I really like this one, as it contains one of few at lower resolutions. However, what Id like to see, since its lower resolutions, it tends to be cpu bottlenecked. Why not more eye candy? Especially with the way these cards perform, which would elimanate cpu bottlenecking and show where the strengths of the cards are, whether its using filters, or not. But like I said, very few reviews showed the lower resolutions, so its good to have them, just crank up that eye candy

 

[Bull Dog]

Worst idle temps ever. (like gaming 24/7 and still hotter)

They better fix the idle voltage & clocks, then it will be a good card.

edit: seems fan speed tuning would helps a lot already (not that ^above^ wouldn't help also)

Well my 4870 idles at 80C and loads at 85C. Environment isn't particular cold either.

 

[Ravenas]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261010
cheapest 9800gx2
420$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127326
cheapest 3870x2
290$ (240$ after mail in)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103061
diamond 4870 (they're all teh same price right now)
310$

The gx2 bests the 4870 by 11% but costs ~25% more
the gx2 bests the 3870x2 by ~ 15% (yes I know thats not an accurate way of doing it but whatever) but costs 31% more before mail in. (I'm not a big fan of mail ins so I won't show that percentage)

so i dunno, but If I were looking for a card that gave me desired performance and I had the money, that extra 11% would be worth it to me over the 4870 which I guess happens more often than considering price vs performance. sure a ferarri doesn't beat a corvette by the price ratio difference, but if you had the money you'd still buy one.

quite an interesting realization for me. since I've been a price/perf advocate.

That GX2 card isn't 420$, it's 538$.

 

[thoughtdisorder]

Excellent job ATI, and excellent review! Thanks W1zz!

 

[purecain]

well the thing about reviews, is that we don't ever feel like we can completely trust the results...
where as if wizard does one, its like one of our own testing the cards....

good work m8....