Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB GDDR3 Scores

[malware]

After last week's brief introduction of the first dual RV770 Radeon HD4850 spotted in the wild, we've now managed to find some benchmark scores for you thanks to the guys over at VR-Zone. Apparently they have the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 card in their lab and have decided to pair it with an Core i7/X58 platform to deliver the maximum out of it. This card is clocked at 625MHz for the core, 1000MHz for the 1GB GDDR3 memory and has 1600 stream processors (800 for each of the two RV770 GPUs). More pictures of the card and results from different widescreen resolutions can be seen here.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Zehnsucht]

Wow. They had the card and tested it on an i7 platform. Why? It makes it extremely hard to compare.

And only two games, of one we know that crossfire does not perform very great. (4870 37 FPS, 4870x2 40.2 FPS)

FAIL

EDIT:

And guess what?
Crossfire is crippled on Far Cry 2 as well!
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU3MCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
Even when using the latest hot fix.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Very impressive. Looks like it will be a nice sweet spot for ATI.

 

[DOM]

20k score the i7 must be doing something right thats like a QX at 5GHz

 

[Deleted member 24505]

The cpu score on vantage is 20k.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

Yeah saw that after.

 

[phanbuey]

hmmm... even in vantage, which scales well with CF, that is a really low GPU score. Hopefully these will overclock well, otherwise an OC'd GTX280 could match/beat this card.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

This is the 1Gb versions also. ATI is planning to release a 2GB version I believe.

 

[e6600]

hmmm... even in vantage, which scales well with CF, that is a really low GPU score. Hopefully these will overclock well, otherwise an OC'd GTX280 could match/beat this card.

your kidding right?
$300 vs what? $450? and a 4850 xfire at stock clocks would just rip a 280gtx apart

 

[kid41212003]

This is the 1Gb versions also. ATI is planning to release a 2GB version I believe.

You mistaked, this is the 1GBx2 version, you're expecting 2GBx2 Version?
This card scale really bad, probably drivers problem.

 

[mdm-adph]

You mistaked, this is the 1GBx2 version, you're expecting 2GBx2 Version?
This card scale really bad, probably drivers problem.

Aye, I wonder at their choice of games for doing the benches on...

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

You mistaked, this is the 1GBx2 version, you're expecting 2GBx2 Version?
This card scale really bad, probably drivers problem.

No I didnt think there would be a 2Gbx2 version. I just thought this versions was the 512mbx2 version to make it the 4850x2 1GB. Like the 3870x2 1Gb was 512x2.

The 4870x2 has 2GB of RAM but it's never referred to as the "4870x2 1GB".

 

[kid41212003]

I hate the way they marketing these cards.

They mis-leaded consumers, just like when you buy a 9800GX2, people think they have 1GB of memory, but in fact, It's 512MBx2. Same with HD4870X2.
YES, 1GB of memory and 512MBx2 are DIFFERENT.
Because in SLI/Crossfire, 512MBx2 = 512MB.

HD4870X2 1GB, or HD4850X2 1GB, 9800GX2 512MB, the correct way to say it...
Do you think If you have two HD4870 512MB cards in Crossfire and then you will have 1GB of vid memory...?
Bad bad ideas to advertise these X2 cards.

 

[buggalugs]

I hate the way they marketing these cards.

They mis-leaded consumers,.

I agree, and the performance benefit isnt worth it. More hassle than they are worth.

 

[mdm-adph]

I agree, and the performance benefit isnt worth it. More hassle than they are worth.

Hey, now I'll agree with you about the marketing, but the performance is there, both for cards like the 9800GX2 and the 4870X2. Multi-GPU is the way of the future, just like multi-cores are for processors.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

The 4870x2 actually has 2GB of RAM I dont think they've released a 4870x2 with 2x512 and I honestly think they wont do it.

Its not marketing that makes them have confusing labels. Its just the way the frame buffer works and the fact people assume the cards combine memory like system RAM. I dont think it's intentionally misleading but it can be confusing.

 

[newtekie1]

I think I'll wait for some real reviews before making any judgements, mainly W1zzard's review. I'd like to see pricing too.

 

[phanbuey]

your kidding right?
$300 vs what? $450? and a 4850 xfire at stock clocks would just rip a 280gtx apart

I kid you not, the 4850CF doesnt rip anything apart... with the new drivers and overclocking taken into account, the gtx 280 may come on top performance wise:

http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/features/131913.20080625.Shootout-HD-4850-vs-GTX-280/page4/

the difference is a net 5 FPS (7%) at stock clocks between the 2 setups. Although if it is $300 then i would be impressed.

As was already said: bring on the reviews!!

 

[mdm-adph]

I think I'll wait for so real reviews before making any judgements, mainly W1zzard's review. I'd like to see pricing too.

Aye, pricing's going to be key. If this card is more than $350, it ain't worth it, if you ask me. Even $350's pushing it.

Come on, ATI, make it the equivalent of an American muscle car -- cheap and fast. Performance on the cheap.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Oh but yes, drivers need to mature yet. As all of you know, ATi drivers can be quite buggy at times. I think these would make a very good card for low budget boards with a single PCIe slot. I do take into account the GTX260 216SP is a good card but had quite a couple drivers to help mature it.

@mdm-adph

Can't disgree there price-wise.

 

[Binge]

That looks like it would be pretty nice with a decent OC. I really wonder if they put the 4850x2 into their warhead config. If I don't edit the 4870x2 info into the CW config then I drop about 20 frames. The benchies seem reall good, and farcry looks like their is something else wrong with it.

I agree the use of the i7 for this bench is really premature. I can't wait until we see some TPU reviews

 

[HaZe303]

The card itself looks sexy, I usually dont like the "RED"ish of ATI cards, but this one is really nice.

 

[Selene]

@TRIPTEX_MTL
I think you missed his point, the 4870X2 has 2gigs, but you realy only use 1gig, sence its 1gig per GPU.
The 9800GX2 is called a 1 gig card, but its realy 512megs per GPU, so 512 is all that can be used.
I dont think their realy ever was a 2gig/1gig per core version of the 4850X2 it was a 2x512 and the first leaked report was a typo.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

@TRIPTEX_MTL
I think you missed his point, the 4870X2 has 2gigs, but you realy only use 1gig, sence its 1gig per GPU.
The 9800GX2 is called a 1 gig card, but its realy 512megs per GPU, so 512 is all that can be used.
I dont think their realy ever was a 2gig/1gig per core version of the 4850X2 it was a 2x512 and the first leaked report was a typo.

No I understand fully. The conversation just went in several directions. When I said ..... "how the frame buffers works" I mean that each GPU will have it's own memory and its not shared and i cannot be combined in any form. I also know exactly how crossfiring a 1GB card with a 512mb card is a waste of 1/2 the memory on the 1GB card. I know the 9800GX2 is 2x512 and the 4870x2 is 2x1GB. Essentially the 4870x2 is 2 RV770 GPUs in crossfire with identical 1GB dedicated frame buffers per GPU.

You say ATI never intended to release a 2GB 4850x2 (or 2x1GB) and the leaked specs were a typo

 

[blastboy]

My 4.5Ghz E8400 and a Single GTX280 beats that setup with 4x AA enabled in FC2