Wow, I see a whole lot of people whining and moaning here. It seems that most of you were so intent on arguing in favor of your favorite card (be it ATi or nVidia) that you missed some things, such as the following line Mr. Cangelini should probably correct:
[citation]memory at 800 MHz—effectively 3,600 MT/s.[/citation]
GDDR5 has 4 data transfers per control clock cycle, so it'd be 3,200 MT/s. 3,600 MT/s is the rate for the GDDR5 for the 4870, which has a base clock of 900 MHz. Also, as noted by others, I'm seeing the baseline price on NewEgg for 4770 cards at $99.99US. Oh, and yeah, I hope as well that Bestofmedia, or whoever the heck is running the site, gives us a return of the old layout... At least the drop-down bar. I also could've sworn that the old format ran faster in my browsers. (FF 2, 3, and Opera 9)
As for the article itself... I must say I'm impressed. For those with the option for CrossFire, the technology is, in fact, mature enough that the whole "1 GPU is more reliable" stuff is largely BS; after all, we've seen tons of benchmarks pairing off higher-end GPUs in dual-setups against each other, and excitedly comparing 4850/4870 CF setups before their respective X2 cards came out. The only case I see where it doesn't work well is Grand Theft Auto IV, which I think can be chalked up to it being an incredibly shoddy console->PC port.
All told, it is quite valid: for those that have the option, it's an unprecented level for the price/performance ratio; a $200US pair consistently beating ATi&nVidia's $250US offerings more or less across the board, and even giving the $300US cards a run for their money. I still would've liked to see the GTX 275 there; given that it's weaker than the 280 and still more expensive than the 4770 CF setup, by no means it could hope to come off faring better, but it would've given us a better idea where the 4770 CF setup sat between there.
Of course, there's the whole slight trade-off of taking a 512MB buffer of VRAM; obviously, that cut the price a bit, and in some cases (most notably Crysis) that shows through as something of a potential weakness. I guess the real shame here is that Tom's couldn't have tested this setup alongside a bunch of 512MB versions of what they could get as well, to explore the significance of that. And possibly, of course, this raises questions of the possibility/purpose of a 1GB 4770 or a 4770X2 with 2x1GB.
As for those questioning why RV740 has a 128-bit memory interface, it's because the GPU core is only 136 mm² in size; unlike, say, the number of stream processors or TMUs, you can't just cram more on with more transistors, they need actual surface area for wires to connect to. The smallest 256-bit GPU was the RV670, at 190 mm², and the smallest GPU with an interface above 256-bits was the R600, at 420 mm². This is why, for instance, G80 was able to fit a 384-bit interface, as it was a monstrous 484 mm². G92 cut the size to 324 mm², so they had to go down to 256-bit.
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