Radeon HD 4870: Better Than GTX 260!

[homerdog]

Because XP is an End Of Life product. So you want the best performance, but if you can't buy XP (or soon won't be able to) you use Vista and disable Aero.

It only makes a difference if you're gaming in a window.

 

[Guest]

im extremely happy with the new cards. i am a huge amd/ati fan since the old 9600 and athlons 3000 were the big things on the market. finally ATI is back in the game and boy AMD/ATI needed it. The phenom processor isn't the big bang they hoped for and that whole company wasn't looking so good. maybe with all the new revenue coming in, AMD can focus on bringin its cpus up to and beyond par like the old days. its funny, they were giving hype about the new processor being their ticket and actually the video card that wasn't that much discussed about before launch actually proved alot more vital i think in the coming weeks to AMD

 

[Elriond]

Wow, i've already seen a 260 drop to the $300 mark now. To be brutally honest, i'd rather pay for the 260 even if its a bit under performance because i can buy a gtx 260 ftw from evga and then upgrade later. I mean let's be honest here, there have only been two good cards from ati as of late to really compete.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127361

 

[randomizer]

[citation][nom]homerdog[/nom]It only makes a difference if you're gaming in a window.[/citation]Exactly. Aero is disabled when a 3D fullscreen app is launched. Also, with the exception of the transparency effect, Aero is actually faster than the GUI with Aero disabled. The GUI does not use hardware acceleration with Aero disabled, and is extremely laggy. I think there was a hotfix for this though, not sure.

 

[Christopher1]

Dang.... if these results surprised the people at ATI themselves, they must have had some seriously low expectations for their product.

 

[martel80]

This is because just like underclocking a CPU there is a minimum frequency and a minimum voltage that is needed. Also these are gaming class GPUs aimed at raw power(= more power use + heat)and not really to be energy efficient. Although energy efficiency (usually goes hand in hand with heat output) counts to a certain extent when OCing and higher clock speeds these negatives of lower energy efficiency can be overcome through better HSFs/smaller manufacturing process etc.

The minimum frequency of a board is given by the minimum frequency of the CLK signal generator (~20MHz?). The chips itself don't have any minimum frequency at all, you may operate them even at 1 Hertz and they will still work. I also wasn't talking about voltage at all.
And yes, even the gaming class GPU may be energy-efficient, you just need to put the clocks down to a minimum level usable for 2D (or 3D in Aero) window acceleration.
I think they chose these high idle clocks because of possible stuttering when the mode switches from idle to load. I think people don't really need automatic switching to 150/500 clock but there should be a manual option under the catalyst menu to do so.

 

[Notorio]

lightfoot__:
"Under load, the heat sink did its job and the temperature didn’t rise all that much – at least not as much as the little Radeon HD 4850.

The 4850 went up 6* and the 4870 went up 10*... I think the 4870 went up more, but you (Tom's) said it went up less."

You are right in that aspect, but i think Tom meant, even 4870 went up more from idle (*10) than 4850 (*6), the maximum heat for 4870 (*80) was still lesser than 4850 (*87)

I hope the price will be below $300, that will surely be a steal. Was interested in them 8800GT, now with this 4870 due, i'm waiting to compare, hopefully the latest VGA charts will be up soon

 

[BartG]

Tom`s, I need your help here! you say: "The HD 4870 requires not one but two six-pin PCI Express connectors"
Is this correct?? The ATI website says its needs two 3by2 pins (75W each)... The website also gives a list of PSU compatible with this connection, but there all pretty darn expensive cause there often SLI PSU`s. I want to run 1 4870 so I dont want to fork out cash for something I wont use...

 

[asdasd123123]

Holy shit Toms! Your computer must SUCK! Comparing the same game, and the same resolution with Anand techs tests, you get HALF the FPS!

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]BartG[/nom]Tom`s, I need your help here! you say: "The HD 4870 requires not one but two six-pin PCI Express connectors"Is this correct?? The ATI website says its needs two 3by2 pins (75W each)... The website also gives a list of PSU compatible with this connection, but there all pretty darn expensive cause there often SLI PSU`s. I want to run 1 4870 so I dont want to fork out cash for something I wont use... [/citation]

It requires two 6-pin connectors, just like both sites say. 3x2 pins is six pins, so saying you need two of those is the same as saying you need two 6-pin connectors. Any way you say it, it comes out the same way.

Sometimes these are labeled SLI power supply becomes some nVidia graphics cards, such as the 8800GT, have only one 6-pin connector. So, you'd need two 6-pin connectors to run a pair in SLI. You're not paying for an "SLI" power supply, you're paying for a power supply with two 6-pin connectors.

Of course, the "SLI Approved" logo might cost some money, but otherwise you're just paying for 2 6-pin connectors no matter what the power supply says.

 

[Guest]

I'm sick of ATI fanboy reviews and comments.
You should stick to the review, and not choose sides (if this is even possible).
I don't really understand why all the happyness, just because ATI's top card beats NVIDIA middle card. A whole article just to state the obvious. Congratz Tom's Hardware.

still, this ATI price reduction is BS. Nvidia has the best cards in the whole market and you guys know it. The price cuts from ATI will just slow down evolution. Nvidia does great stuff. ATI doesn't. ATI sells, Nvidia doesn't. The standards will get lower and lower.

Maybe I am Nvidia fanboy. But most of all, I am quality fanboy. And Nnvidia has the lead.

 

[randomizer]

Amazing, simply amazing. You just called Toms a bunch of ATI fanboys. And to think that last week they were Nvidia fanboys.

 

[kalpesh]

I Have Nvidia 7900gs,
I like ati 4870.
But i can still wait for Intel New GPU

 

[goonting]

wow...finally a replacement for my 3870 together with intel or amd based system

 

[Florian Charpentier]

Crysis was tested in maximum quality.

Regarding the lower framerates compared to other websites, please keep in mind that we benchmark all games using real-world scenarios and FRAPS, no Timedemo.

Regarding the classification of the cards in each charts, we define them depending of the framerates. If most cards are still playable once the antialiasing is on, then the classification is made from the AA results. If not, then the classification depends on the non-AA results.

And no, the Radeon won't be faster on any AMD platform.

 

[Guest]

Finally, ATI has released some SERIOUSLY GOOD video cards that can truly compete! The marketplace for PC gaming enthusiasts is better for it.

 

[monsta]

Go the 9800GX2!

 

[bash007]

@Uncertain:
Thanks for a good laugh! LOL!

What can I say? Gotta love the delusional fanboys!

 

[radium69]

I'd like to see how the 8800GT and GTS 512 perform in those benchmarks.
Nice article by the way. I still think the temperatures are way too hot, especially for a small room. It's just a space heater then.

 

[nukemaster]

I'm sick of ATI fanboy reviews and comments.
You should stick to the review, and not choose sides (if this is even possible).
I don't really understand why all the happyness, just because ATI's top card beats NVIDIA middle card. A whole article just to state the obvious. Congratz Tom's Hardware.

still, this ATI price reduction is BS. Nvidia has the best cards in the whole market and you guys know it. The price cuts from ATI will just slow down evolution. Nvidia does great stuff. ATI doesn't. ATI sells, Nvidia doesn't. The standards will get lower and lower.

Maybe I am Nvidia fanboy. But most of all, I am quality fanboy. And Nnvidia has the lead.

Yup, forcing DX 10.1 not to happen/get a massive delay is a great thing. brings performance down a notch to make Nvidia look better. Hell assassins creed was patched to run worse on ATI(by way of removing DX 10.1 features that improve performance) hardware just because it was a Way its meant to be played game(one that ran FAR better on ATI hardware). Yeah ATI does nothing great. Remember the 9700Pro? X800? X1900?. Now remember the GeforceFX, the directX9 card with not balls to do DX9? Both companies have had rough times, thats how the game is played.

 

[Guest]

I won't get a Radeon simply because of the drivers. I dislike the way they work. Nvidia drivers (for the most part) have proven more reliable for me.

 

[nukemaster]

I won't get a Radeon simply because of the drivers. I dislike the way they work. Nvidia drivers (for the most part) have proven more reliable for me.

ATI's drivers are allot better then they have been in the past.

I have found Nvidia's Vista 64 drivers to be much worse then there XP drivers(several games just crash, some old games run poorly). Nvidia seems to concentrate on there newer cards while leaving the old ones out with updates(look at how long it took to get TV overscan on the 8800GTX, but not much else is worked on for those cards anymore, its all 9xxx and 2xx drivers[I know you can mod the new drivers to work, and thats what i am running now]).

ATI's drivers seem to be about the same on both(Those games that do crash, did not crash on my test ATI card(X1900XT) and those old games run just like XP).

 

[KaiserZr]

Nice review, and I am glad that ATI is competing with Nvidia, now. Means low prices and better performance for all.

 

[dario77]

at last....i can have nvidia-like performance without having nvidia-like image quality (or lack thereof)!!!

 

[dmacfour]

I'm officially going to call anyone who buys the 260 over a 4870 a Nvidia fanboy.