AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

Originally Posted by mclean007
Maybe for you subjectively, but objectively, the bang for buck from the 4850 is indisputably better.

You're right, I was comparing to GTX 280 and 260.

A 4850 appears to be...sufficient in most games.

Best regards,

Xir

Nice performance until a GTX280X2 comes along.... or the 55n version of it...
But until then it has the performance crown ;)

Those BitTech review gurus. Even paper 'data sheets' of chips get a operational take down. you guys rock!

Yes Please in Theory.

But its too big for my case, and uses too much power.

This card is pre-ordable in my area ( NL - BE ) starting at 420 to 460 Euros. Comparing it with the 280GTX starting at 390 to 550 ( old prices ftw ) this card is just superb good value for money!
Given the fact that almost no shops has it in stock, i'm guessing prices are going to go down a bit really soon. Pushing Nvidia once more to do something about their ridiculous pricing.

If only it drew a bit less juice i'd get one :<

Nicely indept review guys, good job! Unlike the recent stuff anandtech has given out...

Nice review, the card looks to have at least improved on the crossfire performance of the 3870 X2 whilst maintaining the strong performance of the 4xxx series cards. Would like an in-depth review of the 4850X2 as this could be an interesting alternative to a GTX260/280 at a similar price point.

As has been said before, a single GPU option is more attractive prospect. Dual GPU cards always seemed to me like just a lazy way of getting more performance out of an architecture, rather than designing something truly special.

Having said this, however, some of the benchmarks are very impressive.

Don't over-analyse things, we have a stonking fast ATi card, and this is the important bit; BLACK PCB!!!

So sick of red cards clashing with my mobo.

:P

Originally Posted by JCBeastie
Don't over-analyse things, we have a stonking fast ATi card, and this is the important bit; BLACK PCB!!!

So sick of red cards clashing with my mobo.

:P

My red 4850 goes canny well with my bright blue gigabyte mobo. :)

Power draw at full load is twice what my entire system uses at the moment. Does it buzz like a CRM-114 amplifier just before you play Crysis?

(Back to the Future reference.)

Originally Posted by JCBeastie
Don't over-analyse things, we have a stonking fast ATi card, and this is the important bit; BLACK PCB!!!

So sick of red cards clashing with my mobo.

:P

You're right... it's stonking fast and I think that's great for anyone in this industry. We just need a good round of PC games to push boundaries further (but I'm sure that'll upset people that don't want to keep this industry progressing). Without pushing the boundaries, this industry won't be around forever so let's make the most of it while we can. :)

Originally Posted by Silver51
Power draw at full load is twice what my entire system uses at the moment. Does it buzz like a CRM-114 amplifier just before you play Crysis?

(Back to the Future reference.)

Thanks a lot.. now I have to break out my Trilogy boxset and watch every BTTF movie tonight so I get that reference...

Not that that is a bad thing.

Originally Posted by kenco_uk
The Crysis DX10 scores for the 9800GX2 seem a bit cock-eyed when AA is enabled. I was thinking that, at 1280x1024 with no AA, that the GX2 was doing a remarkably good job at scaling, then looking at the 2xAA thought, ooh that's not too good. Then, getting to the 1920x1200 2xAA bench and it's back up there with the best, topping a single 4870. What gives?

We spent a long time testing the GX2 on multiple occasions and it's not the first time we've seen strange behaviour like this. I think it could be related to a combination of drivers and microstuttering (which is a real problem on the 3870 X2 and not so much on the 4870 X2).

The trouble with doubling up a GTX 280 might be the sheer physical size of it. It's bad enough that you could abseil off it when stood on its end.

You couldn't double it up... it's massive - max board power would be over 350W, I reckon.

Also noticing extremely poor scaling for the 9800GX2 in Race Driver. Particularly where the 9800GTX far outpaces it!

Yep, Race Driver is another game that often suffers from poor scalability... it's understood to have microstuttering issues as well.

-- Excellent review. Like a bottle of warm wine, it's given me something to mull over.

Thanks, and thanks for the corrections too... it's strange to think it's nearly 2 months since my last full-length article! :o

its fast. is there anything else to say? lol

now to wait what nvidia's comin up with for holiday season...........

nvidia is fighting back, with ati strategy, if you cant compete for performance crown, drop prices to the point where they barely (if at all) make money linky

For those of you looking for a broader review. www.Anandtech.com has both dual GT680s and dual 4870 X2s. While I dont usually like their style of review. It does complete the picture of how truly awesome the 4870 X2 is.

In reality AMD never claimed that the 4870 was ever supposed to be a top contender. Which is why the price point was so much lower. It was really just a disappointing release from nVidia that caused it to compete so well. That's not to say the GTX 280 doesnt perform well. But it does leave much to be desired for the price point. Considering that AMD was looking to compete with nVidias mid range and ended up taking on their top end. The 4870 X2 was the card that was intended to compete with the GTX 280. I don't think AMD expected to dominate the way it did, in both price and performance.

Originally Posted by kenco_uk
Page 11 para 1 -'graphically ambitious games on release, with a three whole medieval middle eastern cities to explore' transpose

Or just omit "a"?

That was something interesting to wake up to. I love industry upsets, even if it is done in a slightly crude way.

While I can see nvidia's response will be just to stick two on a single card, as sticking out a new generation wont be practical. Im interested how they will fit two chips on. Do the 280 chips run cool enough for a stacked setup like the 9800GX2?

Originally Posted by Ninja_182
That was something interesting to wake up to. I love industry upsets, even if it is done in a slightly crude way.

While I can see nvidia's response will be just to stick two on a single card, as sticking out a new generation wont be practical. Im interested how they will fit two chips on. Do the 280 chips run cool enough for a stacked setup like the 9800GX2?

Won't happen... max board power would be ludicrous even if they could get the heat under control.

9800 gx2 still not far behind is quiet fun for those that brought one

will never buy duel gpu solutions. Still and always will be based on driver support.

you can have 3 way sli on 280 chips with under 1k watts. ( 1200 ish min psu). Heat is counted by water cooling

power consumption of a 4870 x2 will mean its never 3 way crossfired . As that would be more psu than is in existance. Even duel id say is past the idea.

483 watt in use is just WOW

I was really looking forward for this card to be released as I intend to put one in my new PC which I'll be building soon. But now I'm having second thoughts about purchasing a 4870X2 because it's not gonna be doing me any favours in terms of keeping my PC as cool and quiet as possible (oh and the high price).

If I decide to bite the bullet and buy one for my PC anyway what's the minimum wattage PSU I should be looking at for something like this? Shall I forget about getting the Coolermaster 700W Silent Pro you guys reviewed recently? The PC will have an Intel Core 2 Quad (45nm) which I'll overclock to about 3.6Ghz once I eventually install water cooling for both the CPU and GPU, a 500GB HDD, and 4GB DDR2-1200Mhz RAM.

Cracking rev...right on time as well,hl2ep2 just roflmao silly frames now let the gfx price wars begin....!

GTX 280 is still the best purchase IMO. I would rather have a single GPU card, save $150 and save on my electric bill.

Woot, ATI IS KING (finally!) ... now all we need to wait for is for side-port to be enabled, and for the Catalyst drivers to mature (I see Bit-Tech used beta drivers) and then we'll really see this girl show her sexy, slim, and busty figure :P As Bit-Tech stated, the potential of this card isn't really experienced at lower resolutions... for those with larger monitors this is the card to get, crank it up to max and enjoy the sinful eye-candy. Go ATI!

I must get two of those :D hehehe

Awesome review guys. now I wait for the price drop and get them ;)

Originally Posted by ComputerKing
I must get two of those :D hehehe

Awesome review guys. now I wait for the price drop and get them ;)

Knowing ATI... it probably won't be long till MIR's and a price drop will show up. Maybe sometime in September/October in line with Nehalem/X58? Definitely something for Christmas. Since ATI is using their usual 55nm process, and an increased amount of GDDR5 RAM (since the 4870 isn't the only GPU now with GDDR5) the cost of GDDR5 should come down, allowing ATI to decrease pricing while maintaining a good profit margin.