Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB Golden Sample

Written by Harry Butler

November 18, 2008 | 08:22

Tags: #1gb #benchmarks #graphics-card #hd-4870 #performance #review #testing

Companies: #gainward

Far Cry 2

Publisher: Ubisoft

Far Cry 2 is the latest first person shooter from Ubisoft and it's one of the most hotly-anticipated games of this year. While it continues the Far Cry franchise that Crytek started in 2004, Far Cry 2 is built on its own in-house engine and has no association to anything Crytek has worked on or is working on now.

The game uses DirectX 10.1 to improve anti-aliasing performance and quality. The improvements are made by reading the multisampled depth buffer in a single pass - something that was only introduced officially with DirectX 10.1. However, Ubisoft has also made the enhancements available to Nvidia hardware as well through a DirectX 10 extension.

We used the game's built-in benchmarking tool to measure performance in DirectX 10/10.1 mode - this provided a pretty accurate rundown of how various graphics cards perform and it shows off a lot of the game's special effects. We set every option to its maximum setting and tested at 1,680 x 1,050, 1,920 x 1,200 and 2,560 x 1,600 with various anti-aliasing settings.

Anisotropic filtering is controlled by the game's quality settings and forcing AF from the driver control panel does not have any effect on visual quality or performance.

Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB Golden Sample Far Cry 2 - DirectX 10/10.1

Far Cry 2

1,680 x 1,050 0xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
    • 53.0
    • 37.0
    • 51.0
    • 33.0
    • 51.0
    • 37.0
    • 49.8
    • 37.0
    • 48.7
    • 32.0
    • 48.1
    • 36.0
    • 43.5
    • 31.0
    • 37.9
    • 30.0
    • 33.2
    • 25.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

1,680 x 1,050 2xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
    • 55.6
    • 35.0
    • 53.8
    • 34.0
    • 49.3
    • 37.0
    • 46.6
    • 37.0
    • 45.4
    • 36.0
    • 43.9
    • 34.0
    • 35.3
    • 23.0
    • 33.4
    • 23.0
    • 31.4
    • 24.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

1,680 x 1,050 4xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 54.7
    • 35.0
    • 51.5
    • 33.0
    • 46.3
    • 36.0
    • 41.0
    • 34.0
    • 40.7
    • 33.0
    • 40.0
    • 31.0
    • 28.7
    • 19.0
    • 28.1
    • 16.0
    • 25.8
    • 17.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

1,920 x 1,200 0xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
    • 49.9
    • 32.0
    • 49.4
    • 37.0
    • 48.5
    • 36.0
    • 48.4
    • 37.0
    • 48.3
    • 32.0
    • 43.0
    • 34.0
    • 38.6
    • 30.0
    • 36.6
    • 29.0
    • 29.9
    • 21.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

1,920 x 1,200 2xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
    • 55.2
    • 36.0
    • 52.0
    • 33.0
    • 45.3
    • 35.0
    • 44.4
    • 36.0
    • 43.2
    • 34.0
    • 40.1
    • 32.0
    • 33.8
    • 19.0
    • 31.5
    • 17.0
    • 24.4
    • 16.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

1,920 x 1,200 4xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
    • 53.7
    • 34.0
    • 50.1
    • 33.0
    • 41.3
    • 34.0
    • 38.1
    • 32.0
    • 37.4
    • 30.0
    • 36.2
    • 29.0
    • 22.0
    • 17.0
    • 20.9
    • 15.0
    • 20.8
    • 14.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

2,560 x 1,600 0xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
    • 42.6
    • 30.0
    • 39.3
    • 29.0
    • 37.8
    • 30.0
    • 36.7
    • 31.0
    • 35.8
    • 29.0
    • 33.5
    • 26.0
    • 25.0
    • 20.0
    • 21.4
    • 15.0
    • 21.1
    • 15.0
0
10
20
30
40
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

2,560 x 1,600 2xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
    • 46.4
    • 34.0
    • 43.3
    • 33.0
    • 34.6
    • 27.0
    • 31.7
    • 27.0
    • 30.9
    • 24.0
    • 30.8
    • 24.0
    • 16.7
    • 12.0
    • 14.8
    • 11.0
    • 12.2
    • 7.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

2,560 x 1,600 4xAA, DirectX 10/10.1, Ultra High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
    • 33.8
    • 25.0
    • 31.8
    • 23.0
    • 31.7
    • 24.0
    • 26.8
    • 21.0
    • 26.0
    • 20.0
    • 24.2
    • 19.0
    • 12.0
    • 8.0
    • 11.2
    • 7.0
    • 7.5
    • 2.0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

While the 4870 1GB is a fantastic performer in Far Cry 2, the performance advantage of the overclocked Gainward 4870 1024MB Golden Sample is actually fairly minimal, with the 3.3 percent core overclock and 11 percent memory overclock translating to a frame rate improvement of less than 1.2 fps until we reach the ultra demanding 2,560 x 1,600 with 4xAA, where the improvement is much more sizeable as memory speed not core speed becomes more important.
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