Its a very good value card
Anyone notice some missing power choke or vrms ( sry not im not electerate)
going to be some ATI HD 4790!?
i think i skip and w8 hoping a 4790 will come along
Turbotab 11 minutes ago
I'm already bored with 40nm cards, I want 32nm parts now! :p
Estimated Die shrink -40nm - 32nm -16nm -8nm -4nm
-2nm 1 gigazillion transistors on 100mm2 drawing 1watts @@ by 2090
Okay, I've got an 8800GTS 512 (G92 core). How will this new card scale compared to my 8800? Am I correct in thinking that the 9800GT is basically the same as the 8800GTS?
I'm also waiting for the Crossfire review. X38 mobo don't allow SLi :(
I'm surprised that you only gave it a 7/10 on value, actually; I might have considered an 8/10 or a 9/10 if I was feeling particularly happy that day.
The GTS 250 is expensive enough to really make a difference in my book, and speculating on price cuts that haven't even been rumored yet isn't very sensible. If you're going to take that route, why not just go ahead and give the 4890 the best value of all? Heck, they'll be down to £90 in a few years!
Originally Posted by Cupboard I had my old 7950GT (accidentally) running without a PCI-E power connector for quite a long time and it behaved absolutely fine.
It depends on the card - Some cards won't allow your system to get past POST without connecting PCI-E power.
Some cards need it, period; some cards need it when under load and other cards use it as a precaution.
Originally Posted by Goty I'm surprised that you only gave it a 7/10 on value, actually; I might have considered an 8/10 or a 9/10 if I was feeling particularly happy that day.
We were going off the original price quoted to us, which was £87 inc. VAT from Overclockers UK - at that price, it's very close to the GTS 250. At £79.99, I think it's an 8 or 9/10 for value as you say... but we don't adjust our scores after publication time. (if we did it to reflect every price change, it'd be a whole lot of extra work - it's one rule for all)
It shows how this part of the market is incredibly sensitive to price - it's a steal at £80.
Quote:
The GTS 250 is expensive enough to really make a difference in my book, and speculating on price cuts that haven't even been rumored yet isn't very sensible. If you're going to take that route, why not just go ahead and give the 4890 the best value of all? Heck, they'll be down to £90 in a few years!
I heard some fairly solid rumours that Nvidia was going to cut the price from a good source on Monday. That's why I mentioned it.
Originally Posted by Sark.inc can i have a link to somewhere explaining the benefits of a seal choke?!?!
Marginally better ESR (cant remember acronym) protection and far better environmental protection - it doesn't corrode, especially in high humidity or coastal areas.
Certainly looks like an impressive card for the money. Frankly I might opt to put this into any new systems I build especially if heat and power are going to be issues.
Originally Posted by azrael- Well, it seems I (sadly) wasn't too far off the mark with my suspicions of a special "reviewer edition" of the HD4770...
Yeah, but as ExPreview points out, there's little difference between the two. I doubt there's some kind of review conspiracy where ATi send out better cards to reviewers. If they had, they'd make it a little more suitble than a massively huge cooler difference.
Originally Posted by Bauul Yeah, but as ExPreview points out, there's little difference between the two. I doubt there's some kind of review conspiracy where ATi send out better cards to reviewers. If they had, they'd make it a little more suitble than a massively huge cooler difference.
It's a bit more than simply another cooling solution, although it still is the same PCB.
But why not simply send out the same cards to reviewers, which will appear in retail? Should be a lot easier and I cannot believe the new cooling solution was a last minute decision that simply couldn't be implemented on cards sent out for review.
I've got nothing against the new retail cooler, but I'd really like to see how it performs noise- and coolingwise. It DOES make a difference, and right now any HD4770 review (except perhaps for the one in the German c't Magazin) is flawed because of this decision.
Originally Posted by azrael- Well, it seems I (sadly) wasn't too far off the mark with my suspicions of a special "reviewer edition" of the HD4770...
Yeah, but as ExPreview points out, there's little difference between the two. I doubt there's some kind of review conspiracy where ATi send out better cards to reviewers. If they had, they'd make it a little more suitble than a massively huge cooler difference.
We've got some retail versions of cards in house and I've had a look at a couple of them... the power circuitry has been stripped pretty bare - another case of pulling as many components off before it stops working in order to cut costs. It's not surprising at this price point, but I'd imagine AMD's response would be "that's a partner decision, not ours" and they'll wash their hands of it completely, even though all of the boards are contract manufactured in a small number of factories. :|
It's maybe lucky (on our part) that we didn't overclock the card in the review and merely gave you a sneak peek on the blog - the retail cards may not be as good, but they do still have the same number of power phases. They're just a bit leaner (only one push/pull PWM per choke and fewer caps) and so the power won't be as clean - this might affect overclocking. We'll let you know in due course.
Originally Posted by Tim S We've got some retail versions of cards in house and I've had a look at a couple of them... the power circuitry has been stripped pretty bare - another case of pulling as many components off before it stops working in order to cut costs. It's not surprising at this price point, but I'd imagine AMD's response would be "that's a partner decision, not ours" and they'll wash their hands of it completely, even though all of the boards are contract manufactured in a small number of factories. :|
It's maybe lucky (on our part) that we didn't overclock the card in the review and merely gave you a sneak peek on the blog - the retail cards may not be as good, but they do still have the same number of power phases. They're just a bit leaner (only one push/pull PWM per choke and fewer caps) and so the power won't be as clean - this might affect overclocking. We'll let you know in due course.
Thanks for the update. I suspected as much from the pictures shown on ExPreview. Another thing that struck me was that the power connector for the fan had been changed from a 3 pin header to a 2 pin header. I doubt that'll save cost anywhere, but to my knowledge that effectively removes fan control functionality, although fan voltage could presumably still be adjusted from the firmware.
Looking very much forward to hearing back from you guys at bit-tech as to how the stripped retail boards change the "HD4770 experience"... :)
Comments 26 to 48 of 48
ReplyAnyone notice some missing power choke or vrms ( sry not im not electerate)
going to be some ATI HD 4790!?
i think i skip and w8 hoping a 4790 will come along
Turbotab 11 minutes ago
I'm already bored with 40nm cards, I want 32nm parts now! :p
Estimated Die shrink -40nm - 32nm -16nm -8nm -4nm
-2nm 1 gigazillion transistors on 100mm2 drawing 1watts @@ by 2090
I'm also waiting for the Crossfire review. X38 mobo don't allow SLi :(
Andy
Ah, cripes. I didn't realize it was in the graph as well :o
The GTS 250 is expensive enough to really make a difference in my book, and speculating on price cuts that haven't even been rumored yet isn't very sensible. If you're going to take that route, why not just go ahead and give the 4890 the best value of all? Heck, they'll be down to £90 in a few years!
I had my old 7950GT (accidentally) running without a PCI-E power connector for quite a long time and it behaved absolutely fine.
It depends on the card - Some cards won't allow your system to get past POST without connecting PCI-E power.
Some cards need it, period; some cards need it when under load and other cards use it as a precaution.
It shows how this part of the market is incredibly sensitive to price - it's a steal at £80.
Marginally better ESR (cant remember acronym) protection and far better environmental protection - it doesn't corrode, especially in high humidity or coastal areas.
;)
You don't have to hit them over the head?
Sorry.
Yeah, but as ExPreview points out, there's little difference between the two. I doubt there's some kind of review conspiracy where ATi send out better cards to reviewers. If they had, they'd make it a little more suitble than a massively huge cooler difference.
But why not simply send out the same cards to reviewers, which will appear in retail? Should be a lot easier and I cannot believe the new cooling solution was a last minute decision that simply couldn't be implemented on cards sent out for review.
I've got nothing against the new retail cooler, but I'd really like to see how it performs noise- and coolingwise. It DOES make a difference, and right now any HD4770 review (except perhaps for the one in the German c't Magazin) is flawed because of this decision.
We've got some retail versions of cards in house and I've had a look at a couple of them... the power circuitry has been stripped pretty bare - another case of pulling as many components off before it stops working in order to cut costs. It's not surprising at this price point, but I'd imagine AMD's response would be "that's a partner decision, not ours" and they'll wash their hands of it completely, even though all of the boards are contract manufactured in a small number of factories. :|
It's maybe lucky (on our part) that we didn't overclock the card in the review and merely gave you a sneak peek on the blog - the retail cards may not be as good, but they do still have the same number of power phases. They're just a bit leaner (only one push/pull PWM per choke and fewer caps) and so the power won't be as clean - this might affect overclocking. We'll let you know in due course.
Looking very much forward to hearing back from you guys at bit-tech as to how the stripped retail boards change the "HD4770 experience"... :)
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