Sapphire launches new Radeon HD 4770

Author: Alex Watson
Published: 20th August 2009
Comments (20) Stumble
Sapphire launches new Radeon HD 4770

Sapphire's new Radeon HD 4770, complete with Arctic Cooling HSF

ATI's most recent desktop GPU launch, the Radeon HD 4770, was enthusiastically received by both the press and the public when it first appeared at the end of April. In our review, we praised it, saying "if you’ve got no more than £85 to spend and want a graphics card that delivers great performance at 1,280 x 1,024 and 1,680 x 1,050 in today’s latest games, you really can’t go wrong with the 4770."

Gamers flocked to retail sites to buy them, and it slotted straight into our regular Buyer's Guides. There was only one problem - the HD 4770 rapidly became impossible to actually buy. Out at Computex we discovered the reason why - yield problems meant ATI simply couldn't make enough chips. Then we found out that the reference board design, which was supplied to the media for review, was impossible for manufacturers to make at the £80 price that made the card so attractive.

All of which meant the HD 4770 fell from favour, but Sapphire has announced today it's making a new version of the card, complete with a custom HSF from Arctic Cooling. The new card also features HDMI, D-SUB and DVI connections. The GPU remains the same, featuring 640 stream processors, clocked at 750MHz (compared to 625MHz and 575MHz on the HD 4850 and HD 4830 respectively). Sapphire is shipping the card with 512MB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 800MHz (3.2GHz effective), so the card has 51.2GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

The cards are being built right now, and Sapphire told us they'll be available in the UK in two to three weeks time, for a "similar" price to the models currently listed on retailer sites - so it should be around £80 to £90. Is it too late for the HD 4770, or now that you can actually find one, are you going to be picking one up? Let us know in the forums.
Quote Skiddywinks 20th August 2009, 15:38
Nice. Great price point, especially with the custom cooling solution. Dunno about the blue PCB though...
Quote Bauul 20th August 2009, 15:42
I picked one up without difficulty to be honest. Maybe I was just lucky. Either way, it's a fantastic little card. Whisper silent underneath my other components and a good 40 degrees (seriously) cooler than my old 7900GT. And given my little 1440x900 monitor's max resolution, it eats most games for breakfast. I'd still recommend it to anyone.
Quote l3v1ck 20th August 2009, 16:31
Forget the 4770. Will these yield problems affect the up coming DX11 cards?
Quote Rkiver 20th August 2009, 16:34
Nice card, good price point and performance, will recommend that for anyone just wanting a simple enough machine that can play the odd game or two.
Quote Baz 20th August 2009, 16:53
HD 4870's are only £110 now. just saying!
Quote The_EXorcist 20th August 2009, 16:59
yeah, too little too late, the release of the 5xxx series is just too soon for this card to be an attractive buy right now
Quote badders 20th August 2009, 17:02
TBH, I don't think I'm going to buy any new Graphics card until the performance jump is similar to what I did last time:
Radeon 9800 Pro 256Mb -> 8800GT 512Mb

Got a generation or so to go, methinks!
Quote Bauul 20th August 2009, 17:10
Quote:
Originally Posted by badders

Radeon 9800 Pro 256Mb

My all time favourite card this. It was just the bomb.
Quote badders 20th August 2009, 17:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bauul
My all time favourite card this. It was just the bomb.

It's still going Strong! - My fiancee's uncle has it, playing Halo and HL2 at 1280x1024.
Quote Elton 20th August 2009, 19:15
Why does sapphire insist on using D-sub?
Quote NethLyn 20th August 2009, 19:23
For us diehard CRT luddites, mainly - though I've had to use a DVI converter so often that half the time I just leave it on there, even when using an old card like the 9800.
Quote Elton 20th August 2009, 19:25
Quote:
Originally Posted by NethLyn
For us diehard CRT luddites, mainly - though I've had to use a DVI converter so often that half the time I just leave it on there, even when using an old card like the 9800.

My other rig uses a CRT...

There's an adapter for that. Of course that GPU has a Dsub...
Quote papalarge123 20th August 2009, 20:48
well, when u consider the Asus HD4850 with the custom cooler (which runs 10c hotter than the HD4770) can be picked up for £75 from scan
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB-Asus-HD-4850-PCI-E-20-(x16)-1986-MHz-GDDR3-GPU-625-MHz-800-Cores-2-x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV
it kinda makes the HD4770 slightly redundant as the HD4850 is slightly more powerfull and also cheaper.
plus the fact that i own the same Asus HD4850 in the link and it runs virtually every game on full @ 1680x1050 res lcd monitor.

the next purchase for me tho will be when the 5-series cards are out and have dropped to the £150-£200 mark.

still tho, great news that ATI have solved the 40nm issue and that Saphire have come to the rescue with a newer designed board.
Quote Horizon 20th August 2009, 22:28
Quote:
Originally Posted by papalarge123
snip


well, in a perfect world they wouldn't have had yield problems and the cost of manufacturing would have been reduced making this card probably even cheaper. That said, the 4850 overall is marginally faster than the 4770 which usually comes very close to the 4850's performance, and many times even trumps it. My question is doesn't this card make the 4850 redundant?
Quote Elton 20th August 2009, 22:39
Quote:
Originally Posted by Horizon
well, in a perfect world they wouldn't have had yield problems and the cost of manufacturing would have been reduced making this card probably even cheaper. That said, the 4850 overall is marginally faster than the 4770 which usually comes very close to the 4850's performance, and many times even trumps it. My question is doesn't this card make the 4850 redundant?

It should make the HD4850 redundant, but as you an see, there's a shortage of said HD4770s.
Quote Horizon 21st August 2009, 05:20
:facepalm: It was a rhetorical question.
Quote Elton 21st August 2009, 06:04
Quote:
Originally Posted by Horizon
:facepalm: It was a rhetorical question.

But...but....it is....:)
Quote xaser04 21st August 2009, 08:23
With HD4850's available at around £70-£80 and HD4870 / GTX260's available for a little over £100 this is too little too late.

Now all we need now is some killer titles to justify the next gen cards.
Quote biebiep 21st August 2009, 09:24
Quote:
Originally Posted by xaser04

Now all we need now is some killer titles to justify the next gen cards.

*drumroll*
Crysis

(someone had to say it)
Quote frontline 21st August 2009, 10:02
Looks like a nice little card, but would have to come in around £70-£75 now to make an impact.
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