Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic

Written by Tim Smalley

February 23, 2009 | 10:54

Tags: #1gb #4870 #card #consumption #cooler #evaluation #hd #heat #overclocking #performance #power #radeon #review #rv770 #toxic #vapor-x #vapour

Companies: #ati #sapphire #test

Far Cry 2

Publisher: Ubisoft

Far Cry 2 is the latest first person shooter from Ubisoft. 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 9.0 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.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic Far Cry 2 - DirectX 9.0

Far Cry 2

1,680 x 1,050 0xAA, DirectX 9.0, Ultra High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
    • 81.5
    • 66.0
    • 76.1
    • 63.0
    • 75.5
    • 53.0
    • 72.3
    • 54.0
    • 70.9
    • 60.0
    • 60.6
    • 49.0
    • 47.3
    • 42.0
    • 44.3
    • 39.0
    • 41.9
    • 35.0
    • 41.3
    • 36.0
    • 40.4
    • 34.0
    • 37.3
    • 31.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

1,680 x 1,050 4xAA, DirectX 9.0, Ultra High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
    • 68.1
    • 58.0
    • 63.6
    • 52.0
    • 60.7
    • 51.0
    • 59.4
    • 49.0
    • 58.6
    • 50.0
    • 48.9
    • 39.0
    • 40.4
    • 35.0
    • 37.8
    • 32.0
    • 34.8
    • 30.0
    • 34.2
    • 29.0
    • 33.1
    • 28.0
    • 29.8
    • 25.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

1,920 x 1,200 0xAA, DirectX 9.0, Ultra High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
    • 77.1
    • 64.0
    • 72.5
    • 58.0
    • 70.9
    • 60.0
    • 68.8
    • 54.0
    • 67.3
    • 56.0
    • 57.1
    • 46.0
    • 44.5
    • 40.0
    • 41.7
    • 37.0
    • 40.2
    • 34.0
    • 38.8
    • 35.0
    • 38.0
    • 32.0
    • 34.1
    • 28.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

1,920 x 1,200 4xAA, DirectX 9.0, Ultra High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
    • 61.6
    • 53.0
    • 58.7
    • 50.0
    • 54.8
    • 45.0
    • 54.7
    • 46.0
    • 53.0
    • 44.0
    • 44.5
    • 36.0
    • 37.0
    • 31.0
    • 34.6
    • 29.0
    • 31.9
    • 27.0
    • 31.0
    • 26.0
    • 30.2
    • 26.0
    • 25.7
    • 22.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

2,560 x 1,600 0xAA, DirectX 9.0, Ultra High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
    • 63.8
    • 57.0
    • 58.1
    • 48.0
    • 57.1
    • 47.0
    • 55.8
    • 49.0
    • 55.8
    • 46.0
    • 44.9
    • 37.0
    • 37.3
    • 33.0
    • 34.8
    • 31.0
    • 31.7
    • 27.0
    • 31.1
    • 27.0
    • 30.0
    • 26.0
    • 26.0
    • 22.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

2,560 x 1,600 2xAA, DirectX 9.0, Ultra High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
    • 55.5
    • 47.0
    • 49.4
    • 41.0
    • 49.2
    • 41.0
    • 48.3
    • 40.0
    • 47.6
    • 40.0
    • 37.2
    • 29.0
    • 33.0
    • 28.0
    • 30.5
    • 26.0
    • 27.2
    • 23.0
    • 26.8
    • 22.0
    • 25.4
    • 21.0
    • 16.5
    • 4.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Far Cry 2

2,560 x 1,600 4xAA, DirectX 9.0, Ultra High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
    • 46.4
    • 37.0
    • 41.1
    • 34.0
    • 40.6
    • 32.0
    • 38.3
    • 29.0
    • 36.2
    • 28.0
    • 31.2
    • 23.0
    • 30.0
    • 24.0
    • 26.6
    • 21.0
    • 23.8
    • 19.0
    • 23.1
    • 18.0
    • 22.4
    • 18.0
    • 2.4
    • 1.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

The higher clocks on the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB Toxic give it enough of an edge to outperform the GeForce GTX 260-216 - something that the stock Radeon HD 4870 1GB was unable to do in Far Cry 2's DirectX 9.0 mode.
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