ATI 4xxx Series Thread

[LightningRider]

Man I'm excited now to see HD4870 benchmarks.

If they beat the GTX 260 by enough I might buy one of those instead of stepping up.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: golem
Avalon - what are your impressions so far?

I've haven't read the whole thread, sorry if you have already posted them.

Well, I've been tinkering with drivers so far, not a lot of benching. I was surprised to see that the card looks nearly identical to my HD3850. It appears all mounting screws are in the same spots, so that's good for those of you that already have HD3800 series aftermarket coolers.

They changed the HSF a bit in that there are vents at the top left of the copper sink now, and the fan has more fins. Other than that, it's the same size.

The card is the same size as well, so if you could fit an HD3800 series into your system, this will fit.

Fan seems to be ever so slightly noisier, but at default speeds, which it seems to run at most of the time, it's quiet. I wouldn't say inaudible, but quiet.

 

[golem]

Thanks Avalon

 

[Avalon]

The HD4850 is supposed to be running at 625/1000 and have a mem bandwidth of 64GB/s right?

CCC is claiming I'm running at 700/1200 with a mem bandwidth of 71GB/s, which doesn't measure up with a 1200mhz mem clock. 1200mhz would be closer to 77GB/s, whereas 1100mhz would be closer to what CCC is claiming. ATI Tool v0.27 beta 3 shows a 625/1000 clock.

*Edit*
Ok, it is running at 625/1000. And damn, this thing runs hot. 80C idle?

*Edit 2*
Hits about 92C at 95% load with RTHDRIBL. Maybe replace the TIM with MX2?

Anywho, off to benchmarking.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Sounds like they just put pancakes between the HSF and chip instead of TIM.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Wow, the results from that french site sure are impressive.. Thats some crazy AA performance! Would never have thought it would reach GTX 260 level in some games... Very curious to see how bandwidth limited it is... If a card with 65 gb/s does so well at AA, one can only imagine the 4870 with 100+

 

[AzN]

http://www.hardware.fr/article...ti-radeon-hd-4850.html

Lot of benchmarks here folks.

 

[dasracht]

What an impressive showing in these benches! I didn't see this one coming.

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: ChronoReverse
Sounds like they just put pancakes between the HSF and chip instead of TIM.

I pulled the heatsinks off today. On the GPU they use the standard grey thermal paste that looks like it's silver based but isn't. Contact was on par with every other heatsink I've pulled. They used the rubbery thermal pads for memory, and the thermal paste/fiber layer stuff for the PWM modules.

I used Arctic Ceramique on the gpu and reused everything else as they were in perfect condition upon removal. There were no significant drops in idle or load temps. I didn't expect much. The problem is the cooler. Just not enough surface area with those tiny fins to dissipate the heat.

I'll take a stab and say the 4870 will have idle/load temps at around 10c cooler, even with higher clocks and more juice.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: dasracht
What an impressive showing in these benches! I didn't see this one coming.

I don't think Nvidia did either... actually, I bet AMD thought that Nvidia's next cards would be faster then the GTX260 and GTX280 have shown to be, so the AMD cards look very good im comparrison. I don't think AMD ever went out to be this close to the performance of Nvidia's new flagship cards, hence the prices they planned for the 4850 and 4870. At least that's my guess. Either Nvidia will have to lower prices, or AMD will raise them (which I don't think anyone will want). It looks like the GTX280 will still be faster then the 4870, but not by near enough to justify it's cost I'd say.

 

[taltamir]

if you can't justify paying twice as much for a minor performance gain for the GTX 280, how can you justify doing the same to buy a 4850 over an 8800GT?

They are ALL overpriced like crazy. I mean, why is the 9800GTX priced at 260$ when the 8800GTS 512MB is only 160$ and the 8800GT only 130$?

The only thing I can say is "buy the last gen before they run out of stock and you are FORCED to pay the exuberant prices of the current cards"

AMD and nvidia realized that they let their price war eat into their profits in their last gen, and then time they are really sticking it to us...

When the stock runs out we can expect:
4850 GDDR3 - 250$ (was being sold for 200$ and quick jacked up already, expect to go back down... or maybe not)
9800GTX - 250$ (slightly cheaper then currently on sale)
4870 512MB GDDR3 - 300$ (currently on sale)
4870 1GB GDDR3 - 400$ (my guess)
GTX 260 1GB GDDR3 - 400$
4870 1GB GDDR5 - 500$ (another guess)
GTX 280 - 600$

Most are already at that price point or slightly OVER, I expect them to go down ever so slightly and settle into those prices...

 

[zod96]

Got my Ati 4850 Today This is replacing my 8800GT. I ran benches comparing the two on the same system. I used Driver Cleaner to change out drivers. Ok here goes.

Everything set to High using Windows Xp and DX9, Nvidia drivers used were 175.16 and the Ati drivers used were the new ones released today 8.6. Benches were done at 1680x1050 for the crysis benchmark

1. 0xAA 0xAF

8800GT Min: 20 Max: 38 Avg: 32
4850 Min: 26 Max: 41 Avg: 35

2. 0xAA 16xAF

8800GT Min: 19 Max: 35 Avg: 28
4850 Min: 25 Max: 40 Avg: 31

3. 2xAA 16xAF

8800GT Min: 18 Max: 28 Avg: 23
4850 Min: 16 Max: 28 Avg: 23

4. 4xAA 16xAF

8800GT Min: 14 Max: 24 Avg: 19
4850 Min 15 Max: 27 Avg: 22

Here's my default 3dmark 06 score with both cards

8800GT: 12600
4850: 11950

Not sure why 3dmark was much better on the GT maybe early drivers.

Their you have it Bottom line is the 4850 is faster than the 8800GT, I'd say its more inline with the 8800GTS. A few other notes. The card is dam hot, it is idling at like 70 which is pretty bad. after running a few benchs of crysis it got to like 90. The fan at boot and in 2D is dead quiet, but as soon as you fire up crysis the fan comes on and its loud not really loud but loud. I'm going to try to put my artic cooling s1 on the 4850 and see what that does along with some as5. Image quality is about the same as the GT as far as I can tell. So far very pleased with it. Its not a 9800GTX killer but its on par with a 8800GTS. At least now I can go crossfire with the 4850, where as I couldn't before with the GT. For $189 its the perfect card for 1680x1050 with AA and AF, only downside has been the temps on the card, the GT with the stock cooler was much cooler, but that's it. I'll report back once I get the S1 installed on it.

Thanks

 

[taltamir]

the 4850 costs 200$ AT THE MINIMUM with many places charging more...
The 8800GT costs 130$... sometimes less...

I think you upgraded poorly for such a small performance gain.

Also... i see your playable settings increase from 0xAA 0xAF... to 0xAA 16xAF...
How much better does your picture looks in that after that?

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Yeah I think the problem is that last generation cards are UNDERpriced... Considering what a 2x 8800 GT sli for less than 300$ can do, its crazy... No matter how awesome the new AMD cards are, thats nearly impossible to beat, if they want to earn a profit

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: taltamir
if you can't justify paying twice as much for a minor performance gain for the GTX 280, how can you justify doing the same to buy a 4850 over an 8800GT?

They are ALL overpriced like crazy. I mean, why is the 9800GTX priced at 260$ when the 8800GTS 512MB is only 160$ and the 8800GT only 130$?

The only thing I can say is "buy the last gen before they run out of stock and you are FORCED to pay the exuberant prices of the current cards"

AMD and nvidia realized that they let their price war eat into their profits in their last gen, and then time they are really sticking it to us...

When the stock runs out we can expect:
4850 GDDR3 - 250$ (was being sold for 200$ and quick jacked up already, expect to go back down... or maybe not)
9800GTX - 250$ (slightly cheaper then currently on sale)
4870 512MB GDDR3 - 300$ (currently on sale)
4870 1GB GDDR3 - 400$ (my guess)
GTX 260 1GB GDDR3 - 400$
4870 1GB GDDR5 - 500$ (another guess)
GTX 280 - 600$

Most are already at that price point or slightly OVER, I expect them to go down ever so slightly and settle into those prices...

I don't think that's apples to apples. Someone may only need the performance that the 8800GT provides, then the best option for them is to probabaly buy the 8800GT. It ofers incredible performance for the money spent. On the other hand someone may need the performance that the GTX280 provides, there are several cheaper options that perform as good to better then the GTX280. The only real audience I see for the GTX280 is someone who hates the idea of multiple cards/GPU's and games on at least a 24" monitor and can't live without AA... a place where the performance of the GTX280 over the presumed performance of the 4870 migh make a difference. My guess is that it's a lot easier for someone to justify the cost difference between a 9800GTX/4850 and the 8800GT then it is for someone to justify a $300 (again presumed) difference between the GTX280 and 4870 (assuming that it's performance is very close as it looks like it might be).

 

[AzN]

4850 does improve AA performance drastically. Just look the benches. It clearly better than ultra in this regard. 8800gt is nice for $150 but it can't touch a 8800ultra in terms of AA performance. For $200 4850 is much compelling card given it's performance and when you factor in Avivo and power consumption. Sometimes close to 260gtx performance in games.

 

[taltamir]

well, nvidia realized their "mistake"... they renamed the 8800GTS 512 the 9800GTX (and gave it a few new FEATURES for video, but nothing for gaming)... and jacked up prices and stopped production... the 8800GT will run out SOON. VERY soon...

EDIT: that 8800GT from gigabyte was 256MB of ram.. sorry.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121224
130$ after 30 MIR w/ free ship... asus...

You can't beat those prices... two of those in SLI = 260$ that is about what a single 9800GTX costs after MIR... and the 4850 have ALREADY been priced jacked to the 250$ range... BUY IT NOW! actually fuck, I was gonna give my brother my old 7900GS for his new computer... the GS is going on ebay and I am ordering him an ASUS NOW!

BTW... I am posting a guide on how to look through newegg for prices after the "minimum advertised price"... you can still see the prices relatively, it is just a little tricky...

 

[zod96]

That's my point too. I game at 1680x1050 with some AA and AF and the 4850 is perfect, and if I need the extra power I can now go crossfire, where as before with my GT I couldn't since intel boards don't support it.....

 

[Jakeisbest]

Originally posted by: taltamir
if you can't justify paying twice as much for a minor performance gain for the GTX 280, how can you justify doing the same to buy a 4850 over an 8800GT?

They are ALL overpriced like crazy. I mean, why is the 9800GTX priced at 260$ when the 8800GTS 512MB is only 160$ and the 8800GT only 130$?

The only thing I can say is "buy the last gen before they run out of stock and you are FORCED to pay the exuberant prices of the current cards"

AMD and nvidia realized that they let their price war eat into their profits in their last gen, and then time they are really sticking it to us...

When the stock runs out we can expect:
4850 GDDR3 - 250$ (was being sold for 200$ and quick jacked up already, expect to go back down... or maybe not)
9800GTX - 250$ (slightly cheaper then currently on sale)
4870 512MB GDDR3 - 300$ (currently on sale)
4870 1GB GDDR3 - 400$ (my guess)
GTX 260 1GB GDDR3 - 400$
4870 1GB GDDR5 - 500$ (another guess)
GTX 280 - 600$

Most are already at that price point or slightly OVER, I expect them to go down ever so slightly and settle into those prices...

Ya but you can not actually get an 8800GTS for $160. I would say the market price is around $200 may be a bit lower after a mail in rebates (which don't even really count imho).

Most 8800gt cards i have seen are still firmly seated around $150-160.

 

[taltamir]

you are searching wrong. you can get it on gougeegg, I didn't even bother shopping around... fine.. 190 - 30$ MIR.

160 - 30$ MIR for the 8800GT.

As much as I am loathe to use MIR they DO pay; Usually. I have gotten 5 MIR the last two months.

Bottom line... without MIR 160$ each for 2x8800GT = 320$ money out of pocket... how does ANY of the higher end cards compare to that?

 

[Gunslinger08]

Sounds like I should buy a 9800GX2. $425 for performance that's pretty damn close to a GTX 280.

 

[taltamir]

wouldn't a pair of 8800GTS 512 for 160$ each go further?

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: taltamir
wouldn't a pair of 8800GTS 512 for 160$ each go further?

Not sure my motherboard (P5B Deluxe) supports SLI.

 

[Aberforth]

Anyone got 4870 benchmarks?

 

[Leon]

Don't be surprised to see 9800GTX dropping to $199 on 26th. Either that, or 8800GTS will drop to $179, and 9800GTX will be EOL.

Leon