Official ATI 4870 X2 reviews thread.

[dennilfloss]

AnandTech
http://www.tomshardware.com/re.../4870-x2-amd,1992.html
http://www.hardware.fr/article...radeon-hd-4870-x2.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...hire/HD_4870_X2/1.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com...video-card-review.html
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=14928&page=1
http://www.tweaktown.com/revie..._crossfirex/index.html
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=605&type=expert
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=607
http://www.guru3d.com/article/...0-x2-review-crossfire/
http://www.extremetech.com/art.../0,2845,2327863,00.asp
http://www.computerbase.de/art.../#abschnitt_einleitung
http://www.hothardware.com/Art...0-X2--AMD-Back-On-Top/
http://techreport.com/articles.x/15293
http://techgage.com/article/pa...eclaims_gpu_supremacy/
http://www.neoseeker.com/Artic...ware/Reviews/hd4870x2/
http://www.firingsquad.com/har...x2_performance_review/
http://bbs.chiphell.com/viewth...d=29697&extra=page%3D1
http://www.driverheaven.net/re...?reviewid=609&pageid=1

Turned this into the official thread; moderators will add reviews to this post as they can.

n7
Video Mod

 

[n7]

Yup, i want to see some full reviews.

Honestly though, there's really only one thing i care about, & that's micro-stuttering.

I already am well aware of all the horrible drawbacks of Crossfire, but the only one that would really bother me with this card is stuttering.

So if that's all but a non-issue, i'm sold, if only because i still haven't gotten a working GTX 280, & am not confident that will happen anytime soon.

 

[apoppin]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com...video-card-review.html

Palit Radeon HD4870 X2 2GB Video Card Review
$550

Believe it or not though, this isn?t the only card that is being announced here. While the HD4870 X2 sees its release and availability today, ATI has also released some tantalizing details to us about a manufacturer-specific card called the HD4850 X2. We will have a few more details about it on the next page let?s just say for now that there will only be a few board partners releasing this card since it is not an ATI-produced reference design. Rather, in true ATI fashion partners are left free to design their own cards which will get subsequent approval from ATI?s engineers

EDIT i couldn't resist


SPOILER

Conclusion

Before I go on with this conclusion, let?s put one thing straight: the HD4870 X2 2GB is the absolute undisputed king of the single-card hill and probably will be for some time. It steamrolled over every single one of Nvidia?s offerings like a runaway freight train and made the GTX 280 look like nothing more than an also-ran in the grand scheme of things. But just remember: this isn?t a card for those of you with 19? or 20? LCD monitors. It is for the privileged few with massive monitors of the beastly 24? and 30? variety along with those of you who want e-penises the size of the Eiffel tower. Does it perform up to expectations? Hell yes and then some

 

[apoppin]

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=14928&page=1
http://www.tweaktown.com/revie..._crossfirex/index.html
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=605&type=expert
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=607

Frankly, for me to get one, looks like massive Overkill to pair with my current HD4870 ... except i get a QC CPU and OC it to 4Ghz and pair it with a true x48 16x+16x PCIe MB .. and then go from 19x12 to 25x16

:frown:

And it appears that simply another 512MB HD4870 will do all i need it to do in a Crossfire X2 [instead of X3] solution

saving money is always good!

And TweakTown's review is 4870x2 .. X2
- that is an x4 solution!!
:roll:

 

[thilanliyan]

Runs pretty hot as expected. I'm surprised to see that the min fps was higher than a 280 in the driverheaven review.

Overall: good job ATI. Not perfect but really good. Still a bit hit and miss though unfortunately with scaling according to some tests.

side note: The cards look slick in black for sure.

Any microstuttering tests? Didn't find any in the reviews posted so far.

 

[OCGuy]

Hmmm...these sure dont go along with some of the graphs this last week.

Hardware canuks seems to put it in the most positive light..but reading thier conclusion you can see why

All and all a good card for those with an SLI board that want to get the best of ATI, or people who dont want to deal with 2 cards.

Edit: Any word on if supply is going to be good? I may pick one up to play with it...

"One thing is for certain - the HD 4870 X2 clearly dispenses of the GeForce GTX 280 as the top-end graphics card of choice in Call of Duty 4. At 2560x1600 the GTX 280 is a full 32% slower than AMD's new card. The GTX 260 cards in SLI are faster though by 14% or so."

 

[n7]

http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...hire/HD_4870_X2/1.html

 

[mrmessyhair]

If I can actually find one of these I'm going to scoop it up.

Any idea what sort of performance hit I'll be looking at if I run it in a PCI-E 1.0 slot instead of 2.0?

 

[NullSubroutine]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...0-x2-review-crossfire/

 

[n7]

I've added a whole bunch of reviews to the OP.

 

[ronnn]

Interesting to see ati being the bad boy. Now we need some games that don't make me buy a biggie sized monitor to make it work. :beer:

 

[CALiFORNiA DREAMiN]

i have a asus p5q pro with two x16 pci express slots. if i put two 4870's then they will work at x8.

however, if i purchase a 4870x2 will it work at x16 or x8?

also what are the approximate performance increase percentage between x8 and x16?

 

[Cookie Monster]

This card is like a in whole different league. Amazing effort by AMD. :thumbsup:

 

[MichaelD]

/rubs hands together excitedly

I feel like a kid at Christmas! I have been hitting Newegg's page for the past couple of hours wondering when they'll update and list the card. Nothing yet, ATM. I guess b/c it's not midnight in California yet or something.

So, $550 seems to be the initial price? Not too bad. I originally guesstimated $625; I'm happy to see that I was mistaken! We'll see what Newegg/TigerDirect/MWave/etc are selling them for soon enough.

These are good times, people. Good times. I think I'll be dusting off some older games just to see 150+FPS so I can laugh myself silly.

 

[CreasianDevaili]

This kind of relaxed any doubt that my 4870 crossfire setup for 1920x1200 resolution was a mistake. Pretty much stays along the lines of the 4 test limited previews.

Still.. for non crossfire capable or those who waited the 4870x2 is a awsome deal.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
/rubs hands together excitedly

I feel like a kid at Christmas! I have been hitting Newegg's page for the past couple of hours wondering when they'll update and list the card. Nothing yet, ATM. I guess b/c it's not midnight in California yet or something.

So, $550 seems to be the initial price? Not too bad. I originally guesstimated $625; I'm happy to see that I was mistaken! We'll see what Newegg/TigerDirect/MWave/etc are selling them for soon enough.

These are good times, people. Good times. I think I'll be dusting off some older games just to see 150+FPS so I can laugh myself silly.

For those with a X-fire board, what are the advantages of this over 2 4870's which you can get cheaper? They pretty much bench the same (There is no reason they wouldnt, other than the VRAM.)

I guess it still leaves you an upgrade path...?

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: MichaelD
/rubs hands together excitedly

I feel like a kid at Christmas! I have been hitting Newegg's page for the past couple of hours wondering when they'll update and list the card. Nothing yet, ATM. I guess b/c it's not midnight in California yet or something.

So, $550 seems to be the initial price? Not too bad. I originally guesstimated $625; I'm happy to see that I was mistaken! We'll see what Newegg/TigerDirect/MWave/etc are selling them for soon enough.

These are good times, people. Good times. I think I'll be dusting off some older games just to see 150+FPS so I can laugh myself silly.

For those with a X-fire board, what are the advantages of this over 2 4870's which you can get cheaper? They pretty much bench the same (There is no reason they wouldnt, other than the VRAM.)

I guess it still leaves you an upgrade path...?

Well, performance-wise, it's pretty much a tie b/t the X2 and Xfired 4870s. Maybe a few FPS to the X2, but nothing significant.

An X2 only needs 2 power connections as opposed to 4 connections for XFired 4870s for one. There's less heat with an X2. You only use 2 PCI slots instead of 4. Those are the major things.

For me personally, I cannot XFire two, 2-slot graphics cards b/c I have a PCI-E RAID card in the other 16x slot on my board, so a single card (single or dual PCI slot width) is my only choice.

 

[OCGuy]

Can you add a 4850? Or only 4870?

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Can you add a 4850? Or only 4870?

My understanding is that you can XFire any combination of the 48XX series cards. The problem is that if you XFire a 1GB 4870 with a 512MB 4850, the 4870 will only use 512MB of it's memory. You essentially neuter your more powerful card.

I'm not really sure I can XFire cards in my motherboard anyway. It's an Intel chipset workstation board with two PCI-E 16x 2.0 slots...but the manual says nothing about XFire at all. No matter though; I'm sticking with a single card solution.

 

[dennilfloss]

Look at the Oblivion scaling!!

http://firingsquad.com/hardwar...mance_review/page9.asp

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: dennilfloss
Look at the Oblivion scaling!!

http://firingsquad.com/hardwar...mance_review/page9.asp

Dayum. 56FPS @ 25x16 WITH 8xAA/16xAF. That is some serious freakin' horsepower. Anything above 50FPS is buttah-smooth. And at this res/filtering level?

:Q
/faints

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Hmmm...these sure dont go along with some of the graphs this last week.

Hardware canuks seems to put it in the most positive light..but reading thier conclusion you can see why

All and all a good card for those with an SLI board that want to get the best of ATI, or people who dont want to deal with 2 cards.

Edit: Any word on if supply is going to be good? I may pick one up to play with it...

"One thing is for certain - the HD 4870 X2 clearly dispenses of the GeForce GTX 280 as the top-end graphics card of choice in Call of Duty 4. At 2560x1600 the GTX 280 is a full 32% slower than AMD's new card. The GTX 260 cards in SLI are faster though by 14% or so."

Thats only in one or two games :! the 4870X2 can beatup the GTX260 SLI when AA is higher than 4x. ATI need to solve their AA problem with Unreal 3.0 game in DX10 and they can claim the performance crown.

 

[teatime0315]

Wow they delivered. Congatz AMD! Now what to expect from Nvidia.

 

[Aberforth]

wow, that's an amazing card, I can't wait to install it. Looks heavy though, I hope it doesn't break my board.....

 

[omghaxcode]

why is it not up for sale yet? zzf.com tigerdirect.com and newegg aren't listing it yet

anyone see it online?