ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 reviewed: all that and a bag of RV770 chips

If you haven't heard of AMD's new RV770 graphics processor then you either haven't been paying attention or are simply too set in your ways to start calculating your GPU's performance using a 1.0 TFLOP base unit. For the rest, we bring you all the reviews that on-line advertising can buy in the link round-up below. We'll give HotHardware the honor of summarizing the performance of the sub-$200 Radeon HD 4850 and $299-ish 4870: "it appears AMD is back in the graphics game versus rival NVIDIA." Now put on your propeller caps and start clicking.

Read -- Hot Hardware
Read -- PC Perspective
Read -- Hardware Canucks (HD 4870 only)
Read -- AnandTech
Read -- TweakTown (4870 in Crossfire)

[Shadowise @ Jun 25th 2008 6:36AM]

So the answer is... yes, they can play Crisis...

[jimbo @ Jun 25th 2008 6:44AM]

Looks alright, but a single 9800gx2 beats out the 4870 Crossfire, and 2 4870s are ~$100 more expensive. Looks good for a $300 pricepoint, but I guess you're stuck with nVidia if you're looking for more power.

[jaalin @ Jun 25th 2008 6:46AM]

how much is the 9800gtx now that the gtx+ is out? if it's at the same $200 price point as the 4850, putting the two in SLI might be be the best way to go.

the SLI / crossfire vs single numbers of the 4870 and the GTX/+ are interesting, though - a single 4870 is better than either GTX or GTX+, but with two cards, the GTXs win out - is this just due to the radeon drivers not being mature yet? or is SLI just better at utilizing multiple cards?

[MaGiXX @ Jun 25th 2008 11:19AM]

Yea, I'm seeing the 9800GTX OCX at 210$ now.

[Aaronage @ Jun 25th 2008 6:48AM]

Go AMD! Looks like they got it right with the 4800 series so far :)

[Jonny @ Jun 25th 2008 6:54AM]

This will make a nice ass upgrade from my X1950 Pro a bit down the road. :D

[Abhinav @ Jun 25th 2008 6:58AM]

Whoa... nVidia still the best of the pack

[David Van (Cool Prizes Inc.) @ Jun 25th 2008 8:52PM]

Look at the SINGLE CARD! nVIDIA's outperforms ATi because they have more than one card stick into SLI... LOL! Look at the SINGLE card performances! It beats everyone of nVIDIA's single cards!

[VampireHunter Z @ Jun 25th 2008 7:15AM]

Why are all these tests done with no AA? If I remember correctly from my Crysis demo there is also a "very high" setting yet these are done on "high". The bottom line is none of these will give a solid framerate with everything maxed out. Especially since AA takes so much processing.

[Kamokazi @ Jun 25th 2008 7:30AM]

Very High is not available if you are running on XP, unless you modify some game config files. This is apparently to give the illustion that DX10/Vista makes a big difference, when in reality it is only minor.

My guess on no AA is that they wanted larger FPS numbers so it was easier to differentiate between cards that were very close in performance. Also, some GPUs handle AA much better than others, which can kinda skew results...just because a card handles one feature particularly well does not mean it is a better card. Anyone looking at purchasing one of these cards would want to look at tests both with and without AA.

[VampireHunter Z @ Jun 25th 2008 10:31AM]

I didn't know "very high" was a DX10 thing. I do run Vista. These numbers would be different if it was tested on Vista. From other benchmarks I've seen in the pass ATI seems to beat nVidia on Vista.

AA is not rocket science so I don't know why that's turned off. Maybe next year we will finally see a setup that runs Crysis like it was Pong. In the meantime the 4870 is a great buy.

[From My Cube @ Jun 25th 2008 7:52AM]

Interesting how there is only marginal difference between 2way and 3way SLI...

[pfromg @ Jun 25th 2008 8:10AM]

excuse my ignorance, but the HD4850 seems to have lost every benchmark so far against the NV280 .
so why is everyone saying AMD/ATI are back in the game ?

Am I missing some relevant point here ?

[initialxy @ Jun 25th 2008 9:04AM]

cheaper, thus better performance/dollar

[Abuzar @ Jun 25th 2008 9:44AM]

You can get TWO 4850s for the price of one GTX 260.

[Ken @ Jun 25th 2008 11:39AM]

Correction, you can get 3 4850's for 1 280.

The 280's are well above $650. If you feel that's a fair price to pay to be 1337 be our guest. AMD/ATI is betting that you'd be more willing to shell $200-$300 between the 4850 and 4870 for 95% the performance of the nVidia cards.

[Rodolfo @ Jun 25th 2008 8:27AM]

You mean that from a single GeForce 9800GX2 to a Quad-SLI ones there are just 7 FPS.
Man thats why I don't buy any of this stuff.

[Some Kid @ Jun 25th 2008 8:30AM]

for anyone who asked "but will this play crysis?", you can put this as your desktop background and then make it your wallpaper
@pfromg
because the Radeon HD 4850 is supposed to be matched up with the NVIDIA 260
the Radeon HD 4870 is the one that should be matched up with with the 280
i dont know if hat makes the benchmarks more even but that is what i think it is

[Redbellyman @ Jun 25th 2008 8:39AM]

If you are going to compete, than they need to fix their crossfire setup, the dual 4870 gain just 10 more fps? That is awful, especially when the equally priced 9800gtx + and not plus gain over 20fps. I know they can do better, I hope they get better with driver updates

[Pissed Sheep @ Jun 25th 2008 8:41AM]

Yeah, you're missing the $400 price difference.

[Redbellyman @ Jun 25th 2008 11:17AM]

Well I was comparing the 4870 to the 9800gtx + which is the same price as the 4870 respectively, I was not comparing the 280gtx to the 4870! I am comparing similar priced vid cards and in dual vid setup! And for the record, I am running dual 8800gtx's to answer to the one question of who actually runs dual video cards! Although I rarely sli, I do run a hd 1080p TV, and dual work lcd monitors. I have the more expensive setups, because I am running my computer as media center/ workstation/gaming center. Plus I sell my computers every 6 months or so and upgrade to a profit, so why not have the cool stuff, it sells better!

[Manos Lijeros @ Jun 25th 2008 9:07AM]

How many of us actually have more than 1 graphic card in our computers? I'd love to see a survey to see how many engadget readers and how many gamers have more than one graphics card.

I guess is you are "rich" and "have to have it," you can buy new stuff, but I wait for prices to come down after a product's release--talk about a good deal...

Interesting story, but it looks at one game (one I don't play) at one setting. Why not pick the top 10 or 15 games and do a comparison at different settings with numbers for "more average-joe" graphics cards? That would certainly be more useful to more people ... Or were we just looking for page-views?

Just curious. :)

[Abuzar @ Jun 25th 2008 9:50AM]

They DO have reviews for average joe graphics cards lie the 9600GT and the 8800GS. That doesn't mean they shouldn't review high-end cards as well.

[makishima @ Jun 25th 2008 10:18AM]

And the point of only doing 1 game is that game is also the most resource intensive and grueling test game you can put any card through. Take it as this, if the card you want on that list is running it at high settings around or above 30 fps its a great card and can run anything else currently available just as well if not better.

[Beastage @ Jun 25th 2008 9:57AM]

The first reviews of the new GTX series and the 4850 were just plain BAD or worse... fake.

Now we see more reasonable results

The GTX280 is head of the pack and 4850 and the 4870 offer the performance for their price tag.

Basically I see all gpus perform according to their price tags right now.

[thedesolate1 @ Jun 25th 2008 10:57AM]

I think this chart is the only chart we will ever need to measure GPU performance. It is all we want to know.

[Carl Vitullo @ Jun 25th 2008 11:17AM]

yay AMD!
it's nice to see that they're coming back in the graphics card game.
i hope they can do the same with their processors...

[Carl Vitullo @ Jun 25th 2008 11:19AM]

if by "sub-$200" you mean $199, then yes, it is.

[Shinigami @ Jun 25th 2008 11:29AM]

Thanks Engadget!

[caramelzappa @ Jun 25th 2008 12:11PM]

I have an 8800GTS 320mb and I gotta say the only reason to get anything above it is either for crysis, or if you have a monitor that has 1080p+ resolutions. My card can play pretty much anything at 1680 x 1050 with all settings maxed out. Crysis on medium settings, but while it's a really pretty game, it's not a very good one.

[Dutchess @ Jun 25th 2008 1:27PM]

The Ati 4870 CF beats everything in...

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (all resolutions)
Half-Life 2: Episode Two (all resolutions)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (all resolutions)
Assassin's Creed (all resolutions)
Race Driver GRID (all resolutions)

In Crysis It is right behind the Geforce 280 by 1 fps (tie?). But But GF 9800 gtx+ in sli and GF 9800gx2 lead it by 7 fps give or take.

The Ati 4870 in CF is also better than all Nvidia cards in the 3DMark Vantage overall index, but two parts of the benchmart. In physics & cpu test it loses very badly because of Nvidia's port of the PhysX API to its CUDA GPU-computing platform.

All in all CF is very nice and only 2/3 the price of a single Geforce 280. If you are using either the 4850 or 4870 you are neck and neck with the 260 & 280. Often Ahead of the 280 if using the 4870. I see some people saying the 4870 was to be matched with the Geforce 280 that is wrong. In Aug. of this year Ati will release a 4870x2 and that card will (kill?) go against the Geforce 280. One also has to look at what Nvidia will do after seening all this. I think they will do a die shrink and bring GDDR5 to the table since the 280 uses GDDR3. That could put the Geforce 280 in a class all by itself. Not to mention the die shrink should allow the Geforce 280 to be used in Sli without having to use a 1200 PSU. Good times these are. Nvidia you are on the clock...

Ati 4850 - $199 (this card is pretty much the best bang for the buck)
Ati 4870 - $299 (This card will out stay with a 260 and two of them will leave the whole pack)

Geforce 260 $399
Geforce 280 $649

GeForce 9800 GX2 $470 (The will be better than a 280 most of the time)
9800 GTX $199 (Just take a 4850)
9800 GTX+ $225 (Take the 4850 of even the 4870)

[jeeves @ Jun 25th 2008 3:49PM]

If you look at the benchmarks, theres no question. At anand's review, the 4870 beats the GTX 260 in every game except for one, while the 4870 costs $100 less. To put it bluntly, nvidia is pwned at this moment in time. the 4850 is better than the 9800 GTX in almost every benchmark, and beats the 9800GTX+ in about half the benchmarks (and is $40 cheaper than the 9800 GTX+), the 4870 is better than the GTX 260 and costs $100 less, and two 4870 in crossfire beat the GTX 280 for $50 less. Even the 9800 GX2 beats the GTX 280

Nvidia = fail for this generation

[xaeym @ Jun 28th 2008 4:32PM]

Despite having read justabout every review out there on both 4850 and the 4870, I still think that the 4870 x2 is going to be by far the number one card.

On the other hand I am still running on an old AGP based motherboard and am waiting for the new 4870x2 to arrive in stores before I upgrade my Vcard.
You would be surprised as to what you can run on an Asus N6800 512mb AGP Vcard...

The one thing that all these new HD cards require more than anything is a better cooling system. What ever happened to the liquid metal that was to be used on the HD2900 series? Are they still using this method or has the old idea of heatsinks and high speed fans back in the game?

Air cooling is great but when the ambient temp inside your case is anywhere over 40 degrees celcius that really takes the temps of any other item up as well and thus, hindering the overall outcome of the video card cooling.

I would really like to see an extreme card become available that would incorperate water cooling and heatpipes combined on a single card.

[sendy @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:33AM]

HD 4870 is all i need.

[BanoK @ Sep 1st 2008 9:35PM]

Any reason why I should spend $300 on a 4750 instead of $280 on a 9800 gx2?

[BanoK @ Sep 1st 2008 9:36PM]

4870, I mean...