HD4650 - poor man 256-bit board

[AlphaWolf]

Originally Posted by DeadlyNinja

Here in Newegg, I found 3850 512 MB GDDR3 for as low as 74 dollars with rebates. Even then, the original price is under 100 dollars. Also, how are you getting the prices for the 4670? The card's not out yet... is it?

http://www.komplett.nl/k/ki.aspx?sku=374861

Out or not they have a price. Although comparing prices of products not yet shipping to street (rebated) prices of current products probably isn't that useful either.

[CJ]

Originally Posted by DeadlyNinja

Here in Newegg, I found 3850 512 MB GDDR3 for as low as 74 dollars with rebates. Even then, the original price is under 100 dollars. Also, how are you getting the prices for the 4670? The card's not out yet... is it?

A few weeks ago (end of July) I was told that the 1GB version of the HD4670 (RV730XT) would be getting a price of $99/109, while the regular 512MB version would get a price of $89/99. It would go up against the 9500GT. The HD4650 512MB would be in the price segment $79/89. This one would go up against the GF9500GT GDDR2. Oh and I was then told to forget about RV740 for the moment.

It won't be long before the HD3850s will be hard to get. So the HD46x0 series fills the gap nicely. NV better get that GF9550GT (64 SP, 192-bit) out soon.

[ferro]

Originally Posted by Arnold Beckenbauer

I've bought my Gainward HD 3850* for 59 Euro: http://www.alternate.de/html/product...en+PCIe&l3=ATI



*And this thing is loud. If you hate someone, give him this Gainward HD3850 Sado-Maso edition.

Different shop, different brand, different country, too many variables. To compare the same brand, a HIS 3850 at Alternate.de costs EUR 77.00.

Regardless, I think EUR 67.00 as a starting price at Komplett.nl for a "HIS Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3, IceQ, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDMI/HDCP, Turbo" may indicate that final prices for HD46XX cards will be very competitive.

[Tchock]

It's little wonder that with some cost cutting here and there, pricing has much more flexibility than the 59EUR 3850.

It's 1/3 the initial MSRP of the 3850. Not to mention that this should get into much more PCs and Notebooks, provided ATI actually executes flawlessly this time.

[mczak]

Originally Posted by bearmoo

The power consumption number is also impressive

Well, the LOAD power consumption looks very good. I'm not particularly impressed with idle power however, imho it should be lower than the 3850 (being a simpler chip and only having half the amount of memory chips), and it's slightly higher instead (ok - maybe sample variance so let's say it's about the same). Of course, at least it's much better than the quite bad idle power consumption of the HD4850/4870, and the competition 9500GT (which is much slower) doesn't do any better (actually, that's a HD4670, so if the HD4650 improves idle power consumption a bit, it would look even better against 9500GT).

[swaaye]

RV670's idle power characteristics are just too good. It is comparable to the cheapest, tiniest GPUs out there when it's idling.

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by mczak

Well, the LOAD power consumption looks very good. I'm not particularly impressed with idle power however, imho it should be lower than the 3850 (being a simpler chip and only having half the amount of memory chips), and it's slightly higher instead (ok - maybe sample variance so let's say it's about the same). Of course, at least it's much better than the quite bad idle power consumption of the HD4850/4870, and the competition 9500GT (which is much slower) doesn't do any better (actually, that's a HD4670, so if the HD4650 improves idle power consumption a bit, it would look even better against 9500GT).

Higher clocks on the same process = higher power consumption at idle. Good possibility of non-functional powerplay as well, given the fact that the rest of the HD 4k lineup still has non-functional powerplay.

[Dave Baumann]

Originally Posted by ShaidarHaran

Good possibility of non-functional powerplay as well, given the fact that the rest of the HD 4k lineup still has non-functional powerplay.

PowerPlay is functioning fine.

[ShaidarHaran]

Thanks for the correction, Dave.

Could you share the PP clocks of the respective cards with us?

[Dave Baumann]

I was talking about the current HD 4800 Series.

[ShaidarHaran]

Ah, I see. Did Cat 8.8 enable PP?

[Dave Baumann]

Its been enabled since the day of release.

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by Dave Baumann

Its been enabled since the day of release.

I've seen user reports (and even a review or two) with clockspeed screenshots to the contrary...

[Dave Baumann]

You've seen shots that don't change engine speed at idle from the high speed?

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by Dave Baumann

You've seen shots that don't change engine speed at idle from the high speed?

Ah, there's the catch Ok, I've not seen shots showing full-speed 3d clocks at idle, but plenty of cards running around 500MHz. IIRC, previous RV670-based SKUs had PP clocks in the 300MHz range. Seems like that would be some low-hanging fruit for you guys to pick.