HD 4870 review thread.

ROFLMAO! HD4850 faster than GTX280 in Oblivion with details cranked and 8xAA @ 1920x1200.

 

I found the conclusions a bit strange, although the softening of the image with the tent filters is a known effect and not everyone likes it, I would have thought that the quality of the edge-detect modes was worthy of a mention.

Actually for people who want an illustration of some things that I was discussing with ChrisRay regarding the pros-and-cons of 8x MSAA versus 16x CSAA the images in Anandtech's review actually provide an interesting point for comparison. The review has quite a nice interface for comparing the image quality as well (although you can also download the full images and use a tool such as the Compressonator to do image compares).

(One interesting example is to try comparing the quality of nVidia's 8xMSAA mode with their 16xCSAA and 16xQ CSAA modes and see which of the three modes provides the highest quality)

 

is this my teraflops ?

 

Looks like it

 

Maybe so but their 48xx review definitely wasn't indicative of this. IMO they had the most detailed, informative and well presented comparative analysis of ALL sites out there. Their diagrams and descriptions of the similarities and differences of the two architectures were very well executed.

I didn't even bother with their benchmarks and graphs though for the reasons already stated in this thread. But I would highly recommend the article as a technical reference.

 

Major props to Ati for this amazing comeback. Maybe I'll rebuild at the end of the year. Waiting to see how the 4870x2 does on the Crysis at 1920x1200.

Dave,

Does the x2 basically work like Crossfire in the sense that games will need to have profiles? Right now the CF results seem to be mixed bag. Kicks ass when it's workng fine and profiled right to outright unnoticeable when not.

 

I'd take Tech Report's or Xbit's review over Anandtech's any day of the week, simply because of the "analysis" Derek Wilson provided. Hexus did a fine job as well. So did EB.

What bothered me about AT's piece was the CONSTANT potshots Derek Wilson took against ATi. You like NV? Great. Hate ATi? Fine. Leave that crap in the forums and blogs where it belongs.

 

If you're interested in pretty graphs yes. The comparative analysis AT is considerably better than either of those sites. It seems your personal distaste for an individual is tarring your opinion of the article's content.

 

Well I like to do my own analysis so yes, "pretty graphs" are more important to me than hearing the likes of Derek Wilson parrot a review guide

The article is laced with the author's opinion, which makes it difficult for me to read without responding to his comments while doing so, which means I'm not focusing on the technical details anyway.

Like I said, the opinion needs to be left in forums and blogs, it has no place in a technical article.

 

I don't think Guru3D's review has been mentioned yet. Haven't seen anyone so giddy about new hardware for a while.

 

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?p=1182981

This might be of interest for some

 

http://www.plxtech.com/products/expresslane/switches.asp

The PEX8648 has 12 ports compared to 3 ports on the PEX3547. Is this what the CrossFireX sideport going to utilize?

http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/video/atirv770/architecture/pics/architectures/rv770-diagram.jpg

 

Could one of the ATI people say if it's likely that Catalyst 8.7's will do anything about Powerplay? There are Bios's around with lower idle clocks, but it would be preferable for it to be fixed via drivers than voiding warranty by flashing the card.

 

I use it for Oblivion and Unreal engine games. Actually, any games that can't bother to include anisotropic or AA options in-game. On ATI cards, you must set these settings up manually within CCC and remember for the next game that you set it up manually. It's just a big inconvenience and annoyance when NV does it so well. One can even grab the excellent nHancer app and make it even faster to configure these profiles (I just use the NV CP though). This level of tweaking doesn't take much time or effort at all, unless you don't consider AA and AF important.

And yes, I know CCC has its own profiles, but they aren't automatic based on exe file. They are useful in their own way, just not really for game profiles. Not compared to automatic profiles that detect apps by exe and reset to global defaults afterwards.

 

What part of flashing a video card's firmware voids the warranty if the firmware is issued by the manufacturer?

 

Just got my 4870. One thing reviews don't mention, this is a bloody heavy card compared to the 3870.

IQ is nice. Definitely loving the useable 8xAA with SS TSAA.

Regards,
SB

 

Could you do me (us) a favor. Load up Crysis DX10VH 1600x1200 with 4xaa and 16AF and walk a bit and make a fast turn and tell me the fps and if there is any stuttering?
And the Mass Effect and Age of Conan too

I'm tossing betwen a HD4870 CF or a GTX280. They both (HD4870 or GTX280) cost arround €500. The CF solution would be faster in averidge fps, but I'm also interrested in the min fps (smooth factor) and I'm not sure werther 512 mb would affect the min fps or cause any stuttering (apart from CF issues).

 

What games have you tested so far? "Free" 8xAA (little to no drop from 4xAA) was known beforehand, but SS TSAA on top of that is just getting ridiculous!

If you have Oblivion, could you please test for max. AA level @ 1080p/1920x1200? My 88GT does admirably @ 4x MSAA but I can still see aliasing, particularly on large buildings. If a single 4870 can give me the same (or better) experience with 8x SS TSAA, I'd be happy to switch as soon as finances allow it.

 

All articles are laced with the author's opinion. However, that only becomes an issue when the reader disagrees with said opinion

I've re-read the article and I don't see the anti-ATI bias you're railing against. There's actually a lot of praise in there for RV770. What exactly got you bothered - the "tent filter garbage" comment?

 

I posted some of my findings in the 4850 thread about how Adaptive AA seems to have only a tiny penalty as well.