HD4870 & HD4850 Crossfire Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

We do the Dual Card Duet

And the Mixed Card Mambo

All with the new 4800-series with a thumping beat of an overclocked QX9770 processor in the background.

Check out out the review here:

ATI HD4870 & HD4850 Crossfire Performance Review

Please use this thread for your questions and comments.

And no, we didn't use an SLI setup since none of our SLI boards stayed alive long enough to even start SLI testing.

Anyways, ENJOY!!!

[Wankerfx]

Is that a 4870X2 that I see? Release the review NAOW!

[Shadowed]

Woohooo! even CF4850s rock!
I didnt read review yet, I just saw SKYs sneak peak !
Off to the review :)

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by Wankerfx

Is that a 4870X2 that I see? Release the review NAOW!

I plead the fifth.

[CTA]

interesting...

$300 of 4870 <= $400 gtx 280
$400 of 4850cf => $400 gtx280
$600 of 4870cf >> $400 gtx280

(sale price from ncix)

its not bad deal... but i want to see result of OCed gtx280 and gtx280 SLI ;p


if you have 4870x2 card in your hand... would you update that article? i think you should...

I'm going to have to conclude from the review that the best buy is the 4850 in crossfire followed by the GTX280, the 4870 doesn't seem capable of reliable enough performance for 600+ dollars. I'd like to see the 4870x2 up against two GTX260 in sli since that's what it is competing against, don't really think it's a fair matchup against the GTX280 since the GTX280 costs 400 dollars as opposed to two 4870s at $600.

I am wondering if the 4870x2 is going to be able to maintain a high level of performance even in games without good crossfire support as ATI has claimed.

[belgolas]

good review. And I was not lying when I said some games get close to more than double frame rates like COD4.

another game I love is GRID and Medieval 2 Total war. Both play extremely well one my comp.




And yes that is a 4870 X2 but alas SKY is under an NDA and probably has not much time with the card yet.

[JD]

Originally Posted by belgolas

And yes that is a 4870 X2 but alas SKY is under an NDA and probably has not much time with the card yet.

I think he hasn't done a preview like other sites because the drivers are horrible for it so it's not reflective of it's true potential.

Awesome review though SKY. Looks like I'll have to grab another HD4850 eventually. I was considering a HD4870 + HD4850 combo but clearly that doesn't really offer any huge gains.

I was wondering though, could you try flashing a newer BIOS with "proper" Power Play clocks on the HD4850 and redo the power consumption tests?

[miggs78]

Long wait wasn't really long.

Thanks Sky, you did as promised.. Gonna read the review now :drool:

edit: Sky very nice review, just what I thought with a mixed 4850+4870 CF, things don't work out to well.. and there still seems to be a slight driver issue that exists.

How come you didn't compare these results with a P45 board, it would have been nice to see the performance difference btw the two boards (no criticizing, just was wondering)..

Its still an appreciated effort.

[magictorch]

Solid review SKY. I like the cheeky placement of the 4870X2 hidden among them-a taste of things to come perhaps.

Well this will stir things up a bit.

Currently the cheapest GTX280 I can find is BFG~$438 not including mail in rebate. BFG seems to be motivated by an urgent need to shift stock or go bust. Given that the GTX280 is not the cheapest part to make then I dont think anyones going to be making money at the $430 price point- so $430ish is a good settling point for keeping afloat. On the other side ATI has worked out a business plan to mass produce the 4870 at a much lower price. I suspect they could make money for their partners even at $230.

Anyway the bad news for nvidia is a single stock 4870 card can match a stock GTX280 in some recent titles. That really wasnt ever meant to happen in nvidias $600 GTX280 business plan.

This review makes things much much worse by demonstrating that the 4870 scales well in crossfire for ~$130 more than a $438 280 on readily available and very reliable Intel boards. I havent seen much evidence of good SLI scaling for the GTX280 not to mention the cost of good SLi boards.

Some may argue you can OC the GTX280 etc but you can also OC the 4870 and it oc's well even on the stock heatsink.

Im also very impressed with ATI CF. I've played on my brothers 8800GTX SLI system and when I bought 2 4870's I was expecting no end of minor but irritating issues. So far they have worked really well together in games with minimal effort.

So it looks like the days of recommending the most powerful single card solution you can afford are numbered now.

The 4870X2 is only going to make things worse for nvidia in the short term.