ATI HD 4670 Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

Well, its 24 hours late but I just HAD to add a 9500 GT into the review which I just didn't have. Add to that a new processor specially for this review and well....ENJOY!!!

You can find the review here: ATI HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Video Card Review

As usual, please use this thread for all your questions and comments.

[MpG]

Very interesting. On paper, it looks remarkably like the 3800-series... had me wondering there for a few minutes.

No award? It's thoroughly unglamorous, but it seems to kick a liberal amount of ass in its category. People choking along on 8500/8600's and 2400/2600's could likely get a pretty solid upgrade without shelling out too much cash or requiring a new PSU.

Teeny little error: Power consumption charts, y-axis - 9500GT 612MB

If I missed the explanation, I apologize, but you feel that a quad is a good match for the cards in this review? As opposed to a slightly faster dual-core? Just curious.

[yycraven]

Great review.
Thats a good card,has a good little punch to it, compared to the 9500GT and 8600GTS.
I wonder how it would do in folding.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by MpG

No award? It's thoroughly unglamorous, but it seems to kick a liberal amount of ass in its category. .

Nope. I won't and never will give an award to an Engineering Sample. While the concept is amazing, the whole package is still unfinished which makes it a bit hard to give an award to a particular product which will never make it to the retail market in the form it was reviewed. If one of ATI's AIBs would have stepped up to the plate and sent us a full retail package of a finished product, you would have seen awards handed out left, right and center.

If I missed the explanation, I apologize, but you feel that a quad is a good match for the cards in this review? As opposed to a slightly faster dual-core? Just curious.

My thoughts on this are two-fold. On my own personal HTPC I use an underclocked Q6600 because I do alot of video and high-def audio transcoding. From my now short experience with the Q9300 I can seriously say that it is the perfect companion for a mid to high-end HTPC which does processor intensive tasks on a regular basis. Once the price comes down over the next few months I think it will be the chip to have for HTPCs and lower-cost PCs. This is the realm the HD 4670 plays in so it naturally goes hand in hand.

As for a faster dual core, there is little doubt in my mind that an E8400 would work even better with this card and may have even brought the scores up significantly in some cases. However, many people I know who are looking at the HD 4670 are not looking at a 3Ghz processor. They are looking at processors like the E7200 or AMD 5200+. The E7200 has nearly the exact same core speed as the quad used in the review while the 5200+ should be about 15% slower in single core processing.

So, in the end I think it all has to do with what you use the PC for and what your budget is. One thing is certain though: there was no way I was going to use my QX9770 for this review.

[miggs78]

Interesting review SKY.. Close battle between the 4670 and 3850, however in games like COD4, the 4670 had a pretty darn good advantage. Some games favor 3850, some 4670, but it comes down to the temperature and power consumptions where its clearly better than the 3850.

Gr8 to see an ATI card demolish the nvidia cards lol :p

[Eldonko]

This will sell well Im thinking. Perfect for the mainstream, nothing compares for the price.

[SKYMTL]

I personally can't wait to see what this thing does with folding. With 320SPs, it should be right in-line with an 8800GT or thereabouts.

See, THIS is the card I was hoping I could get folding.

[Eldonko]

Sure is going to drop the price on 8800 series cards from nvidia. Dam GPUs are the most depreciating thing you can ever buy I think. 2 weeks later there is something twice as good for half the price.

[Spaceman-Spiff]

I wonder how overclockable this card is.

[Leclerc]

Nice review Sky. I wich you will make an update when retail cards will be available to compare with this engineering sample and to see if they will be has good has this one. Will probably take a look to this card in a couple of month when I will probably build a new PC for my mom.

[SKYMTL]

The retail samples will be the same just with different output options and actual retail packaging / warranties.

[magictorch]

Good to see a decent review of more mainstream options.

I like the idea of a card for $80 that will play a lot of games well on a 20-22inch monitor and will do the whole HD thing. I guess this will be shipped in a lot of pre-packaged systems perhaps like emachines, Hp etc and it certainly opens things up to those who just want to spend a little to enjoy some of the recent gaming offerings.

Hopefully ATI will make some good money off it as you say.

[BALISTX]

Great review Mike as always. I love this line right here. One of the funniest yet in your reviews.

After seeing the benchmarks, it is hard not to laugh at that claim because the HD 4670 doesn’t compete against the budget Nvidia card, it smashes the 9500 GT’s teeth in and then knees it in the nuts for good measure.

Do you think this card in a crossfire setup would be better or worse than my 9600 GT in SLI?

Do you think a company like Diamond will produce an All-in-Wonder version of this series of cards, like they did for the 3650?

My sister-in-law just picked up the Diamond AIW HD 3650 Premium.

[tfran]

Balistx, I have the same setup and was wondering the same thing. Would've been nice to see the 9600GT in the benches since I think it would be a lot closer than the 9500GT. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it wouldn't outperform the 9600GT's just because of how well they scale in SLI.

[Dwayne]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

As usual, please use this thread for all your questions and comments.

This would be a good replacement for on-board video for a friend of mine, but I didn't see anything in the review that indicated what the minimum recommended power supply would be. Any idea?

Thanks.