ATI HD4870 Comprehensive Review - Rage3D Article

[Ichneumon]

Alex's latest ATI review installment.

Take a look at the bigger, badder brother of the ATI HD 4850, the ATI HD 4870 Cards. In this article we give you an all-in-one review of the HD4870 including DX10, DX9, single card and crossfire tests, compared against the corresponding HD4850 configurations.

ATI HD4870 Comprehensive Review

[Sound_Card]

man oh man, I have a night of reading to do then. Why does this have to be thrown at me right now?

[nomore]

I was going to sleep...

so lucky that negative repping is not working.
sound_card is right.

[Ichneumon]

There are inconsistencies in the labels on a couple of the DX9 benchmark images. I'm confirming that the numbers are all still correct in them and will make any necessary updates when Alex has a chance to check them.

[SSXeon]

Why no 4xAA in bioshock? I could do it with my HD3870s.....

And the % are wrong for no CF tests, should be:

Max: 5%
Min: 25%
Avg: 16%

http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/video/.../index.php?p=7

Overall a great review, and really those graphs KICK ASS. LOVE the look of them. And PLEASE dont use Gears with DX10, it looks NO DIFFERENT, use DX9 and 8xAA, you will get more playable framerates then DX10 with 4xAA, sad i know.

[nomore]

Originally Posted by SSXeon

Why no 4xAA in bioshock? I could do it with my HD3870s.....

since we are talking about games, I thought we all agreed not to use Crysis for benchmarks.
but it was nice to see Timeshift.

[SSXeon]

Originally Posted by nomore

since we are talking about games, I thought we all agreed not to use Crysis for benchmarks.
but it was nice to see Timeshift.

Well, do people still play online? If they do it will mean alot to me, as i LOVED the MP, it was VERY VERY solid imho.

[cvearl]

Nice work there.

A few things to note...

Crysis, Assasins Creed and Call of Juarez in DX10 mode is exhibiting some white dots in some areas. We have been assured ATI is aware and is looking into it. While this is not specifically a card issue, it might be meantioned as a driver deficiency although it is likely temporary. It was present in the shipping drivers, the hotfix drivers and the current official 8.7's

As for testing Gothic III... Well. I just tried to play it for the first time. Right out of the box and updated to the latest patch.

The first town you get the walls flashing in and out of existance. The ground looked like it was boiling. The bugs are so bad and this game is so abandoned, I doubt it's usefullness as a test. The cards should be able to render the game engine correctly (even if it is the games fault which it is) before it can be inlcuded as a measurement.

But the review is quality work non the less.

C.

[SSXeon]

Didnt know that, about the dots. Must be a driver issue, because it does happen on my friends X1900XT in Mass Effect also. Please if anyone experiences any problems use the link in my sig. I dont have any issues with ANY of the past drivers ive had in the past few months, with either of my setups. Ill test crysis DX10 to see if i get any issues with 8.7.

[Sound_Card]

A good read.

This really has me hyped up for HD 4870 1Gb. It was noted Alex ran into a few vRam limited situations. The idea that more performance can still come to the HD 4870 based because of GDDR5 is a exciting prospect. I believe that was also true for the x1950xtx(R580+) later down the road in it's driver devlopment because of the GDDR4 memory controller.

1 GB SKUs, especially for the 4870

Yes, I want one.

A form of fan control, so that the epidemic of "AYEE, IT BURNS" electronic screams is cured

Either a flexible way of manipulating Crossfire profiles, or a way to update them on the fly without having to update the whole driver package- exe renaming is not a healthy practice (yes, these are rehashes of what we wanted for the 4850...we lack imagination, sadly)

I keep hearing mutter of this, but I would not know too much of the benifits due to my experience.

There are a lot of things left to uncover, most of which are very intriguing: the new memory controller and its peculiarities, what's up with Edge-Detect...and, of course, the big black monster that caused a few underwear-monsoons this Monday, when it was previewed

Can't wait.

[Ichneumon]

Fixed a couple crossed images on the later DX10 crossfire % comparison images: pg 7 & 8 in particular.

Thanks SSXeon

[SSXeon]

Originally Posted by Ichneumon

Fixed a couple crossed images on the later DX10 crossfire % comparison images: pg 7 & 8 in particular.

Thanks SSXeon

NP buddy, you and alex did a great job.

Any way in the next review can you test the settings i mentioned for DX9 bioshock 4x/8x, and DX9 gears 8xAA? Thanx.

[AlexV]

Originally Posted by cvearl

Nice work there.

A few things to note...

Crysis, Assasins Creed and Call of Juarez in DX10 mode is exhibiting some white dots in some areas. We have been assured ATI is aware and is looking into it. While this is not specifically a card issue, it might be meantioned as a driver deficiency although it is likely temporary. It was present in the shipping drivers, the hotfix drivers and the current official 8.7's

As for testing Gothic III... Well. I just tried to play it for the first time. Right out of the box and updated to the latest patch.

The first town you get the walls flashing in and out of existance. The ground looked like it was boiling. The bugs are so bad and this game is so abandoned, I doubt it's usefullness as a test. The cards should be able to render the game engine correctly (even if it is the games fault which it is) before it can be inlcuded as a measurement.

But the review is quality work non the less.

C.

Crysis and AC (not sure about CoJ, haven't noticed the behavior you noted, but i'll check it up more in-depth) are developer issues- what you're seeing is the result of numerical errors, I think Eric Demers mentioned it in the other thread.

On the topic of G3, that's an effect of this thing being in the oven for a bit more than we would've liked- the G3 part of the article was intended to be expanded with additional info about the bugs/fixes, but we got caught up with other things and ignored the need for expansion that existed there. Be lenient Also, my experience wasn't as bad as getting the boiling ground, but there was shadow/polygon flashing at points. I'll have to revisit the first town if it's as bad there. Thanks for the tip.

That being said, the bugs in that game are RV770 specific, and ATi are looking into them, as well as adding CF support (as you might've noted, this is one game that never played nice with CF). I'd opt for keeping games like G3 or TimeShift in for the sole purpose of showing how stuff that's not first line behaves. If you vote it out, it'll be removed (it's less work, after all).

[{WOR}lock]

Thanks for putting this together AlexV, you've done a nice job there. 1920x1200 looks to be a nice resolution with crossfire, which was something I was interested in, and now this article has covered.

Edge Detect indeed would be an interesting one to cover prehaps in the future.

[nightrhyme]

Great review
But bad news for us owners of 4870 512mb. Damn why didn't ATI release 1gb versions from the get go

Now I have to sell and buy the 1gb version

[acroig]

Another excellent review by Alex. Way to go. Credit to Eric for the great editing job as well.

[Redshirt_X]

Pedantic moment: author doesn't have two Us in it.

Having said that, nice job. Long, but nice.

[cvearl]

Originally Posted by nightrhyme

Great review
But bad news for us owners of 4870 512mb. Damn why didn't ATI release 1gb versions from the get go

Now I have to sell and buy the 1gb version

Where is the perverbial line in the sand for RAM though?

1920x1200 with AA and AF applied in a few of the newer games? Is that where we begin hitting the wall?

In which case I might be safe. I am a 1680x1050 gamer. If I get a 24" LCD my wife will kick me in the gonads.

But is 512MB still sufficient in everything at 1680x1050 and below? If not I will get the 1GB version.

C.

[cvearl]

Originally Posted by AlexV

Crysis and AC (not sure about CoJ, haven't noticed the behavior you noted, but i'll check it up more in-depth) are developer issues- what you're seeing is the result of numerical errors, I think Eric Demers mentioned it in the other thread.

On the topic of G3, that's an effect of this thing being in the oven for a bit more than we would've liked- the G3 part of the article was intended to be expanded with additional info about the bugs/fixes, but we got caught up with other things and ignored the need for expansion that existed there. Be lenient Also, my experience wasn't as bad as getting the boiling ground, but there was shadow/polygon flashing at points. I'll have to revisit the first town if it's as bad there. Thanks for the tip.

That being said, the bugs in that game are RV770 specific, and ATi are looking into them, as well as adding CF support (as you might've noted, this is one game that never played nice with CF). I'd opt for keeping games like G3 or TimeShift in for the sole purpose of showing how stuff that's not first line behaves. If you vote it out, it'll be removed (it's less work, after all).

Oh for sure! I did really dig the review though. Just thought that in the case of games that are tested, if there are any rendering issues (great or small), it would be cool to just chuck a little footnote in there. Like you did about Fan control and 1GB part and so on. No card is perfect but the 4000 series are darn close.

Love mine.

C.

[nightrhyme]

Originally Posted by cvearl

Where is the perverbial line in the sand for RAM though?

1920x1200 with AA and AF applied in a few of the newer games? Is that where we begin hitting the wall?

In which case I might be safe. I am a 1680x1050 gamer. If I get a 24" LCD my wife will kick me in the gonads.

But is 512MB still sufficient in everything at 1680x1050 and below? If not I will get the 1GB version.

C.

I play at 1920 x 1200 with my HD4870 512mb no problem. For instance Crysis 1920 x 1200 very high dx9 tweak = No problem.
Sorry can't comment on Vista. Wouldn't be caught dead booting that malware-OS

[Sound_Card]

I'm a 1680x1050 gamer, but I'm still going to play it safe with the 1gb card.
I don't upgrade too often anyway.

[jam2k]

Great review !

[AlexV]

Originally Posted by cvearl

Oh for sure! I did really dig the review though. Just thought that in the case of games that are tested, if there are any rendering issues (great or small), it would be cool to just chuck a little footnote in there.

Well, actually, that's the idea...just that the footnote never got added, thing for which I apologize

[demo]

nice review, thanks

[jam2k]

I can't find the microstuttering investigation section ?

[HonestJohn]

Very well done Alex and Eric. Definitely worth the wait. Looks great too, I like the presentation almost as much as the content.



Seriously thinking about a 1GB HD 4870 myself now. I'm torn between getting the X2 or a 1GB HD 4870 and Vista64.

[AlexV]

Originally Posted by jam2k

I can't find the microstuttering investigation section ?

Different article, it grew beyond initial plans. Is there leftover text suggesting that it should be here? If so point us to it so that we can do some cleanup. Thanks.

[jam2k]

Originally Posted by AlexV

Different article, it grew beyond initial plans. Is there leftover text suggesting that it should be here? If so point us to it so that we can do some cleanup. Thanks.

Just kidding

It would be great to have an article covering ms though

[AlexV]

Originally Posted by jam2k

Just kidding

It would be great to have an article covering ms though

Yes. The thing is done BTW...just needs some rounding of rough corners.

[jam2k]

Originally Posted by AlexV

Yes. The thing is done BTW...just needs some rounding of rough corners.

Amazing, I'm looking forward to it.