PowerColor HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 Product Name : AX4870 1GBD5-H

[JaxMacFL]

Should be available by the end of the month.

Link:

http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?ProductID=2241

[methimpikehoses]

Wonder if it will be any faster than the 512's. The 8800GT's didn't get much better with 1gb over 512mb.

[mullet]

Wonder if it will be any faster than the 512's. The 8800GT's didn't get much better with 1gb over 512mb.

This will end all micro stutter complaints that are and are not warranted.

[methimpikehoses]

I've found that enabling Catalyst AI got rid of stuttering.

Speech therapy also helps.

[Tr1cK]

I've found that enabling Catalyst AI got rid of stuttering.

Speech therapy also helps.

Really? I haven't been using the AI. What do you run it on?

[methimpikehoses]

Really? I haven't been using the AI. What do you run it on?

It's in CCC, I read on Guru3D to put the slider on "Advanced." It does some sort of optimizations. Seems to work well in CoD4.

[Tr1cK]

It's in CCC, I read on Guru3D to put the slider on "Advanced." It does some sort of optimizations. Seems to work well in CoD4.

Yea. I have disabled right now. I was messing with CoD4 last night and thought about trying it out to smooth the game out some more.

[JH24]

Wonder if it will be any faster than the 512's. The 8800GT's didn't get much better with 1gb over 512mb.


I'm not sure, but I though I saw some tests recently were the 4870 dropped considerably at very high resolutions and AA at a few games. I always thought that it was caused by the limits of the 512 mb memory. In those instances I can really see the performance improving. The GTX 280 didn't drop in performance, probably due to its amount of memory.

And perhaps, it could be an advantage in future games.

[LordJuanlo]

Can you tell me what games?. I have done an extensive test (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=115791) at 1920x1200 with 4xAA and haven't found a framerate drop because of the memory.

[JH24]

^


I'm sorry, I shouldn't have posted this without a link. But the problem is, I don't exactly know were I saw it. I believe someone posted a few graphs either in the 4870 review thread on NV forums or Rage3D. I do think it weren't very familiar games, but the settings were extreme. After reading this topic I thought about those graphs, but I'm not even sure how trustworthy they were.


I did read several times in the past that the amount of memory can limit a card's performance in very stressing situations. But I don't know to what extend this is true. (I don't have much computer/video card knowledge.


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I'm not trying to be negative about the HD 4870 in any way. I have bought a new computer with a HD 4850 about a week ago and I'm extremely happy with it. Never did I have a card before that offered me so much performance for that amount of money. I still can't believe how beautiful Crysis looks now I can play the game at settings it was made for. Other games I have run (and look, but that could be my imagination) better than ever. (I play on 1280x1024)

[Xion X2]

It's actually the opposite. When you enable AA at high resolutions, the 4870 is usually right with or passes the GTX line. 4870 handles AA in a way that hardly taxes memory bandwidth at all.

The cases where GTX is far ahead at high resolutions are usually cases where AA is not enabled.

[JaxMacFL]

The extra 512MB should help with minimum frames per second at high resoltions with a lot of textures and AA.

[Xion X2]

It doesn't matter as much as guys think it does. Minimum frames are not affected that much (if any) due to the difference in the way the 4800s handle AA.

Take a look at Oblivion, for example. 2560x1600 and 8xAA applied nets nearly twice as many frames on 4870 512MB Crossfire as a single GTX280 at the same settings. A single 4870 even beats the 280 which has twice the VRAM.

http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/3363/oblivionfszq2.gif

[cvearl]

Wonder if it will be any faster than the 512's. The 8800GT's didn't get much better with 1gb over 512mb.

Ya and there are detailed reviews of the 1GB 3870 versus the 512MB 3870 and there was identical performance.

I think that they will need resolutions beyond 1920x1200 to show any difference whatsoever and that will be in heavy games only. Perhaps Crysis and what have you.

Those of us playing any games released prior to 2010 at 1680x1050 or lower res will not see the benefit in having over 512MB.

But I could be wrong. I am just guessing at this point.

For most people, the GTX260 and 4870 offer near identical experiences on 22" LCD's and below.

C.