HD 4870 1GB: The Card to Get

[Heinz68]

The AnandTech review includes these video cards:
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
ATI Radeon HD 4870
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 SLI
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

But the review is mainly about the HD 4870 1GB and GTX 260 Core 216 performance improvements.
The games include: The Witcher, Assassin's Creed, ET: Quake Wars, Race Driver GRID, Ovlivion, Crysis and Age of Conan.

Here is the first part of Final Words
The Radeon HD 4870 1GB is a better buy than both the GTX 260 and core 216 variant. AMD says MSRP is between $280 and $300, and a quick look at Google shows us that the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB is priced at $290. This is definitely not bad for the types of performance gains we are seeing. If the card is to be used for high resolution gaming with all the settings, then up to a 10% to 15% increase in price over the stock 4870 is not a bad investment (unless, of course, you only play the games that don't see a real benefit from the additional RAM). And at these settings, there's an additional bonus in that this performance improvement might just make the playability difference for some people in some of these games.
Read more at AnanTech (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=1)

[Viral]

It was better than I was expecting in a few cases, very good buy! Hopefully the 512MB will officially drop to $250MSRP.

[HYBRID]

The beauty is the consumer wins at $250 to $300 for a card capable of the types of performance seen here we all win.

I remember paying that type of money for mid range cards back in the day.
The 4870 1 gig is a sweet card at a good price point for the enthusiast crowd without breaking the bank.

[hell_of_doom227]

Not sure. To me Nvidia has edge. At least you don't wait 10s for CCC to load.

[Mojoe]

Not sure. To me Nvidia has edge. At least you don't wait 10s for CCC to load.

Well it takes under 1 sec here.

[HYBRID]

Not sure. To me Nvidia has edge. At least you don't wait 10s for CCC to load.


Huh?......it doesnt take 10sec for it to load maybe back when it was first introduced with Net frame but now its instant.

[zer0]

i think this is going to be my next card.

[Trademark]

Sold my 8800GTX and buying a 4870 1GB asap. Really like those cards.

[CaptNKILL]

How well does a 4870 usually overclock?

[Mojoe]

My card does 825/1000 without problems, havent tried higher yet.

[UberRN69]

Fortunately for me I play at 1680x1050, so I don't loose out too much for getting a 4870 512MB right away. At my resolution, only Crysis saw the biggest difference (3'ish FPS) with the extra memory.

[ASUSEN7900GTX]

heh i forgot the fan hack and wjen i checked my tempon the 4870 earlier today it was at 101 degrees C and tath is very hot not that it froze everything or so but i can´t rely on it to regulate the temps right as it is so i guess i win or loose either way hack or no hack

but i think i don´t need a 1gb card as i game at 1680x1050 on my monitor

[K007]

Not sure. To me Nvidia has edge. At least you don't wait 10s for CCC to load.

takes under 1-2sec for me.

[Jas28]

Not sure. To me Nvidia has edge. At least you don't wait 10s for CCC to load.

Total and complete BS. If you like nvidia, that's great. But please, don't say things that are COMPLETELY untrue to promote nvidia. I hated CCC when it first came out. It doesnt take any longer to load now than nvidia's new control panel.

[Xion X2]

Not sure. To me Nvidia has edge. At least you don't wait 10s for CCC to load.

Just how long do you plan to perpetuate this bullsh$# myth of yours? CCC does not take but 1-2 seconds to load on startup.

[AGibbon]

Not sure. To me Nvidia has edge. At least you don't wait 10s for CCC to load.

Why do you keep on saying this? You are wrong every single time you do. If that is the biggest gripe you have, then you are grasping anyways. Initial fireup takes about 3-4 seconds on my system. After that, about 2 seconds. Only 3.5 megs of mem usage too.

[H3avyM3tal]

Seriously, CCC fires up quickly for me, 2-3 seconds.

[K007]

i think he is just being an *******.

[Viral]

I don't even think I can measure how long CCC takes to load, it just appears in the task bar before anything else.

[Trademark]

Well he could be right, but then it would mean it's a user error. If he set the ATI services to manual so they won't boot at startup the CCC will start them first before loading the CCC which takes aprox 10 seconds. Still who cares about 10 seconds -_-

[grey_1]

Well he could be right, but then it would mean it's a user error. If he set the ATI services to manual so they won't boot at startup the CCC will start them first before loading the CCC which takes aprox 10 seconds. Still who cares about 10 seconds -_-

Maybe, but disabling those makes no sense, they don't use enough resources to even be noticeable. Mine opens under 2 seconds.

hell_of_doom, Nvidia doesn't care if you are loyal unto death, really. Start learning to call hardware for what it is, not what you want it to be.

[Heinz68]

He is just a troll. Last time he actually said it takes 10 minutes on his brother HD4850 plus ATI being garbage and crap.
ATI garbage? Are you insane? Their bloated ATI Catalyst needs 10 minutes to load at startup. My uncle (hard core gamer) replaced his HD4850 with GTX260 and said, can't believe what ATI crap is once i got GTX260 card. LINK (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=1772579&postcount=13)
The above is just one example of many troll post he made.
He hates ATI so much that I believe if his brother ever had any ATI product, he would not be his brother any more.

[Trademark]

He is just a troll. Last time he actually said it takes 10 minutes on his brother HD4850 plus ATI being garbage and crap.

The above is just one example of many troll post he made.
He hates ATI so much that I believe if his brother ever had any ATI product, he would not be his brother any more.
Lmao :D

As for disabling the ATI services, it is indeed rather useless to do so. I'm currently working with a 3850 because I have yet to order a 4870 1GB and the ATI CCC loads nearly instantly for me. And at the moment my windows install is pretty messed up so yeah :P

[Mr_LoL]

I have already ditched the 260. I'll get this next payday.

[RaZeR666]

I finally bought one of these a few days ago. It was a hard decision because I have to admit that I am an nVidia fan - also the price was more expensive than I expected - it cost me $434 australian (the aussie dollar has dropped around 30% in the last 2 months against the US currency, but this is still more expensive than it should have been. I think a reasonable price would have been AUD $360). I wanted a video card with more than 512MB RAM because I use a 24" monitor at 1920x1200. My poor 9600GT was struggling at newer games.

I bought the Asus ATI 4870 1GB, and it runs very well. Before the fan fix it was idling around 80 degrees, which is absolutely horrible - I don't understand why the latest Catalyst drivers haven't got the fan fix built in.

The reasons why I chose ATI over nVidia this time were:
1) 55nm proven solution
2) DirectX 10.1
3) Runs significantly better in Age of Conan than the GT 260, pretty much on par with GT 280 - this is the game I play the most.
4) I didn't want to spend over $500 on a card unless it's a really good nvidia solution, unfortuntely nVidia haven't released any really good solutions in the last 2 months, which was what I was holding out so long for (over a year!). I wanted to use my previous card (nVidia 9600GT) as a physx processor alongside something like the rumoured GT350 solution, but I got tired of waiting so long for it even to be announced.

My only disappointments with my ATI 4870 1GB are:
1) heat - worked around with the fan fix hack. I wanted a 55nm solution for its efficiency/less chance of heat damaging the card. Silly ATI for screwing up the fan.
2) manually having to change fan fix profiles depending what I'm doing - I turn up the fan to 45 percent while gaming, and back down to 30% while doing 2D / desktop stuff.

Here is what the rough prices of video cards (in stock, the stuff which is out of stock can't be bought in a reasonable amount of time) in Australia that I considered my choice from, which also affected my decision:

ATI 4870 512MB - $320 - $380
GTX 260 - $370 - $450
ATI 4870 1GB - $415 - $490
GTX 280 - $550 - $650
ATI 4870x2 - $680 - $750

A few stores have offered the GTX 280 for around $530 australian, but they are perpetually out of stock. So I guess I'm impatient.