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4870X2 Previews Pour In
Techtree News Staff, Jul 14, 2008 1613 hrs ISTEarly benchmarks show the single-card, dual-GPU solution from AMD to be the fastest yet
Previews of the ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 are showing up on the interweb. The 4870X2 is based on the R700 chip and will feature two GPU cores on a single card, making it potentially the fastest single-card solution from AMD. The card will also feature the blazing GDDR5 memory -- just how much of it isn't certain, there are reports of both 1GB and 2GB variants. The retail hardware is expected sometime in August but with the previews here, the reviews should not be far behind, and perhaps the retail launch will be earlier than planned, like it was for the 4850 and 4870-based cards.
Keep in mind that we are talking about a preview here. As such both hardware and software (drivers) are bound to change, hopefully for the better. With that in mind, the first impressions are, well, impressive! Crysis is still not entirely conquered but the card is blazing fast in almost everything thrown at it.
Here's a rundown on who is saying what about the cards:
AnandTech: The information we have here (especially GRID at high res) shows the incredible potential R700 has, but it will be absolutely necessary to wait until launch day to see if the execution behind the hardware has been enough to realize this potential across the board.
[H] Enthusiast: NVIDIA has some real competition with the Radeon HD 4870 X2, especially if it is offered at a competitive price. Gamers will certainly have more options for high-end gaming, and this is a good thing.
PC Perspective: [...] in some slides that they had already released to us during the RV770 launch we learned that the R700 should be coming in mid-Q3 and will have a ">$500" price point. That puts the card to be on shelves by the end of August with a price over $500 - considering the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1GB cards just dropped to $499 literally weeks after their release, NVIDIA is aware of the performance of the card as well.
HEXUS.net: Yes, it's the fastest board of them all, but such is the base performance of the GBP 179 Radeon HD 4870 and GBP 219 GeForce GTX 260, that X2 only comes into its own if you're consistently playing at resolutions of 1,920x1,200 and above.
DriverHeaven.net: In our limited testing it was clear to us that ATI have a product which is able to outperform the GTX 280 [...] It is not completely dominant however and as games like Crysis show the GTX is still capable of achieving higher framerates than the R700. It should also be taken into account that the R700 relies on the driver to ensure both GPU s are fully utilised where as the GTX always performs at its maximum level.
Keep in mind that we are talking about a preview here. As such both hardware and software (drivers) are bound to change, hopefully for the better. With that in mind, the first impressions are, well, impressive! Crysis is still not entirely conquered but the card is blazing fast in almost everything thrown at it.
Here's a rundown on who is saying what about the cards:
AnandTech: The information we have here (especially GRID at high res) shows the incredible potential R700 has, but it will be absolutely necessary to wait until launch day to see if the execution behind the hardware has been enough to realize this potential across the board.
[H] Enthusiast: NVIDIA has some real competition with the Radeon HD 4870 X2, especially if it is offered at a competitive price. Gamers will certainly have more options for high-end gaming, and this is a good thing.
PC Perspective: [...] in some slides that they had already released to us during the RV770 launch we learned that the R700 should be coming in mid-Q3 and will have a ">$500" price point. That puts the card to be on shelves by the end of August with a price over $500 - considering the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1GB cards just dropped to $499 literally weeks after their release, NVIDIA is aware of the performance of the card as well.
HEXUS.net: Yes, it's the fastest board of them all, but such is the base performance of the GBP 179 Radeon HD 4870 and GBP 219 GeForce GTX 260, that X2 only comes into its own if you're consistently playing at resolutions of 1,920x1,200 and above.
DriverHeaven.net: In our limited testing it was clear to us that ATI have a product which is able to outperform the GTX 280 [...] It is not completely dominant however and as games like Crysis show the GTX is still capable of achieving higher framerates than the R700. It should also be taken into account that the R700 relies on the driver to ensure both GPU s are fully utilised where as the GTX always performs at its maximum level.
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fanboy
,none, on Jul 15, 2008 04:19 AM
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Kunal
,jsd, on Jul 14, 2008 09:16 PM
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