You may have gathered over the last couple of weeks that we really like the ATI Radeon HD 4870 card. It isn't quite the fastest graphics card you can buy but it performs very well and comes in at a quite phenomenal price. Like its more expensive sibling, the ATI Radeon HD 4850 is based on ATI's new RV770 chip. In fact, unlike the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, which uses the same chip as the GeForce GTX 280 but with a few sections disabled, the Radeon HD 4850 uses the full extent of the RV770 chipset. The differences are confined to clock speeds and memory configuration, and that is as far as it really goes but will make a change on the gaming performance and experience. - TrustedReviews
No sooner had we finished our in-depth game benchmarking of this summer's latest graphics cards and architectures, then the first pre-overclocked partner cards began to arrive. Claiming performance increases of up to twelve percent, we decided to put these warranty covered overclocks to the test, and see just how much extra performance you get by paying extra for that bit more juice. While we might have bestowed the ATI Radeon HD 4870 card with a coveted excellence award, what is not so excellent is the degree of control that AMD is exerting over its partners, slowing the release of pre-overclocked versions, which are still a ways off from reaching customers. - Bit-Tech
HIS is an Hong Kong based manufacturer of graphics cards that uses ATI chips exclusively. The market for high-end cards is about to change with the release of the Radeon HD 4800 series in the next few weeks, but there's no indication of cards to replace the mainstream as of yet. With every new generation of ATI cards, there's a high-end, a mainstream and a value segment. The Radeon HD 3650 is the mainstream version of the Radeon HD 3000 series, the Radeon HD 3450 was the value segment of the Radeon HD 3000 series. The card on our bench today is the HIS Radeon HD 3650 Iceq Turbo edition card, based upon the mainstream chip from ATI with some HIS modifications. - Motherboards
Our today's menu features XFX GeForce GTX 260 XXX edition, an overclocked GeForce GTX 260 card based on the same GT200 core from NVIDIA like the rest of the recently released GeForce GTX 200 series. The 640M suffix in the official name stands for 640MHz and XFX made sure to point that out clearly on their box. The company overclocked the core by 64MHz and boosted the stream processors from 1242MHz to 1363MHz. These GeForce GTX 260 cards uses the same dual slot cooler we've already seen on the GeForce GTX 280, the stronger card in the GeForce GTX 200 series, so telling the cards just from looks is not an easy task as they are looking almost identical. - FudZilla
The Radeon HD 4800 series of graphics cards is real refreshment in these days. Every new generation of GPU brought a big shift in performances and ATI this time showed us that the top model graphics chip, the RV770 doesn't have to be expensive. Based on experience from previous Radeon HD 3850 and HD 3870 models, we expected that this new model being the Radeon HD 4870 would dominate in the middle-high class, with lower price and higher performance than the other competitors. That is at least the goal behind the new Radeon HD 4800 series which ATI had in mind and to take it from there. But, we were wrong as our tests showed something quite unexpected. - InsideHW
We said a few months ago that NVIDIA drives two projects in parallel. The GT200 65nm that got launched and branded as GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 is out and there is a GT200 55nm chip that should be launched shortly. Our sources are telling us that 55nm version of the chip should be ready either in late August or in September, which means that the Radeon HD 4870 X2 card will get some competition. And that is only natural as NVIDIA wants to maintain their good track record of being on top of the game with their products, but also able to advertise and sell these to the worldwide. This die shrink to 55nm will surely make a change for the better with some extra gaming experience. - FudZilla
It's a tough place to be, having six hundred dollars to spend on one single video card. It's rough, and if you are there, may God have pity on your soul. You are about to buy a GeForce GTX 280. Some of the glimmer has blown away. This is the fastest single GPU card of all time, but the Radeon HD 4800 is a whirlwind. It's all value though, and the best has and will always require a price premium. NVIDIA people won't be dissuaded, and the GeForce GTX 280 board, despite competitive pressure, is selling well. And a lot of work went into making this a new card, not a streamlined or overclocked G80 part. It's beastly, costly, and if you've any doubts about buying this card, they're warranted. - TechLounge
Recently we took a look at the PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 which did very well at the launch of this new GPU. So after some time we can't help but wonder, are the manufacturers getting all of the bugs worked out for this awesome graphics card? Right now the Radeon HD 4870 cards are the pinnacle of ATI's lineup, taking the GeForce GTX 200 series head on for the top performer for gamers and enthusiasts alike. You wonder though, how does the performance score when the same chip is manufactured by two different companies. Will the scores vary or stay constant? Today we are going to take a look at VisionTek's Radeon HD 4870 video card and see how well it behaves. - Overclockers Club
A few short weeks ago NVIDIA released to the masses a GPU that redfined high-end gaming. The GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280 has taken gamers to new levels of performance that were out of reach only eight short months ago. Of course, this level of performance doesn't come cheap and many people have a hard time swallowing the cost of these cards that ranged anywhere from $400 all the way up to $650. Thankfully in the past few days we have seen substantial price reductions bringing the GeForce GTX 280 within the reach of many more gamers. With 240 unified stream processors and a 512-bit wide memory bus there is a lot to like about this new graphics card bringing new gaming experiences. - Bjorn3D
We believed that the Radeon HD 4850, priced at around $199 at launch, offered GeForce 9800 GTX matching performance, and that the $299 Radeon HD 4870 fell somewhere between GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce GTX 260. NVIDIA instructed its partners to drop reseller buy-in prices such that the GeForce 9800 GTX would be available to the consumer for $249. NVIDIA's retort against the salvo of AMD cards is more than just reducing pricing on incumbent models. But rather, it's to introduce a new SKU that's intrinsically cheaper to produce. So welcome to the all new GeForce 9800 GTX+ version, based upon the 55nm manufacturing process and bumping GTX speeds up a touch. - Hexus
While the GeForce GTX 280 might be out, the price doesn't exactly scream value for money for a lot of people. The high price tag is simply going to be out of reach for most. The GeForce 9600 GT based off the G92 core continues to offer excellent value for money along with even better availability. You'd think we would have looked at all GeForce 9600 GT cards on the market, but we can guarantee there are more out there. The particular one we're looking at today comes from ASUS and carries with it a silent cooler. We've seen Gigabyte offer the GeForce 9600 GT in silent form, sporting both 512MB and 1GB of GDDR3 memory. MSI also has a card where the fan only spins when the card needs it. - TweakTown
One gigabyte of GDDR3 memory is not reserved only for the high-end enthusiast cards. Palit have introduced an affordable GeForce 9600 GT card that has just that, a full 1GB of GDDR3 memory onboard. What's more this card features an overclocked core running at 700MHz, while the memory chips run at a speedy 2000MHz. We will put the Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic through its paces. A flurry of video cards have been released in the last few weeks. Some mind boggling assortment ranging within the GeForce GTX 200 series and the Radeon HD 4800 series. However, the video card we will be looking at today from Palit multimedia is the slightly older variant the GeForce 9600 GT. - CPU3D
Please keep in mind that this is a preview of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, aka R700. The video cards we have for evaluation today come straight from AMD as engineering samples, the final retail version of this video card will have a newer BIOS than what we are using here today. Also, there will be a newer driver set ready when these video cards officially launch later this summer. That said, we think you will still be very pleasantly surprised by the performance evaluated today in this early hardware and software stage of the Radeon HD 4870 X2. So what is the Radeon HD 4870 X2 or also R700? The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is AMD's single video card solution for the high-end gaming enthusiast crowd. - HardOCP
Not too long ago the idea of a multi-GPU graphics card seemed somehow taboo and brought about a lot of negative connotations with it. The GeForce 7950 GX2 was the first in the modern NVIDIA era and some board partners went in other multi-GPU directions until the Radeon HD 3870 X2 was released. We took the Radeon HD 3870 X2 card as an answer to NVIDIA's high-end cards because the company didn't have a single GPU that could compete with the competitions parts on its own, something of we need answer product. Today's preview of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 from AMD proves that this time AMD was planning ahead with NVIDIA somehow being scared of the dual-GPU version. - PC Perspective
For the past year and a half ATI have had a tough time competing with NVIDIA at the high-end of the graphics card market. Products such as the Radeon HD 2900 and Radeon HD 3800 series struggled to perform at levels comparable to the GeForce 8800 and GeForce 9800 series however ATI did eventually work out a good pricing structure which made them attractive to consumers. More recently the launch of the Radeon HD 4800 series did two things. Firstly ATI had a card which performed at a similar level to the second fastest, the GeForce GTX 260. Secondly both the Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870 cards were priced very aggressively with a very tempting price to performance ratio. - DriverHeaven
We've seen NVIDIA play their high-end cards, the GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280, and then ATI rocking the mainstream market with their Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4870. These are all excellent cards by all means, but in different price segments. The Radeon HD 4850 is the cheapest card in this roundup and you can find it priced at $189. Today, with a little help from the Diamond Radeon HD 4850 card, we remind ourselves of what this card can do. The new RV770 based products pack almost a billion transistors and in that respect the Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870 are identical. The other settings however are different as well as the looks and feel, and performance delivered. - FudZilla
Today we are taking a look at an ATI Radeon HD 4850 based graphics card from VisionTek. This card is a middle class card but we have seen stats that show this card should perform as well as many other high-end cards on the market. We are going to put it against the GeForce 9800 GX2 and the Radeon HD 3870 X2 video card to see what type of performance we can expect from this Radeon HD 4850 from VisionTek. All these Radeon HD 4850 based graphics card are currently following the reference design with just an updated look and feel due to the sticker on the cooler itself, and that should be the main item of difference, though we can expect in the future to see some changes. - Red&Blackness
There have been no fewer than fourteen video card launches this year. Seventeen if you count launches globally, and almost thirty if you include integrated video. Despite fast sales, the harried, bulky mass of the upgrade market has thrown its hands in the air, waiting for the launches to settle, to see the card or cards that stay standing. Many people, justly, bought a GeForce 9600 GT. Some people, early adopters, got burned by their now-cheap GeForce 9800's. Wait for ATI and the Radeon HD 3850 board edition stands vicious. Intel's success has directly benefited ATI and AMD, who have made video cards that excel in CrossFire, with efficient cards that have really made multi-GPU a reality. - TechLounge
Launches of new GPU's happen all the time, but it's not that often that one so powerful, so big, and so drool worthy exits the gate. The latest case is NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 200 series, or more specifically, the GeForce GTX 280, which we will be taking a look at today, courtesy of Palit. Because the card was released almost a month ago, we won't get in-depth with regards to the specifics of what makes the GeForce GTX 200 series so great, but what you should know is that the new cards are designed for the ultimate gamers and those who need an extraordinarily fast GPU for non-gaming purposes, such as folding or some other applications that require specific calculation. - Techgage
Throughout most of the 1990's, Diamond Multimedia was surely one of the major players in the graphics card world. Their well made cards with solid performance resulted in some of the most well known brand names of the time including the Speedstar, Stealth and Viper. And the good news is, with some more time and resources under their belt, Diamond has completely revitalized the Viper name in both body and spirit. Once again, with high-end products at the core, Diamond is a force to be reckoned with in the market. Today, we've got two of their Radeon HD 3870's in the labs for comparison, one is mostly plain vanilla but the other is an overclocked version utilizing GDDR4 memory. - HotHardware
The GT200 core is the basis for two of NVIDIA's latest graphics offerings. The full version of the GT200 is used on the GeForce GTX 280, whereas the crippled version of the GT200 serves as a backbone to the GeForce GTX 260 cards. The GeForce GTX 280 packs all the hardware treats, whereas the GeForce GTX 260 has one raster operating channel and two shader clusters less. Each shader cluster features three shading multiprocessors, and each packing eight stream processors, totaling to 24 shaders per cluster. That tells us that the GeForce GTX 260 is left with 192 stream processors, but it's still more than the GeForce 9800 GTX graphics cards have to offer. - FudZilla
We have has just released a new version of NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) software. NiBiTor is the original and definitive BIOS tweaker that supports the latest NVIDIA graphics cards, and which is updated on a regular basis. NiBiTor allows graphics card enthusiasts, or the hardcore overclockers to have full control over some advanced features and functionality found on firmware of supporting cards. Doing so users gain some extra performance, enable certain hidden features, tweak memory latencies, provide extensive information, adapt bootup settings, change fan speed options and/or get extra stability on the NVIDIA based graphics accelerators.
XFX was kind enough to send us two of their most powerful single GPU's based on the GT200 core. We know them as the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260, but it's their price and performance that made sure we don't forget them. The cards themselves didn't change since the launch, but the price did, and we're talking about a price drop of over $150 for the GeForce GTX 280 board. The new price adjustments made the GeForce GTX 280 much more affordable for an end-user, and if you want the fastest GPU around look no further than this baby. Of course, if you want even more speed then XFX's offering might better suit your needs, we're talking about the triple-X version of the GeForce GTX 280. - FudZilla
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 is easily the fastest gaming GPU at the moment and we thought we would find out how well it does in a dual card setup. From past experiences, we've seen that SLI or CrossFire add quite a bit of overhead, especially when going for the SLI solution and doubling the GPU's certainly doesn't result in doubling the performance, far from it actually. We already had NVIDIA's reference card and thus, when we received the ASUS GeForce GTX 280 version, we wanted to see how fast can it get with an SLI setup. And the GeForce GTX 280 is a very fast monster and packing two cards together could really be gamers dream, although there is also the 3-Way SLI option. - t-break
This year has been one to remember for video card enthusiasts. On the red side of the fence there have been the three series X2 models, the release of the Radeon HD 3400 series that can be used in hybrid CrossFireX. Just recently, the red camp released the Radeon HD 4800 series to the world. The green side of the fence has been far from idle during this time as well. First was the launch of the GeForce 9 series cards, like the GeForce 9600 GT, GeForce 9800 GX2 and GTX. Now, the GT200 series cards are in the pipeline with the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 video cards. With the performance delivered by the GeForce GTX 280, just how far down the ladder does the GTX 260 fall? - Overclocker Club
Those of you who thought NVIDIA was sinking the final nails into ATI's coffin, think again. ATI's next generation, the Radeon HD 4800 series has scored a direct hit with pixel pushing power and a price point so low that NVIDIA had to drop prices significantly to compete. Some of you old fools like us will remember shelling out the big bucks for two Voodoo2 daughter cards at $200 a hit to give you cutting edge game play. That same $400 today wouldn't touch the ultra high-end graphics. Consider for example NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280 costing upwards of $650. ATI with their Radeon HD 4800 series looks at putting performance oriented cards out for the masses with a nice price tag. - Overclocker Cafe
ASUS 9800GTX+ (DK) PCIe 512MB - Rev 01
We have has just released a new version of NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) software. NiBiTor is the original and definitive BIOS tweaker that supports the latest NVIDIA graphics cards, and which is updated on a regular basis. NiBiTor allows graphics card enthusiasts, or the hardcore overclockers to have full control over some advanced features and functionality found on firmware of supporting cards. Doing so users gain some extra performance, enable certain hidden features, tweak memory latencies, provide extensive information, adapt bootup settings, change fan speed options and/or get extra stability on the NVIDIA based graphics accelerators.
