AMD has released two new high-end graphics chips recently, the Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4850, known by the codename RV770. As you can guess by the numbers, the Radeon HD 4870 provides a higher performance compared to the Radeon HD 4850 and currently is the fastest GPU provided by ATI, at least until the Radeon HD 4870 X2 hits the market, a video card featuring two Radeon HD 4870 cores. But at the moment ATI still have to go for their Radeon HD 4870 to withstand the battle with NVIDIA who seems slightly ahead with their GeForce GTX 280 card. Though that would be only when looking at the performance as it is surely more expensive than the competition. - Hardware Secrets

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 RV770 Video Card Review

The Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 follows ATI's reference model both on its physical aspect as in specifications. The graphics chip runs at 750MHz with its memory being accessed at 3600MHz through a 256-bit memory interface. Just for a quick comparison, the Radeon HD 4850 runs at 625MHz and has its memory running at 1986MHz. But what is really new on this Radeon HD 4870 is the use of the new GDDR5 memory, which transfers four data per clock cycle instead of two like it happens on DDR through GDDR3 technologies. The RV770 chip is based on DirectX 10.1 architecture, where all processing units inside is generic.

What is really impressive about these two new chips is that they both have 800 processing units inside the chip, the main difference is just the clock settings and the type of memory used. This video card requires the installation of two 6-pin auxiliary power connectors. The product comes with two adapters for you to convert standard peripheral power plugs into a 6-pin power plug if your power supply doesn't provide them. At least this time AMD decided to stick with the 6-pin connector instead of using the 8-pin one, which isn't found on the majority of power supplies, unless the more expensive high-end versions.

With so much data presented, we think we should summarize by answering two questions. How is the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 compared to the Radeon HD 4850 and how is the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 compared to its main competitor, the GeForce GTX 260, especially now that NVIDIA is promoting a price cut on this model in order to make it a competitor to the Radeon HD 4870? In most scenarios the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 was around twentyfive percent faster than the Radeon HD 4850. On the other hand the Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 achieve a similar performance in most scenarios.

If you have around $300 to spend on a video card than the Radeon HD 4870 is certainly today your best option. As mentioned, it reaches the same performance as the GeForce GTX 260 or better, and if you search carefully you can find it being sold cheaper than the GeForce GTX 260. Of course if you don't have that much money and still want a high-end video card our recommendation is the Radeon HD 4850, which can be currently found below the $200 mark in the US and thus providing a terrific cost to benefit ratio for the average user.