4850 Looking pretty good. Let the back peddling begin

[mactronix]

A light hearted observation
You know over the last couple of months various rumours and speculation about these cards and the 260/280 cards have been disscused on these forums.
Formites with various levels of knowledge have joined these discusions and the main thing that i observed was that very few were prepared to accept that the ATI cards could perform as well as the reports were sugesting. In fact the consensus seemed to be that the Nvidia cards would kick the ATI cards around the room a bit. People even speculated that the 4870 would only perform slightly better than a 8800GTS . And the 280 would be the next stella card.
As we now know the 4850 is performing around about the 9800GTX level on release never mind the 4870 or the 4870X2.
It is early days yet and hopefully some more in depth reviews will be available soon concerning the archetecture of the 4 series cards and the shader system that so many said wouldnt provide the needed performance. I for one am very interested to see whats going on under the hood.
So ATI are back on track and delivering (and then some) on promised performance.
Im happy, competition is back in the market, we have performance that wont break the bank.
Oh yea and i was right and you guys were wrong
Mactronix

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Good one heheh. I find it interesting so many people are in denial. They read Annands, they read Tech Report, they of course read Toms, the better sites, and they get excited about the new nVidia cards coming out, like the 8800GT, or the GTS. Then, when the news hits from Toms, Annands etcetera, they question those sites like its all this major put on, nothing but crap, not true etc. Well, this isnt a big hoax, this is fun. Some scoured the net to find the worst previews they could find, and lorded over the poor review like its gospel. I love competition. Im excited for the next few weeks to come, and Ill have my wallet out at that time, after all this blows over, and we can assess these new goodies

 

[lx_flier]

ATI specifically claimed that the 4850 would compete with the 8800GT, and the 4870 with the 9800GTX. So the informed "enthusiast" would assume that the cards would be slightly better then the direct competitor, if any especially with such a crappy show during the previous generation. I don't think any back peddling needs to be done but i'm sure glad that we finally have some competition. Under the hood is speculated to be 956 million transistors,16 ROPs. Nvidia also has the 9800GT under it sleeve and i would not be so keen on buying a 4850 until i knew how well it overclocks, I mean the 9800GTX's are insane overclockers... and are soon to be $200

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

I love beta drivers

 

[petevsdrm]

My current starry-eyed dream is a good scaling 4870x2 CF solution(quadfire? I dunno - but if it worked it'd be fast!) . Now let's check the prices of those 1200 watt PSU's.....

I might wait on nehelem and just build a whole new rig at that time. My bank account is quaking just thinking about it.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

LOL Yeah, and by then, everything will be cheaper, there may even be a decent response from nVidia, with good pricing too

 

[Andrius]

NVIDIA already lowered the 9800GTX MSRP to $200 (now the manufacturers and retailers have to lower the prices). Finally some good competition.

I hope the prices drop to around $150 for the 9800GTX and HD4850 untli late July. That means I can get them for 200 EUR here.

Then I can get a 9800 GTX for folding and a HD4850 for some eyecandy.
I can finally get an ATI card again after 5 years.

 

[SinisterMessiah]

Again, I think this will work out perfectly. I ordered a new system with a 8800GT a few days ago and I think if I wait a few months prices will be great for the chance to use the "Step-Up" program and get a new card.

Market competition ftw

 

[lightzy]

Now my only problem is..

I already have a 8800GTX... I bought it over a year ago.

This new generation of cards is still completely unecessary to me or to anyone who has a 8800GTX or god forbid, a 9800x2 ..
I mean, even a 280 can't consistently beat a 9800x2

so where's the business sense in this new generation of cards?

 

[gridener]

Im curious on how the 9800 GTX+ will perform.

 

[4745454b]

I am pleasantly surprised. As was mentioned, AMD themselves said the 4850 would compete with the GTS. I had issues believing that seeing as the 3850 couldn't even really take on the 8800GT. You can link to rumor sites all you want, but I only believe what I can see.

What I see so far, is that the 48x0 cards are looking to be monsters. Its not quite official yet, but it seems that AMD did a wonderful job boosting performance. I to would like to know whats going on under the hood, but to be completely honest, I don't care. What I do care about is AMD is back in the game, and prices are falling faster then a certain former presidents pants. This is excellent news for us.

 

[lightzy]

I mean, in the 10 years or so since the 8800 series was released, everyone into gaming already got one.

so why would anyone pay $200+ for something new that doesn't really preform better? not to mention anyone who already has a sli setup..

It's a problem when it takes companies way way too long to release a new thing..

 

[rangers]

some even said you wont get that sort of performance for that price well the numbers tell a different story, and just because ur used to getting shafted by nvidia and there over inflated prices, im not!

but at the end of the day we are all getting a good deal so let the competition begin

 

[Malovane]

ATI specifically claimed that the 4850 would compete with the 8800GT, and the 4870 with the 9800GTX. So the informed "enthusiast" would assume that the cards would be slightly better then the direct competitor, if any especially with such a crappy show during the previous generation. I don't think any back peddling needs to be done but i'm sure glad that we finally have some competition. Under the hood is speculated to be 956 million transistors,16 ROPs. Nvidia also has the 9800GT under it sleeve and i would not be so keen on buying a 4850 until i knew how well it overclocks, I mean the 9800GTX's are insane overclockers... and are soon to be $200

ATI claimed the 4850 would be ~40% faster than an 8800GT, and that a 4870 would be ~40% faster than a 9800GTX. While they were comparing the models, it was meant to show that the ATI models were superior, not "competing" with them. Why any enthusiast would assume ATI was inferring that 4850 = 8800GT and 4870 = 9800GTX is puzzling. Looking at review compilations, it actually seems ATI wasn't over-hyping their new cards by much, if at all.

While I'm impressed by ATI's performance comeback, I am kind of wary of buying the new cards right off the bat. As far as overclocking goes, most reviews I've seen that attempted it indicate that the 4850 does poorly in this regard, perhaps 1-5%. One reason is that it runs at very high temperatures. 90+ C core temps make me wonder on the longevity of the card.

Personally, I think I'll wait for the GDDR5 version, and one with a more powerful cooling solution.. or just go with the 4870. Regardless, I'll be moving to ATI. They just seem to be more on the ball lately with technological features such as shaders and dx10.1, which seem to be more important to most than how many proteins they can fold a day (not that the supercomputer videocard isn't an interesting path to go down). They also seem to be a little more committed to better driver/game optimizations than they have been in the past, which has been their biggest liability. The combination of the two, plus a better scalable and much cheaper product makes it appear that ATI will be a powerful force in the industry once again.

What will be really interesting is when they throw these cores into CPU's, as AMD appears to be planning. It looks like AMD's investment in ATI is finally paying off.. and in more ways than one.

 

[rangers]

i for one want 2 know how the card folds can anyone give a link

 

[crimsonfilms]

So OP posted to pat himself on the back? A broken watch is right twice a day.

 

[reikalusikka]

This is good news and I'm really looking forward to see how the 4870 performs against nvidia's 280.

 

[mayukawa]

read the reviews fr Anand, Hothardware, and other sites ww. HD4850 looks very impressive and beat 98GTX for sure. way to go, ATI. finally, we have some affordable, new graphics technology. not something renamed. haha....
i think some of us doesnt have to wait 'cause the Egg and Tiger have the cards launched at their pages, which i thought the card launching on 25th.... oh well. it's a good thing. let's the competition flamed on.

 

[sarwar_r87]

im not sure 4870 will be able to put much pressure on 280 but 4870 x2 or a 4870 CF will definitely cut 280 into pieces.....n plz don say its not fare on 280 as it has only one gpu becoz 2 ati gpu is cheaper + is superior.n i want to be able to feed ma kids when i have them.
finally i can go back to the red team.

 

[njalterio]

@ OP: Very well said.

I especially like how most of the "but the GTX 280 IS a great card!" people have yet to post.

 

[Nik_I]

i'm gonna be buying a 4850. i've had enough of this useless HD3200 integrated graphics. for an IGP it's not half bad, but it still can't play newer games. for my needs the 4850 is fine. i only game at 1680x1050 so i wont need the extra horsepower of the 4870.

 

[knickle]

Now my only problem is..

I already have a 8800GTX... I bought it over a year ago.

This new generation of cards is still completely unecessary to me or to anyone who has a 8800GTX or god forbid, a 9800x2 ..
I mean, even a 280 can't consistently beat a 9800x2

so where's the business sense in this new generation of cards?

It's pretty simple really. Your current card works well and does what you need it to do. It doesn't make much sense for you to upgrade unless you have a need for the latest and greatest hardware.

Unlike yourself there are truck loads of people who are ready to upgrade. I, for example, have a 1900XT. It was one of the best cards at the time I bought it, and it cost me over $600. It's been a couple of years now, and while my current card still has a few breaths left in it, the upgrade bug is gnawing at me. The fact that I can spend $200 for a very significant performance jump is fantastic. I might even go CF because the price is so attractive, but I'll probably start off with one card first and see how it goes.

 

[iluvgillgill]

more i interested is how will AMD's driver support will turn out this time round. i think the biggest flop for the HD3xxx card are the drivers. the card itself is very good as we can see now after numberous drivers update and it deliver some very healthy fps.

anyone remember what happen when the 3870X2 released?

 

[iluvgillgill]

when larrabee come out all the cards wukk be worthless!!!haha

just dreaming!

 

[ovaltineplease]

I mean, in the 10 years or so since the 8800 series was released, everyone into gaming already got one.

so why would anyone pay $200+ for something new that doesn't really preform better? not to mention anyone who already has a sli setup..

It's a problem when it takes companies way way too long to release a new thing..

ding ding ding


anyways, if people want to get excited about something, get excited about the 4870; but the 4850 is not like "WOAHHH!!!" earth-shattering performance and it is what is being constantly quoted