Wait for 4870 1GB or go with the 512MB ??

I really don't think 1gb is going to make much of a difference unless you like to game at 2560x1600, or 1920x1200 with AA and AF cranked up. Even so, the resolution is so high you barely need to crank the filtering to get decent image quality.

I am also in a similar position except Il be crossfiring either 2 512's or 2 1gb's. I dont know if it will have any relevance but maybe someone who bought a 1gb 8800GT could give you a rough idea of what kind of performance increase you will get over a 512 version, if there is one to be seen.

Right now the difference between 1GB and 512MB is next to nothing. If you upgrade your card next year anyway, i wouldn't wait. If the 1GB card is offered at a reasonable price (ie. only maybe 20 or 30$ more) then i would buy it.

As far as I know you'll benefit from 1G high bandwidth memory with big size monitor and high resolutions
At 1280X1024 there is no performance difference between two cards, one with 512 and another 1G
Are you sure you can get 2 cards 4870 (512) for 400 pounds???

Sorry, should have mentioned I'm using a 24inch monitor at 1900x1200 res.

And yes, I see oc uk has the Powercolor 4870 512MB listed at 199.74 incl. vat. Not immediately available mind you but they say 27 June. ETA.

ebuyer have Sapphire 4870's for £179

Well there you go then. Man, that's some great power for just £358

Which only confuses me more. I guess a lot comes down to how much extra the 1GB is going to cost.

In this case you'll benefit from 2 cards in cross fire
but carefull, does your motherboard has 2 slots X16 or 1X16 and the other X8
And second thing I never heard of this brand " Power Color"
Hope somebody who has tried this brand can feed back

Why would they only charge 400 for the x2 if a single card is 300?? I think your hoping for a little much. The x2 cards for either side are usually more expensive than 2 single cards because they aren't that easy to make,and they remove the requirement for a sli/crossfire mobo.

Well as the guy above mentioned, you can get a Sapphire 4870 for even cheaper. £179 !

I'm on a Maximus Formula so both slots are X16. PCI 2.0 if I'm not mistaken. These cards are the reason I went for the X38 when I upgraded my set up a few months back. I wasn't sure it was going to be the right choice but it seems like a good one now.

We're talking £'s here mate , not $'s.

T-minus ~60 days, haven't you seen the unofficial 'Unleash Two Tera' countdown  

http://www.madpixelz.net/amdnews/2008_06_23/r700_count/

There isn't a whole lot of difference right now with the 1GB cards (8800GT, 8800GTS, etc) because the memory is limited by the bus size (256MB). Even though the new 4870 will have a 256-bit bus, GDDR5 and the frequencies it operates at allow for a higher data rate than a 256-bit bus with GDDR3.

I'm waiting for the 1GB 4870, though I, nor anyone else I believe, know what it will do until there are more reviews of the GDDR5 4870.

Ah ok.

If the 1 gig cards were going to show up within a couple weeks, I'd wait. But as it is, I'd buy a 512mb card and then Crossfire it later on. Of course, that presumes there will be plenty of 512mb cards available in the near future.

IMO, it depends on your timeframe as well as your resolution/settings.

For a short-term buy 512MB is fine, liekly won't get pushed too hard by toom many apps unless you use larger terxture and highest settings at high resolution with some AA. But even a game like COD4 or Oblivion with texture mods can easily go over 512MB, and on older titles using 8X AA would be a nice bonus if it didn't hurt performance greatly.

Now longer-term there are going to be tougher titles out there as well as different uses for the GPU as both co-processors for things like physics and also for non-gaming applications like video encoding. Those will benefit from more local memory access.

Anywhoo, just like before, many if not most people won't benefit from 1GB over 512MB, however there is definitely a use for it now, and more of one in the future too IMO.

That was a wise decision on your mobo
I'm sure now you do not regret it
Congradulations
Maybe if you wait some time prices will drop
Best luck

I'm wondering the same thing. my 24" is 19X12 native res so I'm not sure if I'll be hurt by a 512 card.

The real question is, how long till the 1gb's come out....

\
We were expecting 4870 to have 1G
maybe in a couple of month

Speculating: 4870 with 1gb of memory won't be a monumental increase over the 4870 with 512 mem

However, the 4870x2 with 1gb should be - cause it should have the power to utilize that.

The 4870 with 1gb might be worth it if you plan to crossfire - but I think that a single 4870 1gb is probably not anything to go crazy over  

im in the same position... but i think there isnt gonna be a huge performance difference, so im probably just going to crossfire 2 4870 512mb. Then in about a years time (or whenever it may be) ATI will hopefully have some more powerfull cards to choose from.

From what I understand, the ASUS 1GB version of the 4870 will feature a new Glacier Heatsink which is supposed to lower temps by 7°C.

"Every ASUS EAH4800 Series graphics card will also soon be equipped with the Glaciator Fansink* – a uniquely designed cooling solution that will keep GPU temperatures up to 7ºC cooler than reference designed boards" - http://www.tweaktown.com/pressrelease/33/asus_announces...

What I'd like to know is:

1) What is the difference between the EAH4870/HDMI/512M and the EAH4870 TOP, and
2) Is the EAH4870/HDMI/512M already equipped with the Glacier Heatsink?

ogdin the 4870 x2 isn't supposed to be 400... its supposed to be at 500... and the reason why they are making the 4870 x2 is for better scalability and prices... its supposed to be cheaper than 2 cards... that's the point of making X2s... to maximize performance and decrease costs... now that wasn't the case with the previous X2's but it should be the case with upcoming X2's and X3/4's when scalability really improves  

X4? Damn Nvidia might be in trouble with something like that. Just imagine if it scaled as well as an X2, that thing would be able to play Crysis (I know, stupid Internet meme, but I couldn't resist).

The CHEAPEST 4870 in the UK @ £172.33.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=55H7&Sea...

Gigabyte have way better warranty and support than crappy Saphirre. I would NOT touch Sapphire with a 50 foot pole....

So Crossfire 4870 for £344.66...

I dont see the advantage of 1GB with 256bit interface. 1GB 512bit would be blazing. thats why GTX200 is still the better cards.

i hope 4870X2 will have 512bit and 2GB DDR5

As it stands now, two 4850's in CF beat a GTX280.
GTX280 and 4870 are 1%-15% performance of each other.
The 4870 in CF is 10% to 11% faster than the GTX280 in SLI in 2560x1600
The anadtech review benches in Crysis, call of duty 4, ET quake wars, Assasains creed, the witcher, bioshock, and oblivion. Tallying up the total FPS results in each benchmarks results in this.

There is an overall performance difference of 4.6% between the GTX280 and the 4870 in 1920x1200 @ 4xAA with a $201-$371 price difference.

Doing the same against the 4850 and GTX260 there is a 6.4% overall performance difference at a cost of $141-$246.

In CF/SLI at 2560x1600 4xAA the gtx280 and 4870 have a performance difference of 12.8% at a price of $402-$742. ( Quake wars scales badly with the 4870's ommiting that bench, the performance difference drops to an overall 3%. As there are no drivers officially out for the 4800's, may be worth mentioning)

When i say overall performance difference, i mean nvidia is faster by those small margins aside big price margins.

As to memory amount, the GTX280 in crysis @ 1680x1050 with very high GFX settings dies 40.7fps, the 4870 does 35.6, the gtx260 does 33.6, and the 4850 does 29.6. At 1680x1050.....the $600 GTX280 has a whole 11fps with it's extra 512mb ram and faster clocks over the $200 4850. in CF/SLI the 4850 gets 36.4 at 1920x1200, the gtx280 51.5 for $800-1200 more you too can gain those giant performance leads...

GTX200= Fail, from a design, performance and cost standpoint.

Still no answer to my question though but I guess there isn't really a definitive one.

Could anyone advise/speculate on whether 2 X 512mb 4870's in Crossfire would be better than just the one 1GB 4870 (if it ever does come out) ? Going on the current benchmarks , it looks like Crossfiring two 512mb 4870s's will be tough to beat but what about memory ? Will I miss the extra memory ? Will the 512mb's in crossfire give me as much memory as 1GB card or am I still then just sitting with 512mb but twice (depending on scalability) the graphics processing power ?

I have been waiting so long for these cards. I have a 8800GTS 640MB (although I bought a 320MB and paid for a 320MB and even the box says 320MB but yet GPU-Z shows it as a 640MB , can anyone comment on that) , so i don't necessarily feel I need to upgrade right away but I am currently playing age of conan and not getting very good FPS and I have a lot of settings turned right down.

Ehm, GTX200 GDDR3, HD4870 GDDR5
It makes a difference, although it has 256 bit memory bus.

The cheapest 4870 in the UK @£174.97 with free shipping
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146429

Not really - the whole point of a 512 bit bus is to get higher bandwidth. ATI already did that, but with a 256 bit bus of GDDR5. Bus width doesn't matter: bandwidth does. For that matter, type of memory does not directly matter either. Both are just methods of increasing bandwidth. 1GB of GDDR5 with a 256 bit bus and a clock of around 4400MHz would be just as good as 1GB of GDDR3 on a 512 bit bus and 2100MHz clocks- same bandwidth, same amount.

you cant realy use the 8800GT comparison because the 4870 has almost double the memory bandwidth as the 8800 because of the gddr5 so it should acualy make a pretty big difference at any resolution higher than 1280x1024, or with aa or af on