http://www.legitreviews.com/article/734/1/

It looks like the GTX 280 and 4870 in XFire were very close and the 4870's were faster in some cases.

But either way it looks good for the 4800 series!!

*And sorry if this has already been posted*

Nice post, seems the 4870 is really impressing people. It has some solid frames on alot of the games i play It seems they could make them better, as mentioned in the article:

"This is the tell tale sign of excessive leakage (anyone else thinking about the Prescott days?) and while it doesn't impact performance it makes things hot."

Get the wattage down, get the heat down and this would be even more attractable. Have to admit, great job to AMD! Just get your CPU's back up to spec.

It seems to me:

1. A company releases the fastest product
2. The company goes lazy, keeps producing same spec products
3. The competitor comes with the latest fastest product and steals the market

You can see this with AMD (Athlon 64 series) over taken by Intel (Core 2 series) and then AMD is fighting back (x4 series).

Also

Ati had a good postiton in the market, ran down by nVidia (8800 series) and now ATi/AMD are making there comes back while nVidia makes silly priced cards and gone lazy with there development.

Maybe it just takes AMD two attempts,

-3800 series then the "4800 series rules"
-Phenom then the "xxxxxx should rule"

It seems to be a never ending circle! Some of you are going to think im barking :\

Great for development though!

Kinda gone off topic there sorry

kkthanksbye

tri sli on GTX280 is a waste of money, power, and energy.

Yah...but the price difference is more than a little.

even dual sli GTX280s, and youre in $1300. Thats not pocket change for most.

Crossfire 4870s is the same price as 1, yes 1, GTX280.

CF 4870s is cheaper then GTX 280 by $49.

Performance is one issue, your second point is ludicrous, seeing as the 4870 has hardly been around long enough to be known for anything, and system cooling is not a big issue for those who are competent.

Can't wait for better drivers and crossfire issues being sorted

Why did the 4850 get better performance in Crossfire than the 4870 on Crysis, Very High all 1920? Also, I'm worried about what they mention here:

Plus the fact that a single GTX280 outperformed both the 4850 and 4870 in CF in medium and high settings (and came close in very high) worries me as well. Call it poor driver optimization, or whatever else, but quite honestly with as easily as every other game can be dominated with even 2 8-series card SLI, Crysis really is the game to be performing well in for these new cards. For those of us who value performance, to see not one but two of these 4 series cards still essentially struggling in Crysis at only 1920 (with apparent issues at higher resolutions?), it's pretty obvious that ATI may have stepped up their game for the "mid range budget build" to compete against Nvidia's low end cards, but they haven't done much else. The whole point of SLI is to get that extra edge, and high end performance, so it's kind of hilarious to me to see Crossfire appearing to be the poor man's SLI so to speak.

When the GTX280's come down to the 8800 GTX/Ultra price, they'll be great cards and worth buying for those who aren't already using 8 series SLI. I have a feeling it's going to be a long, LONG while before ATI steps up in the performance, higher end category, and even then it'll be pretty mickey mouse. 4870x2 will probably perform pretty well, but considering how poorly the 4870 is performing in crysis, I'd be anxious to see a benchmark of 2 4870x2's vs. 3 way SLI GTX280's.

The lack of emphasis on Crysis for most benchmarks is really disappointing, considering just about every other game isn't really a challenge. Who cares about 125 fps vs. 100 fps?

Another review from my 2nd favorite site:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341

It's sad that THG has not reviewed them yet.

"We had high hopes for the dual-slot cooler on the Radeon HD 4870, but at 83C under load it didn't seem to take the edge off. " Legit Reviews

My current 8800GTS (G92) is running at 42C at full load and my office still gets hot. 83C seems to be outrageously high. I was excited about this card until I read that. I like my computer and do not want to cook it.

ronka, i am reading lot of threads since the beginning of the day and the only thing I have to say is STFU.

You are pushing too much on the GTX280. It's not a bad card, it just not worth the money. Stop bashing ATI, it's a well better investment for the price/performance.

You have 32 posts, the half is against ATI HD4800, please get a life. Sleep with your **** video card if you want and leave the forum.

Also stop putting FUD about core temps.

uh ronka, the gtx 280 gets very hot as well, the die for god sakes is much bigger, it still costs much much more, just b/c the 48xx series gets a little hot, it's the only thing ppl can pin on ati, besides that little facet, the 48xx series kills the gtx 280 in terms of price/performance, silly noob, that is more important...

just b/c the gtx280 is more powerful, doesn't really mean much, freakin crack-whores...

heck if you throw a lot of money at just about anything, it will make it faster...but if u can offer that product at a competitive price then you will get praised for it, b/c that is in the consumers best interest num nuts... :

and lol b4 anybody says anything I always praise what is best for the consumer meaning price/performance.

and am using a G92 right now, and am pleased with it, but in my next build I am heavily considering a 4870, possibly a 4870x2 [well when benchies come in], just b/c I could...lol

Just wait for ATI to release its new optimized CF drivers!

Its so sad nVidia creates a card getting beat in some games by a 200 dollar card. And looking at some of the sli performance is pathetic, at 1300 dollars too. I wish nVidia had done it better. Their 450 dollar card is consistently being beat out by a 300 dollar card. Its a shame. By July its only going to get worse, as the release of the x2 from ATI, which nVidia has no option for at all, will see many driver improvements. The G280 has less innovations going from G92 than the 4xxx series does coming from the 3xxx series, which is obvious when you see ATIs low end part sometimes beating nVidias highend