Core i7 965 Extreme Versus Athlon X2 7850
A Platform That Makes Sense
You’ll notice that we just ran that full suite of gaming tests on an Intel Core i7 965 Extreme-based machine, complete with X58 motherboard, 6 GB of pricey DDR3 RAM, and a 1,100W power supply—all to test a $109 graphics card.
We do this for a reason. When you test a platform that’s clearly overkill, you help minimize the number of potential bottlenecks that could inadvertently affect results. In a graphics card comparison, you want to reflect only the performance differences attributable to the card in question. But without a doubt, the configuration itself is unrealistic. So, we took what we hoped would be a sweet-spot setting, 1680x1050 without AA or AF enabled, and pit the powerful Core i7 965 Extreme against a significantly less-muscular processor being launched today, wondering if we’d see any performance variation.
The Athlon X2 7850 is a 65nm, 2.8 GHz chip based on the Kuma design. It sports two cores, twin 512 KB L2 caches, and a shared 2 MB L3 cache. With an expected price tag around $70, it’s a reasonable complement to the $109 graphics card. Ironically, you’d likely spend the most money on a motherboard in this little setup.
It’s generally thought that a majority of games are not optimized to take advantage of threading, but there is more than just a core discrepancy in play here. Clock speed, cache, micro-architecture are all different. But if these titles were purely graphics limited, none of that would matter and you’d still see similar performance numbers across the board.
A couple of apps are in fact decidedly limited by the muscle of our little Radeon HD 4770 here. Stalker and Crysis—two obvious contenders for such an honor—achieve low 30-ish frames per second on the $70 and $1,000 CPUs. The rest of the field does demonstrate bias toward the Core i7 965, though, subtly suggesting that we should probably recommend a quicker CPU for gamers. The Phenom II X3 720 does cost twice as much, but would likely make a prudent upgrade. Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, World in Conflict, and Grand Theft Auto 4 all stand to benefit from a quicker CPU.
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"Well-played ATI, well played."
Couldn't say it better, myself.
Looks to be a pretty good card, but nothing spectacular. 40nm is nice, a little cheaper HD 4850 (fewer FPS, too), but all in all, nicely done.
I wonder who'll sell more, now, the 4850 or the 4770?
"The card’s strange behavior continues on the CPU-only test, where it takes a nearly 2,000-point hit for no good reason" maybe because of the 128 bit memory bus
solid card for the average gammer
I'm pretty blown away at the kind of performance that can be had for ~$100 these days thanks to ATI. It wasn't long ago when Nvidia forced us to choice between the incredibly crappy 8600GT for $150 and the ~$250-300 8800GTS 320.
ATI is leading us into graphics nirvana.
Wondering will 4770 a good one for crossfire? Can we have a review on it....? With its low power useage when fully loaded, cheaper price (~$40 cheaper than 4850 when CF), not much slower than 4850 (512MB), and nice overclocking range... It will be nice to see will 4770 CF setup be useful (playable) in games (1920x1200) with some visual goodies truned on.
Wondering about 4770x2, should be wishful item
I'm pretty blown away at the kind of performance that can be had for ~$100 these days thanks to ATI. It wasn't long ago when Nvidia forced us to choice between the incredibly crappy 8600GT for $150 and the ~$250-300 8800GTS 320.ATI is leading us into graphics nirvana.
I spent almost $300 on my 8800GTS 320 OC when they came out and I thought I got a great deal. Things have changed! Competition = good for the consumers!
this card is amazing for 1680x1050, if they can manage to slap some aftermarket coolers on there, buying two for the price of a 1gb 4870, and overclocking them, im pretty sure we'd pass gtx 285 numbers.... simply amazing.
great card for 16x10 resolution. good job ati, you've done more damage to nvidia[and they're sickly pricing schemes] in the past year than they've done to you in the pass 3-4
*edit*
just checked newegg and they all have aftermarket coolers on them... wow *_*
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 70&x=0&y=0
*edit*just checked newegg and they all have aftermarket coolers on them... wow *_*http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 70&x=0&y=0
Nah, they're reference coolers from AMD. From what I heard, AMD gave the AIB partners a choice between the dual slot and the, for lack of a better term, uglier cooler. Apparently the "uglier" one is cheaper so that's what you're probably going see for now.
Nah, they're reference coolers from AMD. From what I heard, AMD gave the AIB partners a choice between the dual slot and the, for lack of a better term, uglier cooler. Apparently the "uglier" one is cheaper so that's what you're probably going see for now.
i actually like the "uglier" coolers. they look like a spaceship on the card xD. haha
You guys at Tom's are really pathetic. Not only using an early sample of 4770 but pitting it against 1 GB GTS which is in totally different price category. Why didn't you use GTX285 to make nvidia look even better? And that CUDA hyping at the end. Come on, normal person won't need GPU video acceleration. There is no limit in your nvidia bias.
Im just hoping they spend as much space, and lines on ATI's DX10.1 whenever nVidia releases something, or in an nVidia review coming
It will play Crysis!
Now to see, will it crossfire with a 4670? That'd be orgasmic.
I luv my 4670, but I also want the 4770...
I love seeing low power cards also. I'm too cheap to buy a good PSU.
All the cards on newegg look exactly the same...
dang i thought the 4770 would suck compared to any 256 bit interface card,boy! was i wrong!
i actually like the "uglier" coolers. they look like a spaceship on the card xD. haha
Maybe bulkier would've been a better term? =)
Sorry it's late and I'm working on a web computing project so my vernacular is a little narrow.
excellent card but i think the extra 10 bucks made it loose some of it's charm.
Wondering will 4770 a good one for crossfire? Can we have a review on it....? With its low power useage when fully loaded, cheaper price (~$40 cheaper than 4850 when CF), not much slower than 4850 (512MB), and nice overclocking range... It will be nice to see will 4770 CF setup be useful (playable) in games (1920x1200) with some visual goodies truned on.
This is upcoming. I know they were asking for CrossFire in other countries as well, but we didn't receive two of these boards. There is a Radeon HD 4770 roundup in the works, however!
The price to performance ratio just keeps getting better and better. I'm simply amazed by this.