ATI Radeon HD 4770: 40nm Goes Mainstream

Features
By Chris Angelini
published

Benchmark Results: 3DMark Vantage

We set the stage early with 3DMark Vantage-based synthetic results. In the grand scheme of things, these hold very little weight, since I can’t even remember the last time I played a synthetic game (horrible joke, sorry). Nevertheless, it’s provocative that, at every setting, the Radeon HD 4770 is able to match or exceed Nvidia’s GeForce GTS 250 and nudge right up to ATI’s own Radeon HD 4850. Forget the 4830—this new card smokes it in the suite score.

The GPU-only scores are largely repetitive, though the Radeon HD 4670 with 512 MB GDDR4 seems to take a relative hit here. The card’s strange behavior continues on the CPU-only test, where it takes a nearly 2,000-point hit for no good reason. We dug into this a bit with ATI and discovered some of the company’s older drivers were causing the HDMI Audio device to eat up significant CPU cycles. This was fixed in the 9.4 release (so upgrade if you haven’t already). We didn’t observe the higher utilization numbers, though, so we’ll continue exploring possible explanations.

Update: With all of the Radeon HD 4770 tests finished, we circled back, re-imaged the drive, re-installed Catalyst 9.4, and tested the board again. A CPU suite score of 19,892 is consistent with the other scores listed here. Apparently, even after uninstalling an older driver, the wrong ATI Function driver was installed upon updating to 9.4. A clean wipe of the drive fixed this.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
103 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Dekasav
    "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?
    Reply
  • "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
    Reply
  • kelfen
    solid card for the average gammer ;)
    Reply
  • bardia
    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.
    Reply
  • pharge
    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.
    Reply
  • Wondering about 4770x2, should be wishful item
    Reply
  • Summer Leigh Castle
    bardiaI'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!
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    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 in the past year than they've done to you in the pass 3-4
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    *edit*

    just checked newegg and they all have aftermarket coolers on them... wow *_*

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=4770&x=0&y=0
    Reply
  • Ryun
    eklipz330*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.
    Reply