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Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead

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All of the tested cards have enough muscle to plow through Left 4 Dead, even at 2560x1600, and the Radeon HD 4890’s advantage over the Radeon HD 4870 remains fairly constant. Interestingly, the 512 MB board is able to outperform the 1 GB model at the two lowest resolutions and match it in the highest setting. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 hangs right with that 1 GB HD 4870 as well.

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 remains CPU-limited at the two lowest resolutions, but all of the other cards scale more clearly when AA and AF are turned on. 10%. 10%. 10%. You get about 10% more speed for a 30-40% jump in price.

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mbbs20 04/02/2009 4:45 AM
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overclocking ?

eklipz330 04/02/2009 4:56 AM
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i usually don't bitch and moan about them not having enough test gpu's, but i'd really like to see that sapphire 2gb 4870 up there, seeing how its in the same price range as the 4890...

any of these cards would suffice for me, 1680*1050 does save you a pretty penny

ravenware 04/02/2009 4:57 AM
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http://firingsquad.com/hardware/at [...] /page4.asp

It seems to overclock well and outpaces the 275.

The stalker results seem odd from both review sites. But stalker is glitchy.

If priced right this should be a decent addition to the 4x series.
It holds its own against the 275 and in certain games the 285.

Perhaps sapphire will release a dual card.
The 4850x2 they released performed extremely well.

megamanx00 04/02/2009 4:58 AM
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The 4850X2 is absent to compare to I see. Still nice to finally see a review of this thing. Nice gains over the 4870.

eklipz330 04/02/2009 5:01 AM
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Quote :Stalker: Clear Sky benchmarks are fairly new in our graphics card reviews, even if the game itself isn’t particularly fresh.Let us know what you think of this one in the comments section. At the very least, it’s a beautiful looking game.


any benchmark is welcome i suppose

too bad price goes up exponentially for minimal improvements... the 4890 will be about %50 more than the 4870 [assuming the latter is $180 and the former $270)for a ~10% performance increase... hopefully the gap will shrink by summer

cangelini 04/02/2009 5:11 AM
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Both the 2 GB card and the 4850 X2 are exclusive to Sapphire, and neither has been sent over. Nevertheless, we'll be following up with SLI/CrossFire scores in the near future and I'll see if either of those two solutions might be lined up for that story.

eklipz330 04/02/2009 5:18 AM
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cangelini, you are the man.

just thought i'd let you know. this article was very well written, and you said everything i was thinking including the pricing. too bad you have to go to the other article to refer to gtx275 comparisons. regardless of that, gj

cangelini 04/02/2009 5:24 AM
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Thanks Ek. Truth be told, both companies pulled their launches in, allowing about a week to get the testing/writing done. Usually that's pretty tight for one new launch. Two is a little rougher. But hopefully there was enough cross-linking between the pair to convey the right messages.

mbbs20 04/02/2009 5:37 AM
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a good read...hardocp has a good one up as well

ifko_pifko 04/02/2009 6:07 AM
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I'll post it here as well as in the GTX275 review:
Summing all the framerates is just nonsense. ;-) The games with higher fps will weigh more than the others.

cangelini 04/02/2009 6:17 AM
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Which is what I'm pretty sure it says in the GTX 275 review. For one reason or another, there are folks who like to see the numbers summed, so they're provided =)

anonymous 04/02/2009 6:26 AM
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Cuddles 04/02/2009 6:36 AM
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I would like to see how far you can really push this card. Maybe do an OC test with the 4890, 4870 2GB, 2870 X 2, and 4870 1 GB. Would be interesting to see how each card really rates against each other when taken to the furthest extreme they can be pushed.

cangelini 04/02/2009 6:47 AM
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Thanks for the feedback byusing. FYI, we'll test overclocking when we can get retail boards in our System Builder Marathon series.

Proximon 04/02/2009 6:55 AM
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Wow, you really nailed the conclusion I felt. I was shocked to read exactly what I was thinking.

I can reach almost those speeds (well, I can but some slight instability) with my Toxic edition 4870. I turned it down to stock speeds because I really couldn't see a difference on 1680x1050.

Nothing wrong with the card if it happens to fit your price point, but it's not anything to get my adrenaline flowing.

JAYDEEJOHN 04/02/2009 7:01 AM
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"True, we’re only four months in to 2009. But we’ve already seen Nvidia reclaim the “fastest card” title with its GeForce GTX 295—"
Ummm were only into 09 by 4 months, but the 4870x2 has been king for how long? Makes it sound as if nVidia took back the crown right away, which obviously it didnt

gkay09 04/02/2009 7:08 AM
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Well this case is very similar to the 8800GTX and the introduction of the 8800GT 512(Nearly the same performance for less price)

gkay09 04/02/2009 7:13 AM
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Well the above comment was w.r.t the GTX275 and GTX285

armistitiu 04/02/2009 8:07 AM
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Nice article. From what i see the power consumption isn't that much higher . I'm guessing someone will make a 4890 X2 that will be right on par with 295 (perhaps a bit better). I'm hoping they fixed the idle power consumption in the retail boards. I find this card a bit pointless but hey...i'm no serious gamer that will give anything for 10% more fps. So rv790 is the first chip to go over 1Ghz ? I think so... Nice going AMD

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