Radeon HD 4870 X2: Four Cards Compared
Crysis v1.21 High Quality
With an overclocked CPU, the dual-chip GeForce 9800 GX2 really speeds up. Turn on anti-aliasing, however, and the performance drops, which is due to the 2 x 512 MB graphics memory. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 cannot pull away from Nvidia. Only with anti-aliasing and high resolutions does improve its standing.
It’s nice to see that the Radeon HD 4870 512 still shows its full performance even with CrossFire, whereas Nvidia runs into problems with its 512 MB (9800 GX2, 9800 GTX+) and anti-aliasing. The power of the overclocked quad-core CPU is utilized very well by all of the benchmarked cards.
Driver Comparison: Catalyst 8.9 Versus Catalyst 8.10 w/ Radeon HD 4870 X2
The measured differences are within the margin of measurement error, so there is no real optimization to see.
Crysis High in fps | 12800xAA | 16800xAA | 19200xAA | 12804xAA | 16804xAA | 19204xAA | Overall |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HD 4870 X2 8.10 QX@3.67 | 34.2 | 31.1 | 31.2 | 31.8 | 29.1 | 29.1 | 186.5 |
HD 4870 X2 8.9 QX@3.67 | 34.5 | 31.6 | 31.3 | 32.1 | 29.4 | 29.5 | 188.4 |
Performance difference in percent | -0.9 | -1.6 | -0.3 | -0.9 | -1.0 | -1.4 | -1.0 |
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Not only do we have four super-fast Radeon HD 4870 X2s to test, but also a list of 31 other graphics configurations including CrossFire and SLI setups. If you're in the market for AMD's fastest card available, you'll want to see this.Reply
Radeon HD 4870 X2: Four Cards Compared : Read more -
neiroatopelcc "Because of accessories and price, Sapphire is our best-buy recommendation."Reply
One slight warning about sapphire though. If you have problems, don't expect their support team to help you before you've solved the problem yourself!
I made a ticket regarding some issues with my 4870 on august 7th, and received a reply on the 26th of september! That's 46 days to address an error they simply stated would go away with a bios upgrade from their homepage!
As for the article, I actually liked the detailed driver errors they encountered. Not that I liked the errors themselves, but I liked them being explained. Usually you just read 'after spending some hours resolving driver errors ....' without getting any wiser. -
Pei-chen Wow, AMD cards consume power like a Detroit SUV. I like Nvidia GTX 2xx series’ Toyota Prius like efficiency at idle.Reply -
ilovebarny Why didnt they use the GTX260 Core 216? its like way better than the regular GTX260. And i just read yesterday that Nvidia was only going to make GTX260 Core 216 now. http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10497&Itemid=1Reply -
enforcer22 Pei-chenWow, AMD cards consume power like a Detroit SUV. I like Nvidia GTX 2xx series’ Toyota Prius like efficiency at idle.Reply
Hmm your right. Power house vs crippled mouse.. yeah your analagy sucked im sure mine did to but all i saw from what you typed was i like weak stuff dont give me more power. -
bdollar seems to me if you are going to be comparing the highest end cards and even crossfire them for 4x you would have the highest resolution as one of the options. i would think people considering going x2 in crossfire would consider a 30" screen.Reply
don't get me wrong, i liked the article but would have liked to have seen the resolution spectrum hit the top. -
It's nice to see the 9800GX2 included in the tests. I was considering the 4870x2 due to all the rave reviews but they never had the comparison like this against my current 9800GX2. I won't be getting new card anytime soon it seems. Thanks.Reply