ATI Radeon HD4850

[Kryten]

Is starting to appear in the shops.

Not a bad buy for anyone in the market. Getting lots of crap sites through with worrying benchmark differences. Some are reporting performance and power consumption near identical to the 8800GT, where others are citing a 65% increase in speed. That's a hell of a lot of difference, but either way sounds like it might be worth keeping an eye on.

The only thing ATI didn't have in mind (nor most of us) is nVidia's 9800GTX+, a die shrunk part for a similar price which could well blow it back out the market. I've yet to see any useful information on the latter though, but I keep hearing that it's the next 8800GT. I'm not so sure just yet...

[Lethul]

Im intressted in the 4870 myself, and i wanna see how the 4870x2 will perform

Planning on getting a new comp after the summer, hopefully will have a lot of benchmarks and stuff to go buy then and let me settle between 4870 and 9800gtx+

[Kryten]

Saw a couple more sites this morning, the results appear to have started to level out in the 4850's favour. So yeah, the 4870 would be another interesting thing to see. Could be another good year

[Kryten]

Here we go:
HD 4870 - £240 inc VAT
Scan Computers UK: 512MB HiS HD 4870, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 3600 MHz GDDR5, GPU 750 MHz, 800 Cores, 2 x DL DVI-I/HDTV

HD 4850 - £130 inc VAT
Scan Computers UK: 512MB Gigabyte HD 4850, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1986 MHz GDDR3, GPU 625 MHz, 800 Cores, 2 x DL DVI-I, HDTV

But is there £110 worth of juice extra in the 4870? Time will tell.

[TdC]

by cores I presume they're what the other camp call shaders?

/clueless

[inactionman]

Pretty much.

The 4870 price is a bit inflated at the moment, due to a lack of availability (July is when it's expected in large numbers). They should be well under £200 by mid-july. Plus there's a 1Gb version coming out, and the 1Gb 4870x2 (and maybe a 4850x2) in august.

[Mazling]

Originally Posted by inactionman

Pretty much.

The 4870 price is a bit inflated at the moment, due to a lack of availability (July is when it's expected in large numbers). They should be well under £200 by mid-july. Plus there's a 1Gb version coming out, and the 1Gb 4870x2 (and maybe a 4850x2) in august.

I for one will be watching benchmarks and prices for these new ati cards, like a hawk ;-) Ati seem to have become that bit more competitive ... certainly until this GTX+ appears.

[Yaka]

ati seems todo things in cycles, after this they will prolly go back to releasing crap cards compared to nvidia for a couple of years then come out with another nifty chipset.

[Helme]

I hope for AMD/Ati's sake that this is their new 9800, they sure need it and nVidia needs to be dislodged sometime

[Kryten]

Aye. Don't really want anyone to be dislodged though, if there's a decent choice then people can use a "preferred brand" without losing out on performance or price.
All's looking good though

[Kryten]

9800GTX+ vs 4850

Legit Reviews - ATI Radeon HD 4850 Versus NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ - Battle For Mainstream Market Share

Interesting article complete with benchmarks. As usual, I take them with a tongue in cheek value. The gaming benchmarks are reasonably similar between the two, but 3DMark2006 results showing a much stronger result from the GTX+, coming out nearly 2000 PenisMarks in front. Sound's like a touch of driver fiddling going on there

Article is still certainly worth a read if you're after the general specs and direct comparison between these two cards. Whichever you buy, it doesn't look as if you'd be too dissapointed.

[Helme]

Originally Posted by Kryten

Aye. Don't really want anyone to be dislodged though, if there's a decent choice then people can use a "preferred brand" without losing out on performance or price.
All's looking good though

I more meant it as competition improves overall quality, and the tougher the competition the better products and prices for us

[Helme]

AMD ATI Radeon HD 4850 Crossfire Force 3D & PowerColor


Holy crap! look at the performance of this card, and it's basically HALF THE PRICE of the 9800GTX and performs equally good, I'm extremly impressed by ATI at the moment and I'm seriously considering Crossfireing 2 of these cards when I get money later this year, they are truly stunning performance wise, and looking back at older cards they also managed to cut the power consumption 30%(!).. nVidia is in for a tough time I believe, especially considering this is the 'budget' card, can't wait to see how the 4870 performs.

[Kryten]

Aye, but it's going to have a tough time up against the GTX+ when it's out for a similar price. Interesting to see yet again how the benchmarks fluctuate between these different sites, and more so when you start ramping up the detail and resolution.
Certainly looking very good though, especially looking at crossfire performance, then of course once the GTX 200 nVidia series matures, prices will drop a tad more

[Helme]

Obviously prices will drop but that goes for the 4850 aswell, and the 2nd generation of the chips will probably impress even more.