Radeon 4800's

I don't know how many people here pay attention to this stuff, but I do so I'm making a post about it.

Radeon's new lineup was released this week, and the reviews are looking really good. Nvidia's GTX280 is still at the top, but also still costs $660. The 4870 is coming very close at less than half the price, and it looks like ATI finally fixed the AA issues they've been having lately.

For anyone interested in the technical side of things, anandtech has a great review of the architecture in the 4800 series.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

If developers bother to make use of this parallel instruction processing the 4870 should handily outperform the GTX280. And now that ATI is officially back in the race, prices on both sides of the competition should be coming down over the next few weeks

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

You could get 2 4000s at crossfire for cheaper than a single GTX200. Although I would way prefer the nVidia, they're prices are their downlfall.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

The last 3 cards I've used were ATI, but I was ready to go to Nvidia's 8800 series now because of the shoddy performance of the 3800's. But now I think I'll pick up a 4870 instead.

The parallel instruction processing is interesting to me. It pushes the 4870 to 1.2 teraflops, while the GTX280 is limited to 0.9. It's actually beating the $660 GTX280 in Bioshock, the only game that makes use of parallel instruction processing. If developers put in the extra time to do the same with new games then $300 vs $660 for the same performance is a no brainer.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I have had a Raedon X 800 Pro which works just fine for all of my games, editing and other stuff. $299

Enclosure Type Plug-in card
Interface Type AGP 8x
Processor / Memory
Graphics Processor / Vendor ATI Radeon X800 Pro
Ramdac Clock Speed 400 MHz
Video Memory Installed 256 MB
Technology GDDR3 SDRAM
Video Output
Max Resolution (external) 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz
Colors Max Resolution (external) 32-bit color
Supported Display Graphics VGA (640x480), XGA (1024x768), SVGA (800x600), SXGA (1280x1024), UXGA (1600x1200), QXGA (2048x1536), 1152x864, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 1920x1080
Api Supported DirectX 9.0, OpenGL 2.0
Max Monitors Supported 2
Tv Interface TV out
Analog Video Format NTSC, PAL - S-Video, composite video
Digital Video Standard Digital Visual Interface (DVI)
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces 1 x VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) 1 x DVI-I - 29 pin combined DVI 1 x VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) ( with adapter ) 1 x composite video output - RCA ( on supplied cable ) 1 x S-video output - 4 pin mini-DIN ( on supplied cable )
Compatible Slots 1 x AGP
Miscellaneous
Cables Included 1 x composite cable 1 x S-Video cable 1 x HDTV cable 1 x DVI-VGA adapter
Package Type Retail
Software / System Requirements
Software Included Drivers & Utilities
Os Required Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP1 or later, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support 3 years warranty
Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 3 years