review: Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 CrossfireX performance test

Guru3D News

Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 CrossfireX performance test Guru3D posted a Radeon 4850 and 4870 Crossfire review. Since Radeon series 4800 cards offer so much value it might even be interesting to pair them...

More...

mike06303 · 07-03-2008, 02:07 | posts: 19 | Location: Cyprus | User is Offline

Only one word. Wowwwwwwwwwwww. Superb. I always support ATI and now finally has done it. Way to go ATI.

Logic Zero · 07-03-2008, 02:15 | posts: 1,020 | Location: London, UK | User is Offline

Awesome review, looks great. Issues with 3 cards though makes me wonder just how well two 4870x2's are gonna run together.

Oh and Hilbert, you dirty dirty man

Quote:

I used Pamela Anderson's boobs as anecdote for SLI (big and expensive, yet a nice pair).

aircool

Damn, the performance scaling of the 2 way setup is a vast improvement.

damien666 · 07-03-2008, 02:16 | posts: 9,172 | Location: nottingham, uk | User is Offline

weres the crysis benchmarks

comon man please add these at med + veryhigh settings seen as these are the highest end cards

Hilbert Hagedoorn · 07-03-2008, 02:22 | posts: 11,705 | Location: Guru3D Trenches | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by damien666

weres the crysis benchmarks

comon man please add these at med + veryhigh settings seen as these are the highest end cards

Can you actually READ the fricking review ?

mike06303 · 07-03-2008, 02:25 | posts: 19 | Location: Cyprus | User is Offline

If you read the article Hilbert said that in Crysis the cards wouldn't work in crossfire with the current drivers. Frontlines fuel of war also the same.

aircool

Quote:

Originally Posted by damien666

weres the crysis benchmarks

comon man please add these at med + veryhigh settings seen as these are the highest end cards

Quote:

Obviously (and I hate to use that word, yet it is the reality) with multi-GPU setups, you are bound to run into problems as well. We surely had them as for example Frontlines would not even start, Crysis whatever we tried did not show performance improvements. Yet the rest .. dang .. that was showing really good scaling.

Quote:

Crysis as the other title. Whatever we tried it did not show performance improvements. It was so silly, as I know it should work. Heck I've seen other sites posting results. We again tried all three driver batches, even reinstalled and patched Crysis to the latest build. It just didn't matter. No clue .. hopefully it was isolated, we'll just leave it at that for now. Though I'm still puzzled. [Ed - I guess we'll update this article if we get it working before the cards go back]

Quote:

Crysis would just not allow CF to kick in even after reinstalling the game and again patching it to v1.2)

There is your answer quoted for you.

mike06303 · 07-03-2008, 02:51 | posts: 19 | Location: Cyprus | User is Offline

Hilbert,did you thought of trying to overclock the HD4870 and then crossfire them? It's a creepy thought.

Stukov · 07-03-2008, 03:04 | posts: 2,247 | Location: South Dakota | User is Offline

Strange, we saw in GRID that the single 4870 and 4850 at 2560 has a problem, but when in CF it runs correctly?

tuco · 07-03-2008, 03:06 | posts: 2,391 | Location: Midgard | User is Offline

Liked to have seen oblivion, but thanks for the review. Still waiting on the x2, but two 4850's are looking the spot atm, although I'd want dual slot variety.

Whats up with Alba's left arm btw, almost tranparent, has her blood been drained by those red cards perchance?

ShadeOfBlue · 07-03-2008, 03:50 | posts: 1 | Location: Italy | User is Offline

Hello there
I was wondering why you didn't try a 1x4870 + 1x4850 mixed Crossfire...
From what I've seen in the review I guess I can't expect too much... Still... I'm hoping the "poor" performance of the mixed bag is just a 3way XfireX issue...
I am very curious as I'm about to order a 4870 and I was thinking to add a cheap 4850 later...

damien666 · 07-03-2008, 05:16 | posts: 9,172 | Location: nottingham, uk | User is Offline

Quote:

Can you actually READ the fricking review ?

sorry at break dint have to to read it all

Cybermancer · 07-03-2008, 06:30 | posts: 12,527 | Location: Cyberspace | User is Online

Very nice results! Thanks for the article! I'm very much looking forward to that mentioned VGA charts update, though.

Skiddywinks · 07-03-2008, 06:45 | posts: 3,991 | Location: North Wales | User is Offline

And it's official; ATI just sodomised nVidia without them seeing it coming.

Passion Fruit

The 4870 (and x2) doesnt have cloned memory? i thought it was able to share its RAM with the other card...

Stukov · 07-03-2008, 07:22 | posts: 2,247 | Location: South Dakota | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Passion Fruit

The 4870 (and x2) doesnt have cloned memory? i thought it was able to share its RAM with the other card...

it had 2x256bit memory controllers, though I guess that doesnt necessarily mean it will have duplicated ram. We will have to wait and see, they do say the R700 will be clock for clock 15% faster than 4870 in CF.

IriSh`

Unfortunately seeing these numbers just make me want to see the 4870x2 even more now.

eRa` · 07-03-2008, 08:11 | posts: 1,824 | Location: Germany | User is Offline

I was finally able to track down a shop which had the 4870 in stock. My preciousssss. Anticipating the X2 version now, the XFire results set very high hopes.

Smellybumlove · 07-03-2008, 08:33 | posts: 596 | Location: taichung/london | User is Offline

as expected its awesome.

p35 and x38 owners go buy 2 4870s right away!

pysik · 07-03-2008, 09:46 | posts: 326 | Location: Toronto, ON, Canada | User is Offline

wow the 4800 from amd is seriously kicking some major ass, its amazing. i need to get off agp soon

proFits · 07-03-2008, 10:55 | posts: 4,076 | Location: Quebec | User is Offline

Hopefully I won't have the same problem with my 4870 in CF

damien666 · 07-03-2008, 13:15 | posts: 9,172 | Location: nottingham, uk | User is Offline

wow great review just read it all and im very happy that ati have overcome nvidia LOTS lol

so i will be making the jump soon and i cant decided if its worth waiting for the 4870x2, it is out htis month right

Classic Satch · 07-03-2008, 13:26 | posts: 4,780 | Location: Alaska | User is Offline

Wow, Nvidia is taking it right in the pooper and it's wonderful! Two 4870's in CF lower the boom on the 280 in almost every benchmark and still cost less. Gotta love it!

Let the price/technology wars resume!

IriSh`

Quote:

Originally Posted by damien666

wow great review just read it all and im very happy that ati have overcome nvidia LOTS lol

so i will be making the jump soon and i cant decided if its worth waiting for the 4870x2, it is out htis month right

I believe it will come in late August not July.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...8279&Itemid=34