Zardon

Read The Review Here
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Today we have the opportunity to test the card in its shipping form with a driver which is much closer to the version consumers will receive. We will be running the card through a selection of the latest and greatest games at resolutions up to 2560x1600 as well as testing Blu-Ray acceleration and CrossFireX performance. The big question that needs answered ..... are ATI back at the top of their game?

LukeK

Dear lord, Nvidia just got an ass kicking........

macbiter

very impressive. although I fail to see how 95c+ would be considered safe by anyone

kris23

incredible..... wish it was on my list of upgrade components.....

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kris23

on another note, wheres CMX? we all know hes gonna get one before any of us.... except Z lol

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longhorn1000

some of those frame rates are insane. seriously.

ATI are back !

Zardon

a few people have asked me what 3dmarks the card get.

A single card on skulltrail got around 23,000-24,000 in 3dmark06. I dont really use 3dmark anymore however I ran it once without much overclocking just to get a rough ballpark figure.

kris23

is today the official launch?

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mike2h

soryy if i didnt see it, but what is expected price?

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Zardon

I was told £299 weeks ago but apparently this hasnt happened. looks like the price is working out £80+ more in the UK Components » Graphics and Video » ATI HD 4870 X2 Series - Overclockers UK -consider the USA prices are $549. A translation of what people are paying in the UK for these cards is just under $760.

OldBuzzard

Dang...big difference in pricing. One question that comes to mind is how much of that is tax?

Also Z, just how close is it PHYSICALLY to the 3870 X2? Would aftermarket coolers for the 3870 X2 work for the 4870 X2? Sure would be nice if I could use my Koolance block on one.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Zardon

Well if you look here, the price is £339.99 and the rest of that is VAT (value added tax) Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail - Total price £399.99

I will let Stu handle this one, I actually don't have a 3870 X2 handy (and I never used one). I am sure he can give you details on that when he wakes up. Was a long day yesterday for us.

Alex

Dang, I can't believe that performance. Insane power from that board. It is rather expensive, even in the USA. UK prices are absolutely ridiculous. I am sure the GDDR5 puts the costs up, especially 2GB of it, but still, bit much. Wonder how they will sell......

Nice review guys, always less boring (and colorful) than most !

nohbody

When you do the NV vs ATI test using World in Conflict, 2560x1600 4AA, 4AF; you have the average FPS as a number greater than the maximum FPS. Might want to double check your numbers, cause that doesn't seem possible.

Zardon

Thanks, the max frame rate figure should have been 142 and not 102. To be fair we were doing these graphs at 3am this morning. I will have a quick scan to make sure nothing else is wrong.

Veridian3

Hi, I will try and get you an answer on that... unfortunately our reference 38X2 died a while back and I only have a custom PCB model here so cant give you a response immediately.

Vikingod

Great review, it's nice to see ATI giving it a fighting chance.

nohbody

No worries, we've all been there.

I didn't notice anything else.

Though all in all this is great news for ATI (AMD).

BlueMak

Impressive card, but, the temperatures are insane. Even if the card can survive them for long, not sure if the rest of the hardware inside the case could handle the extra heat. If you happen to have another one or two pci cards...forget it (IMO).

I don't think I would buy it even if I could.

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OmegaRED

Too expensive. The 9800GX2 still seems (to me at least) to be the best deal among the X2 cards. They're going for about $290 here.

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Judas

this is definitely nice news.

while i would greatly desire one.... i've told myself i'm not getting another vidy till a dual core gpu arrives.

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Mousey

Jesus christ that's one hell of a powerful card, how much are the 280's compared to it?

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mike2h

280 cards are aound $450 in us.- meaning you can buy them for cheaper & pay more but that seesm to be average

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khelben1979

I would never buy one even if I had the economy for it, I think. All these X2 cards feels a little like the concept behind S.L.I or Crossfire.

It's just too much for my taste.

I actually went down in power requirements when I changed my Radeon9800XT to an nVidia Geforce7800GS in february last year. Lower power consumption and fast graphic cards is what interests me.

brutusmaximus

It is ATIs best card since the 1950, the problem is, and its a big problem.

The power drain and heat output. If you bought one of these cards you really couldnt leave the system on 24/7 (or even close), it would heat up a room and cost a small fortune on electric. Its a pure gaming card for people with 24 or 30 inch screens.

Regardless of the ATI quote I read in the review, I fail to see how running at 90c+ all the time when gaming is good for anything, even the motherboard which will be dealing with huge amounts of radiated heat on the PCIE slot.

I was almost tempted when I saw the benchmarks until I got to the temperature pages . Also the power drain of one of these in a high end enthusiast system is meant to be over 700w.

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humonous

Do you not think these might have high fail rates?

Alex

We might be seeing a repeat of the Nvidia mobile core failures which cost them 200 million+.

I was thinking about it, veridian3 im sure was in controlled conditions as an expert reviewer and he was seeing mid 90c, right? im guessing UK temps in the room were 25-28c.

Lets mix up some variables.

Warm climate say 30-35c ambient? average enthusiast case with no side panel and fan? (even a weak fan).

Id say well over 100c is possible. No way on earth a fan and exhaust system will expell all that heat out the rear of the case. so it will rise over cpu and memory area. Possible 10c more in that area too.

I have a horrible feeling we might be seeing massive threads on forums like driverheaven in a few months with cards overheating, dying, rmas etc.

I mean look at the thread on DriverHeaven right now about the [COLOR=#66ccff]Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error[/COLOR] 164,000+ views on that alone. this additional heat and misc problems might end up costing them millions in RMAs.

Real shame too as the card really does kick some serious ass.

Zardon

Hard to come to a conclusion about this really. ATI have assured me personally that the cards are capable of dealing with this heat perfectly fine.

I have reservations myself, however my best advice would be if you are contemplating one of these in a system make sure you have great airflow and a good side panel fan. 120mm's are always recommended for max cfm with minimum noise.

The card really is the best thing out there right now, I just hope it all goes well for ATI/AMD because the market really does need competition to stay competitive for the consumers. Just look how far nvidia have dropped prices recently, thats a very good thing

I have a 220mm fan in the side panel of my system over the 4870 X2 now, and temps are around 74c load. Of course these dont fit many cases, but it could end up a good modding project for people. Many cases now have mesh panels so they are easy to cut.

These fans make good partners if you want to ensure good side airflow over the card. Akasa AK-F2230SM-CB 220mm Silent Case Fan - 4 Pin added benefit of a fan of this size is great airflow over a wide physical area with virtually no noise at all.

Zardon

asetek already have coolers designed for the card.

Asetek's LCLC Liquid Cooling Solution at Work - PHOTO

EfrainMan

On your Lost Planet benchies, are you sure you got everything to max? A few settings have an extra level above High called DX10, and from the settings screenshot it seems they're not turned on. The DX10 fur alone is worth it

Edit: Never mind, I see you have the fur, so you probably have the rest.

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My modest video card history: S3 Virge, 3DLabs Permedia 2, 3dfx Voodoo3 2000, 3dfx Voodoo5 5500, GeForce 3 Ti500, GeForce 4 Ti4600, Radeon 9700 Pro, Radeon X800XT, Radeon X1900XT+Crossfire, GeForce 8800GTX, Radeon HD4870x2, Radeon HD5870, 2x Radeon HD6970