Whats up with listing the power supply requirements in watts now? I can only find how many amps my PSU puts out on the 12v rail, that used to be the standard thing listed on the reqs of a card, why change that?

Wow charlie, you're not just blowing smoke this time! The 48x0 looks like a winner. Also the X2 in later articles. Seems ATi is gaining the upper hand again!

The 4870 does not need a 512bit memory bus, because it uses GDDR5 memory running @3600Mhz. This means it has 80% more bandwidth when compared to the 4850, and helps games at higher resolution settings.

The 4870 only has a little less bandwidth than the GTX280, because the GTX280 only uses GDDR3 (but has a 512bit bus).

The HD3870X2 which i have 2 of uses one 4 pin and one 3 pin connector just like the 2900xt so you guys were wrong in stating that no other card implemented these connectors.
Good job ATI on bringing performance at a great price.

And one question: are AMD/ATI architecturally limited or they can pull a 4870 with 512bit memory? I guess in this case it could beat a 280.

Anyone knows if this can happen or they cannot "upgrade" the memory paths?

What is this? An American site? It's bad enough having to convert the monies for products on every other review site without this site doing it too. Some figures in pounds would be appreciated in the future.

:/

test the power consumption with the new 04 bios... the clock rates should go down to 160mhz so does the heat and voltage.

Visiontek does things it's own way, how can anyone be sure that they haven't turned things off just to make it seem faster.
I don't trust them since I bought a knobbled Visiontek Theater 550 card.

Truly droolworthy.

But wheres the 4870x2 and what power connectors will it require?

Um, Charlie, why, in the last picture showing the cards' power connectors, is there a Vista sticker peeking out from the lower right-hand corner?

You do have a single slot 4850 don't you? Every other reviewer has been talking about how the 4850 runs hot. How on earth can you have the same card (since they're all reference design cards) and have it run cool when everyone else has it running at 85 degrees celsius at load?

Great article- love the normalizing part. As for the ATI quoted GFlops- it is theoretical increase and it concerns GPGPU more than games where other bottlenecks are present. Folding @ Home GPU client performance increases through the generations are probably very close to ATI's graph.
In either case, DAAMIT is making huge leaps in graphical performance. Except the 2900 launch last summer that they were late, they almost follow Tick-Tock model now- I can't wait till the next shrink and MCM Radeon x2...or x4. I think percentage wise they spend more on graphical development because of better than CPU margins.

WoW charles after many years you have now finally been relieved of your constipation.


A really usefull article which shows that new video cards from the same manufacturer are faster then older ones.


I was going to get a HD4870 but with 2900XT power consumption I think it will kill my shuttle. Will have to wait for a overclocked 4850 with decent cooling.

Spectacular price per performance though. It makes NVIDIA look kinda silly!

Looked on Hexus and their poll says over 50% will buy next a 4870 and less than 10% for a 280 / 260!


Actually at my local Best Buy I got these cards for $150 a pop. They had a deal that made all VisionTek cards 25% off.

So I purchased 2 just so that I could xfire them. This cost me $300.

The funny thing is, my single 4850 beats my friends $350 9800 GTX in Crysis, Oblivion, Bioshock and Mass Effect (those are the only ones we tested, and our systems are literally identical aside for the video cards), and it beats it by a healthy amount! Now when I crossfire them I leave his more expensive card completely in the dust.

After we did this, my friend went back to Best Buy and asked that they refund his $350, he then turned around and also purchased 2 4850’s. 

I think ATI did a great job with these little cards. But it makes you wonder… Why buy the more expensive 4870 for just a slight performance increase?

Go pick up a 4850 today!

...can I have the 4870? :D

nice