Roundup: Mainstream Graphics Cards From ATI And Nvidia
Table of contents
- 1. CrossFire With IceQ Is Very Quiet
- 2. Graphics Chips Compared And Test Configuration
- 3. HIS H467PS1GP iSilence (Passively-Cooled Radeon HD 4670, 1,024 MB)
- 4. HIS H467QT512P (Radeon HD 4670, 512 MB)
- 5. HIS H467QT512P CrossFire (Radeon HD 4670, 2 x 512 MB, CF)
- 6. Sapphire HD 4770 512M (Radeon HD 4770, 512 MB)
- 7. Sapphire HD 4830 512 MB (Radeon HD 4830, 512 MB)
- 8. Zotac GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB (GeForce 9800 GT, 512 MB)
- 9. Benchmark Results: Fallout 3
- 10. Benchmark Results: Far Cry 2
- 11. Benchmark Results: F.E.A.R. 2
- 12. Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead
- 13. Benchmark Results: The Last Remnant
- 14. Benchmark Results: Tom Clancy’s EndWar
- 15. Benchmark Results: Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X
- 16. Benchmark Results: 3DMark06
- 17. Power Consumption, Noise Levels, And Temperature Readings
- 18. Conclusion: Sapphire's Radeon HD 4770 Gets A Recommendation
Mid-range graphics cards deliver more bang for their buck now than ever before—their many-core GPUs let them play right along with the big boys. In our most recent benchmarks, you’ll see that the Radeon HD 4670, Radeon HD 4770, and GeForce 9800 GT handle the highest graphics quality settings in today's most popular games without any real difficulty. The bit trade-off happens when you try enabling anti-aliasing, which can quickly overwhelm an inexpensive board. It’s important not to set levels too high so as to keep performance acceptable.
It’s impressive to see a Radeon HD 4670, which you can pick up for as low as $65 these days, keep up with a high-end card from yesteryear, like the Radeon HD 2900 XT (ATI’s flagship card in 2007). Likewise, this card matches the Radeon HD 3850 and the Radeon HD 3870, but consumes less power. In the pages to come, you'll also see a comparison between the Radeon HD 4770 and the HD 4830, which explores whether or not a 128-bit memory bus can compete against a 256-bit pathway (loaded with GDDR3), or if good driver support and GDDR5 DRAM can help offset such a mismatch at a comparable price point.
A total of five cards have made their way into this comparison, including actively-cooled single-slot models and a passively-cooled card with a Zalman VNF 100 iSilence4 heatsink. As a bonus, we also throw in a doubled-up CrossFire configuration for the HIS Radeon HD 4670 with the super-quiet IceQ cooler, which provides a genuine alternative to the Radeon HD 4850, the GeForce 8800 Ultra, the GeForce 9800 GTX+, and the GeForce GTS 250.
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How can the HIS H467QT512P CF be $14 less than a single HIS H467QT512P ?
That doesn't make sense to me
Good result there for AMD. I recently put together a build for a client, based on a 65w Athlon II 5200 (retail). I'm really surprised at how cool and quiet the system runs, and the Radeon HD 4770 would make for a great cost-effective gaming rig (as soon as they're in stock). However some of the nVidia offerings look good, too.
Just watch out for the naming conventions with CPU's and the plethora of Graphics options to choose from..this article helps a lot.
Aside from the Geforce 9xxx IGP's on the Intel platform, it looks like AMD is really hitting home in the HTPC and mid-range gaming arena..smaller, smarter, faster and relatively cheap
Cheapest HD 4770 I could find was £82 (inc. VAT). Hence at the current exchange rate that would be $135, or in other words roughly 33% more expensive than the price quoted in the article.
WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY are you including the last remnent and endwar in your tests?
Are you honestly that stupid?!
that doesn't make sense, I refuse to believe that the 4890 was beaten by a GTX275 by nearly 20fps on max settings where the 4890 truely shines, especially when the 4890 has DirectX 10.1 capabilities, something doesn't smell right here
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WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY are you including the last remnent and endwar in your tests?Are you honestly that stupid?!
And what happebed to using Crysis..
I just dont understand why The Last Remnant is in there. I could understand why EndWar was still included, even although it would have been better to pick a different game.
But comon.. Including that game is either a) A waste of time or b) being dishonest about the ATI/AMD graphics cards performance
And since your taking a total of all FPS from each game to draw a conclusion it makes it downright dishonest.
Yay! More nVidia propaganda drivel!
Between Toms and TWIWMTBP I think AMD really needs to put more money into its Bull**** Payola Budget because nVidia has it beat to hell in that regard.
So boys and girls, when you pay a ridiculously high price for your "recommended" nVidia graphics card remember that the prices are that high to pay Tino Kriess and Achim Roos' payola bribes as well as indemnify Electronic Farts and Epic for the loss in earnings caused by people with ATi cards not buying UEngine3 games due to the intentionally hacked ATi drivers. Don't you feel good about breaking gaming and creating a monopoly because, oh, nVidia just told you to.
Hence at the current exchange rate that would be $135, or in other words roughly 33% more expensive than the price quoted in the article.
