ROPs, Memory Controller
ROPs
The first improvement is to Z rendering. ATI had introduced the possibility of doubling the fill rate on depth passes with its preceding architecture, but was still behind Nvidia, which offered a fill rate that was multiplied by eight in these situations. With the RV770, AMD is still behind, only quadrupling the fill rate – to 64 pixels per cycle. Let’s check that with the trusty fill rate tester:
Again, there is no surprise, as we saw for pure fill rates. On the other hand, Z rendering was a little disappointing. There is some improvement, but where the RV670 came close to its theoretical value (x1.89 instead of x2), the RV770 is far from it (x2.41 instead of x4). That’s just not enough to compete with the G92, which, though it’s also fairly far off the theoretical value (x5.2 instead of x8), is still out of reach.
However, that’s not the main improvement to the ROPs. ATI’s engineers focused on correcting the antialiasing performance, which was catastrophic compared to the competition. And where the RV670 could write only 8 pixels per cycle in MSAA 2X or 4X, with its fill rate divided by two, the RV770 doesn’t take a performance hit, and can still write 16 pixels per cycle in these situations. In the same way, rendering in an FP16 frame buffer has been optimized and is now done at full speed, whereas before the RV670’s fill rate had also been divided by two. Memory controller
Bottom line as i see it, this is a Smashing card!
Prices on the UK market put a HD4850 at £120 (ebuyer.com) where as the GTX260 is £300! considering the overal performance difference between the two, i'd get 2 HD4850's in Crossfire mode and still be cheaper than a GTX260.
Once again AMD/ATI have produced a card that isnt amazing on performance, but bang for your buck its probably the best card on the market at those prices
The very fact that, yet again, we have a whole page dedicated to noise is a sure sign that these manufacturers still don't have all of the priorities covered. How many years ago was it that THG posted that funny video showing an Nvidia card as a leaf blower & barbecue? - and still we have to put up with substandard cooling solutions. I haven't bought a graphics card for years now without getting an aftermarket heatsink to go with it - thank god for companies like Zalman & Thermalright who are sparing our ears!!
I have seen on the reg that the 4870 more than doubles the performance of a 3870. If this is true and they hit a ~$300 price tag than AMD/ATI are back baby.
Apparently they use 160W at load but beat the 3870 on performance/W by a long way.
Can't wait to see it. Even though I know that this site rakes in more from intel/nvidia.
http://www.pcper.com/images/review [...] 48-bar.jpg
Dual 4870s can take on a 280 no sweat and push for serious performance, and they're supposedly near similar price. By itself the 4870 takes on the $100USD more; 260. I smell price drops.
Thanks to Tom’s Hardware for including the FSX test in these results. It’s interesting to see how differently the cards line up with FSX. No other game produces similar results or shows up the new technology in a different light. To any serious simmer it is the AA/AF performance on big screens that is crucial and this shows the biggest differences and biggest insights. Also it was good to see that my card (an overclocked 8800 GTX) is still top of the pile!
lets just hope that this brings in enough profits to help the CPU market, because if you look at the info on the intel nahalem, it looks as though they have alot more potential, but they dont want to release that potential just yet, where as, if AMD release a competitor then we might just see the nahalems full potential!!