Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Components > Graphics Cards > Radeon HD 4870 X2: Four Cards Compared

Comparison Of Graphic Chips And Test Configurations

09:30 - Wednesday 19 November 2008 by Tino Kreiss

HIS and Sapphire sent Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards set to reference clock rates—any additional overclocking was performed in our own lab. All settings were set via the AMD graphics driver. As a baseline for analysis, the HIS card was tested with both normal frequencies and overclocked. All models with increased frequencies are marked “OC.”

When we started benchmarking for this project, we were using the most current drivers for this test, Catalyst 8.10 from AMD and Nvidia’s beta driver 180.42. On the following page, we will talk about the difficulties and problems we noticed with Catalyst 8.10. The Nvidia beta driver is stable with single cards and the Intel chipset (X38), but with SLI on the nForce 780i, we sometimes experienced problems in Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect causing the whole system to freeze. As far as performance is concerned, the latest Catalyst 8.11 drivers improve frame rates in Far Cry 2 and Stalker: Clear Sky, according to AMD.

Nvidia Graphics Cards
Card Manufacturer and Chip	Code Name	Memory	GPU Clock	Shader	Memory Clock	SPs
GeForce GTX 280 SLI	GT200	1024 GDDR3	602 MHz	4.0, 1296 MHz	2214 MHz	240
GeForce GTX 280	GT200	1024 GDDR3	602 MHz	4.0, 1296 MHz	2214 MHz	240
GeForce GTX 260 SLI	GT200	896 GDDR3	576 MHz	4.0, 1242 MHz	1998 MHz	192
GeForce GTX 260	GT200	896 GDDR3	576 MHz	4.0, 1242 MHz	1998 MHz	192
GeForce 9800 GX2	2xG92	2x512 MB GDDR3	600 MHz	4.0, 1500 MHz	2000 MHz	2x128
GeForce 9800 GTX+	G92b	512 MB GDDR3	738 MHz	4.0, 1836 MHz	2200 MHz	128

Card Manufacturer and Chip	Memory Bus	Manufacturing Process	Transistors	Interface
GeForce GTX 280 SLI	512 Bit	65 nm	1400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 280	512 Bit	65 nm	1400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 260 SLI	448 Bit	65 nm	1400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 260	448 Bit	65 nm	1400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce 9800 GX2	2x256 Bit	65 nm	2x754 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce 9800 GTX+	256 Bit	55 nm	754 million	PCIe 2.0

AMD Graphics Cards
Manufacturer and Chip	Codename	Memory	GPU Clock	Shader	Memory Clock	SPs
Radeon HD 4870 X2 4CF	2xR700	4x1024 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	4x800
Radeon HD 4870 X2	R700	2x1024 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	2x800
HIS Radeon HD 4870 X2	R700	2x1024 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	2x800
HIS Radeon HD 4870 X2 OC	R700	2x1024 MB GDDR5	800 MHz	4.1	3860 MHz	2x800
Asus Radeon HD 4870 X2 Top OC	R700	2x1024 MB GDDR5	790 MHz	4.1	3660 MHz	2x800
MSI Radeon HD 4870 X2 OC	R700	2x1024 MB GDDR5	780 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	2x800
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2	R700	2x1024 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	2x800
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 OC	R700	2x1024 MB GDDR5	790 MHz	4.1	3760 MHz	2x800
Radeon HD 4870 CF	RV770	512 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	800
Radeon HD 4870	RV770	512 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	800
Radeon HD 4850 CF	RV770	512 MB GDDR3	625 MHz	4.1	1986 MHz	800
Radeon HD 4850	RV770	512 MB GDDR3	625 MHz	4.1	1986 MHz	800
Radeon HD 4670	RV730	512 MB GDDR3	750 MHz	4.1	2000 MHz	320

Manufacturer and Chip	Memory Bus	Manufacturing Process	Transistors	Interface
Radeon HD 4870 X2 4CF	4x256 Bit	55 nm	4x956 million	PCIe 2.0
Radeon HD 4870 X2	2x256 Bit	55 nm	2x956 million	PCIe 2.0
HIS Radeon HD 4870 X2	2x256 Bit	55 nm	2x956 million	PCIe 2.0
HIS Radeon HD 4870 X2 OC	2x256 Bit	55 nm	2x956 million	PCIe 2.0
Asus Radeon HD 4870 X2 Top OC	2x256 Bit	55 nm	2x956 million	PCIe 2.0
MSI Radeon HD 4870 X2 OC	2x256 Bit	55 nm	2x956 million	PCIe 2.0
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2	2x256 Bit	55 nm	2x956 million	PCIe 2 .0
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 OC	2x256 Bit	55 nm	2x956 million	PCIe 2.0
Radeon HD 4870 CF	256 Bit	55 nm	956 million	PCIe 2.0
Radeon HD 4870	256 Bit	55 nm	956 million	PCIe 2.0
Radeon HD 4850 CF	256 Bit	55 nm	956 million	PCIe 2.0
Radeon HD 4850	256 Bit	55 nm	956 million	PCIe 2.0
Radeon HD 4670	128 Bit	55 nm	514 million	PCIe 2.0

^{Memory Clock=DDR clock rate doubled; physical clock rate is half
DDR5-DDR clock rate quadrupled; physical clock rate is one quarter
SPs=Stream Processors
OC=Overclocked (clock rate higher than standard)
SLI= 2 Nvidia cards in parallel
CF=CrossFire, 2 AMD cards in parallel
4CF=CrossFire, 4 AMD graphics chips in parallel
R700=2xRV770
Shader 2.0=DirectX 9.0; 3.0=DirectX 9.0c; 4.0=DirectX 10; Shader 4.1=DirectX 10.1}

The standard CPU for our graphic card charts is an X6800 Extreme Edition running at 2.93 GHz, which is comparable to an E6750 or E8200. For this high-performance test we used a quad-core CPU, which runs at 3.67 GHz, overclocked using the multiplier with settings of 11x333 MHz. If you’ve read the article Wake 3D Power Wake-up, you already know all the steps we took: in order to find the highest overall result, the fastest double chip card should get the fastest CPU partner. We had to choose between an E8500 at 3.8 GHz and the over clocked quad core CPU with 3.67 GHz; the latter turned out to be faster by 3.5%.

Nvidia Single Graphics Cards, AMD Single- and CrossFire Graphics Cards
CPU 1	Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6850 @ 3.673 GHz (11x333 MHz), Socket 775, 1.328 V, 65 nm, L2 Cache 2x4096 KB
CPU 2	Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 @ 2.93 GHz (11x266 MHz), Socket 775, 1.28 V, 65 nm, L2 Cache 4096 KB
CPU 3	Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 @ 3.47 GHz (13x266 MHz), Socket 775, 1.328 V, 65 nm, L2 Cache 4096 KB
CPU 4	Intel Core 2 E8500 @ 3.804 GHz (9.5x400 MHz), Socket 775, 1.272 V, 45 nm, L2 Cache 6144 KB
FSB	1066 MHz (4x266 MHz)
Motherboard	Asus P5E3 Deluxe, PCIe 2.0 2x16, ICH9R
Chipset	Intel X38
Memory	2x1 GB, Ballistix (Crucial Technology) 1.5 V, DDR3 1066 7-7-7-20 (2x533 MHz)
Audio	Intel High Definition Audio
LAN	Intel 1000 Pro
Hard Drives	Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500 GB, SATA, 16 MB Cache, Hitachi 120 GB, SATA, 8 MB Cache
DVD	Gigabyte GO-D1600C
Power Supply	CoolerMaster RS-850-EMBA 850 W

Nvidia SLI Graphics Cards
Motherboard	Asus P5N-T Deluxe, PCIe 2.0 2x16
Chipset	Nvidia nforce 780i SLI
Memory	2x1 GB, A-Data Technology 1.8 V, DDR2 800 5-5-5-18 (2x400 MHz)
Audio	ADI 1988B SoundMax
LAN	Marvell 88E1116 Gigabit

Drivers & Configuration
Graphic	AMD Catalyst 8.6 and 8.9, HD 4870 X2 ATI Catalyst 8.10, 9800 GX2 Nvidia ForceWare 175.16, GTX 260 und GTX 280 Forceware 177.39, Nvidia GeForce 180.42
Operating System	Windows Vista Enterprise SP1
DirectX	10 and 10.1
Chip Set Driver	X38 Intel 8.3.1.1009 780i Nvidia nForce 9.64