Powercolor ATI Radeon PCI - Express HD 4870 Video Card

[jesse]

The graphics card market has become a very complex market for various reasons. The first is the multiplication of references with that side largely to blame for NVIDIA. There are the more variations of the G80 which had originally given birth to the GeForce 8800 GTX, Ultra and GTS, without forgetting the "rename" old wild cards. The second reason which makes it difficult to find on the market: the price. Since that ATS has struggled to keep the pill high NVIDIA at the exit of the Radeon HD 2900 XT, there has been an erosion of prizes to be awarded by AMD so. Unable to fight on performance, the smelter had no other choice but to fight on prices. The result ranges of tariffs much closer than where we often spoke of cards below Rs-6500 to Rs-13000, Rs-19500 and others. Today, it would rather work in increments of Rs-4000.

In this hyper competitive market, instead of partners ATI and NVIDIA is not easy either. They should make sure to follow the pace of the two tenors sector and should especially try to distinguish themselves from other partners to attract potential consumers in their net. At this level, impossible to change the layout and PCBs in high-end products while in the middle and low-end, the margin for maneuver is greater. But a new PCB implies a cost and only large brands such as Asus can afford it. There is easier ways to distinguish themselves as offering a bundle complete with numerous cables, utilities and other video games. Some opt for adding memory sometimes aberrations materialize by low-end cards with a gigabyte of memory. More intelligent is to offer cards that offer a real gain in performance. The problem with these models is against a price increase, which puts them in competition with the industry tariff cards superior range. Last way to distinguish: propose an alternative cooling system with the aim less heating and more silence.



The map that we offer today in test has three points that we have set forth: overclocking, more memory and an alternative cooling system. This is the Connect 3D Radeon HD 4870 Extreme 1024 DDR5. As its name suggests, it doubles the amount of memory DDR5 from 512 to 1024 Mb . It also benefits to increase the frequency of GPU 750 to 770 MHz and memory from 900 to 950 MHz. Shy. Finally, the cooling system comes from Arctic Cooling: the Accelero Twin Turbo. All this of course inflates the price that goes to ... Rs 20000. It remains to be seen what gains to expect. Response in a test where we evaluate this card but also overclock frequency standards to isolate the interest of "giga" memory.

[jesse]

Test Configuration - STALKER Setup

For our tests, graphics cards have been mounted on the following:

Motherboard Asus P5E3 Deluxe Wi-Fi/AP
2x1024 MB DDR3-1600 7-6-6-24 OCZ Technology
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2 GHz
HP L3065 screen
SoundBlaster Audigy
Power Supplies Seasonic M12 500 watts
Hard Drive Western Digital Raptor 150 GB
Samsung Hard Drive 250 GB
Zalman CNPS9500 LED heatsink
DVD Toshiba-Samsung
ATI Catalyst 8.9
NVIDIA Forceware 178.13
Windows Vista SP1 update



STALKER

STALKER was part of the long list of vaporwares video game. This game is long out finally announced on 23 March 2007 and was not disappointing. STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl is a FPS RPG tinted developed by GSC Game World in Kiev and will have experienced a gestation period of 7 years! We tested this game with all the details pushed up, including a 16x anisotropic filter. We did not used against by anti-aliasing given the postponed Rendering system used by the game incompatible with the AA. NVIDIA has implemented in its pilot anti-aliasing, but the results are unconvincing and on screen, the difference is almost invisible. We do for each card the same move in a straight line and measure the FPS using the FRAP.





The "giga" memory of 4870 has almost no interest here and in the resolutions used in relation to the 4870 standard. Overclocke version of the 4870 allows you to match the GTX 260 v2 but the differences in terms of FPS are so ridiculous that a 4870 base is more than enough here.

[jesse]

FEAR



FEAR is not a title of the most recent since it was released more than two years but it remains interesting to see how to include graphics cards because this game can become very heavy if you activate all the details and if one goes up in resolution. In addition, the benchmark integrated has the merit of being very specific. Effective even if we blame him few mistakes: bugs so-called soft shadows with anti-aliasing prevent this information be used. And despite many patches, we have to version 1.08. This option will be the only disabled throughout our tests. All the details are pushed up, including in 16x anisotropic filter.

Without anti-aliasing

The number of FPS is much higher here but even if the 1 GB version can win FPS, visually, it does nothing. The 4870 base is already fast enough to ensure a smooth flow at all times ... The GTX 260 and 280 to remain, including before the overclocke Connect 3D.

With anti-aliasing 4X

By activating the anti-aliasing, the Connect 3D Extreme takes the advantage over the GTX 260 216 SP. By the gains against the 1 GB version remains insignificant and does not in any way justify the investment in this version

[jesse]

Need For Speed Pro Street



The philosophy has changed in this NFS Pro Street racing since not occur more wildly in the streets but on a circuit with races and other classic drag race. The tests are carried out with all the details up, including the filter anisotrope activated. The resolutions were used 1680x1050 and 1920x1200, with and without antialiasing.

Without anti-aliasing

Radeon HD 4870 512 MB Radeon HD Vs 4870 1024 Mb: 0-0, ball in the center. So no one walking with absolutely no gain in performance. Only the Extreme offers 2 more FPS, which is still insufficient to justify its purchase. As a reminder, the 4870X2 behaves badly here, probably because of drivers.

With anti-aliasing 4X

By activating the anti-aliasing, the situation is exactly the same that without anti-aliasing.

[jesse]

Rainbow 6 Vegas



Developed by Ubisoft, Rainbow Six Vegas uses the Unreal Engine 3 engine that allowed them development of the game simultaneously on Xbox 360. A detail that is not without significance. Note that the tests with anti-aliasing were made after activation function in the drivers. Indeed, this game does not have this setting but ATI and NVIDIA have implemented pilots. Our test is to play a scene clarifies why we measure FPS with FRAP.

Without anti-aliasing





The MB 4870 1024 no increase while the Extreme 3D Connect offers a few more FPS ...

With anti-aliasing





The 4x anti-aliasing does not change the done, unfortunately for the Radeon 1024 MB and Extreme

[jesse]

Summary of performance
History synthesize our results, we calculated an index of Performance taking as the threshold Radeon HD 4870 core with 512 MB of GDDR5. In each game, we have reduced the number of FPS to 100 Index calculated on the basis of this graphics card.



These figures are eloquent and without appeal in the 1024 MB of GDDR5. The gain it brings in 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 is only 1.7%! Timidness overclocke version of Connect 3D and also with 1024 MB of memory brings his side a gain of 4.5%, which is better but not enough to justify its price.

History of completeness, here are the details of these induces with and without anti-aliasing. You see that power relations are very similar to what we have just mentioned ...