ATI Radeon HD 4670, Redefining The Mainstream
We have explained in numerous articles in the past that the bulk of GPU sales are made in the form of ether IGPs (Integrated Graphics Processors) or affordable, mainstream graphics cards. As powerful and exciting as the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 or GeForce GTX 280 cards may be, AMD and NVIDIA simply don't sell as many flagship products as they do mainstream cards.
It is because of this fact that both companies consistently refresh their mainstream offerings every few months or so, and continually push new features and performance down their respective product lines. As many of you may have expected, since AMD recently released the RV770 GPU, which is the foundation of the Radeon HD 4800 series, a new mainstream offering was obviously in the works. And today, we can finally show that card to you.
AMD is releasing a new salvo of mainstream graphics cards that should fall in the sub-$80 price segment, dubbed the Radeon HD 4670. The GPU at the heart of the 4670 is based on the RV770 architecture used on the Radeon HD 4800 series, sans a few stream processors, ROPs, and other assorted elements, but with what is essentially the same feature set as its more expensive counterparts. We've got a couple of these new cards on hand and plan to show you what they're capable of on the pages ahead. After reading, you may be surprised by what 80 bucks can get you these days...
ATI Radeon HD 4670
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| 514 million transistors on 55nm fabrication process PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface GDDR3/DDR3/DDR2 memory interface (depending on model) Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support
ATI CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology
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ATI Avivo HD Video and Display Platform
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As the above list of specifications and features show, the new Radeon HD 4670 has essentially the exact same features as the cards in the Radeon HD 4800 series. The Radeon HD 4670 offers DX10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support. These GPUs are manufactured on TSMC's 55nm process node and the cards support ATI's CrossFireX multi-GPU technology.
Since we've covered essentially all of the shared features of the Radeon HD 4800 and 4600 series cards before, we won't be going into them in depth again here. However, we would recommend taking a look at a few recent articles to brush up on the tech, if you're so inclined.
- ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870: RV770 Has Arrived
- ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 - AMD Back On Top
- R680 Has Landed: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
- ATI Radeon HD 3870 and 3850: 55nm RV670
- ATI Catalyst 8.3 Sneak Peek: CrossFireX and More
- AMD Hybrid CrossFire Sneak Peek
Reading the articles above will lay the groundwork for much of what we'll be showing you on the pages ahead. Because the new Radeon HD 4670 shares the same core architecture as the cards in the Radeon HD 4800 series, with some elements pared down to reduce die size, they have basically the same feature set and capabilities but differentiate in terms of performance.
