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Aside from the heat output this definately sounds like a better buy (the 4870) than does the GTX 280 -- after all, is it really worth 2x the cost [of the 4870] for a card that performs not-so substantially better? Yes the 280 will out perform it but who, I ask of you, would truely take advantage of this performance increase that would not be able to have an enjoyable experience with ATI's counterpart?

I was looking forward of reading this review at HH :)

great review, just wish overclocking was tested, since according to some reports after an after market cooler, you can get it to be around the gtx 280 level.

i think its clear that this gen, ati is king. sure nvidia has the better performance but for 2x as much id much rather crossfire the 4870

This was definatly a good reveiw. Im impressed with both the ATI and the nvidia cards.The implementation of DDR5 is definatly a plus at the same time with me the price point to performance ratio is probably going to have a factor in my decision when I get in a financial situation to do so.It already has got me excited thinking about an aftermarket cooler just to see what kind of numbers I can acheive in lowering the temps and OCing options. When I get ready to pick up one of these Bad Boys they,ll be more updates to this reveiw by HH.Good read HH!

What I thought was most significant is that two 4850's in Crossfire performs almost identically to a single GeForce GTX 280 in all tests, but the dual 4850 setup ends up being around $250 cheaper (2x$199 vs $649). That is a huge deal. Even considering potential Crossfire scaling issues with certain games, you're still clearly ahead with a $250 savings.

The best part is, since the 4850's are single-slot cards that use a single 6-pin power connector, dual 4850s technically have the same physical footprint as a single GeForce GTX 280. Granted, the Crossfire setup would produce more heat and consume more power than a single GTX 280, but the difference isn't huge. I don't even see the point on a single GTX 280 setup now.

LovelyCrap:

What I thought was most significant is that two 4850's in Crossfire performs almost identically to a single GeForce GTX 280 in all tests, but the dual 4850 setup ends up being around $250 cheaper (2x$199 vs $649). That is a huge deal. Even considering potential Crossfire scaling issues with certain games, you're still clearly ahead with a $250 savings.

The best part is, since the 4850's are single-slot cards that use a single 6-pin power connector, dual 4850s technically have the same physical footprint as a single GeForce GTX 280. Granted, the Crossfire setup would produce more heat and consume more power than a single GTX 280, but the difference isn't huge. I don't even see the point on a single GTX 280 setup now.

 

 

Well thats my thinking on it even at a savings of $250 over the 280,s Certainly the option of ati,s single card slot would be in my price range and of course the pricing as it is I think will cause nvidia to be a little more competitive in its pricing!

I too am very pleased by the results of this review, but where's my HD video IN? We still need cards that can take in an HD signal with a DVI or HDMI plug. Regardless, I'll probably be buying one of these before long.

 well ya never know. nvidia may slash the prices on the gtx 280 now to stay in the game otherwise I don't see them selling.

I doubt the 280 will be available for under 6 bills for at least a couple months and probably won't be under 5 till next year... just my oppinion.

Wow, the GTX 260 is officially obselete for the time being.  Not only does the 4870 cost less and perform the same, Nvidia's own 9800GTX+ performs almost as good and also costs less.

The GTX 280 is really for people who only want the best without thinking of cost.  Otherwise it's wise to consider the 4870.

well the 9800gtx+ gonna cost $199 i believe so seems like best deal

 Hi All

Well this certainly puts AMD/ATI back in the Graphics card race. Best of all we the consumer benefit by them offering a viable alternative to Nvidias products. Great review as always.

Well this is nice to see.  It good to see ATI humbling nVidia even a lil bit, I mean I won't be buying anything new as with the res I play at I am CPU bound before more often then my gfx card is showing signs of stress.  However this is nice for lots of reasons it will drive the cost of my next upgrade down.  Who knows I may go back ATI again.  This 88GT has served me well, but something in me misses my old friend 'the radeon'.

Just thought id let you know i put in my order for Radeon 4870 yesterday. Thanks for the review.

Got mine in Yesterday......man it is wonderfull, i overclocked it right off the bat to max settings and it runs stable as a rock, (790 core clock, 1100 mem. clock) it runs a bit hot, the stock fan settings run at 23% and the card under load runs at 87-90c but i did a fan mod and have the fan running at 40% and temps drop down to mid 40's. i havent done any benches as i dont have any benching software :P but crysis runs at 25 fps average on all high settings with the overclock and upper teens without the overclock. if anyone has any questions about the card ill happily answer :)

 

mlovely

Looks like ATI is still not checking up with Nvidia. I head that the 4870 X2 is suppose to come out this month though and that is suppose to beat the single GTX 280. We'll see about that.

 

peti1212:

Looks like ATI is still not checking up with Nvidia. I head that the 4870 X2 is suppose to come out this month though and that is suppose to beat the single GTX 280. We'll see about that.

 

 

 you get 80% of nvidias GTX 280 performance for half the price. That is really + 1 to ATI in my book.  Then you can always crossfire the 4870 or wait til their high end x2 part comes out if you have to have the best of the best. Either way a crossfire setup with either 4850 or 4870 is faster than the 280. That is something I think that has suprised me and a lot of tech people. Ati came out of no where with exellent price/performance. You can get the best gaming graphics now without having to spend 600 dollars on a video card. I appreciate ATI's gutcheck to nvidias $699 gtx 280.

Ok.....im addicted to hardware, I am not asshamed to admit it..........

 

Good news: i got a second saphire 4870, overclocked it the same os my first and am running them in crossfire mode.

 

the bad news: i dont see a huge bump in performance....or evin a slight bump.....im assuming drivers are the issue, im running ccc 8.6 so tonight i will dl and try the leaked 8.7 beta drivers and see if it fixes crossfire.