AMD Radeon HD 4870 512MB
AMD is releasing two new graphics cards with the RV770 today: the Radeon HD 4870 and the Radeon HD 4850; the 4870 will sell for an MSRP of $299 while the 4850 will go for $199.
First up is the Radeon HD 4870 – the highest end part being released today. It is a two-slot graphics card with a cooler design that looks pretty familiar to previous designs. Specifications are as follows:
- Radeon HD 4870
- 800 Stream processors
- 750 MHz core clock
- 1800 MHz GDDR5 memory clock
- 512MB frame buffer
- Max board power 160 watts
The rear of the card doesn’t reveal anything interesting about the card – all the memory remains safely hidden under the heatsink.
The HD 4870 features two dual-link DVI outputs and a TV output connection for S-Video or a dongle that can support other connections. Both of these DVI connectors continue to support the DVI-to-HDMI adapters with integrated audio output.
The HD 4870 requires two 6-pin power connectors – the 160 watts of power required just barely misses the 150 watt cut off of PCI Express + single 6-pin power connector.
The HD 4870 512MB card also supports CrossFireX technology – the ability to pair 2, 3 or even 4 AMD GPUs for increased gaming performance. The CrossFire connectors on the 4800-series cards are identical to those of the 3000-series.
Ripping that heatsink off reveals the RV770 GPU and eight lonely GDDR5 memory chips; notice that unlike the NVIDIA GT200 cards the AMD HD 4870 does not have a separate display driver chip.
The cooler on the HD 4870 consists of a copper heatsink that uses heat pipes to transfer heat to the aluminum fins that is all surrounded by a metal fan chassis to blow air across the components.
Here is a close up shot of the RV770 die with a nice shiny quarter next to it.
The Qimonda memory chip is the first implementation of GDDR5 on a consumer product.
Finally, the Sapphire kit that was included with the HD 4870 consists of drivers, DVD playback software and even a 2GB USB thumb drive.
Great post there…. Just
Great post there…. Just have one question though, if you have to compare the rv770 to a xenos (which is in the xbox360), how many times more powerful would it be?