Power Consumption and Conclusions
Even though the Radeon HD 4870 X2 was the best performing card, it is also the most power hungry. The GTX 280 card uses about 100 watts less at load and 40 watts less at idle – this is big edge for NVIDIA’s parts. Interestingly the SLI-configured GTX 260 cards use nearly the same power at idle and load as the single HD 4870 X2.
Performance
There is little room to debate that the new AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB is the best performing graphics card on the market. By combining the power of a pair of RV770 GPUs along with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the R700 design is able to run away from NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 280 1GB card handily. Our various game tests proved this – Crysis, Call of Duty 4 and GRID showed big gains for AMD’s new card at resolutions 2048×1536 and 2560×1600 though they were minimal at 1600×1200. If you are stuck with a monitor resolution of 16×12 or so, then the GTX 280 would probably be powerful enough to max out your gaming experience but if you have, or plan on having, a higher resolution screen then the HD 4870 X2 2GB is for you.
We threw in a test configuration that consisted of a pair of GeForce GTX 260 cards in SLI against the Radeon HD 4870 X2 card simply because the pricing structure made it interesting. With a price of about $275 in some places you can get two of them for the estimated price of a single HD 4870 X2. How did they perform? Actually quite well – they were able to keep pace with or best the Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB card in most of our games but not all. However, keep in mind that this solution requires an NVIDIA 790i SLI motherboard as well as four expansion slots and four PCIe power connectors compared to half that with the HD 4870 X2.
That’s a lot of horsepower…
One area I was very disappointed was with the HD 4870 X2’s ability to scale with four GPUs. In nearly all of our tests we saw at BEST minimal scaling going from 2 GPUs to 4 GPUs even at the top 2560×1600 resolution. Obviously AMD was more focused on getting 2 GPU performance at its best for the HD 4870 X2 release and we are hoping to see Quad CrossFire X scaling better in the coming months.
Pricing and Availability
We already mentioned the prices of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and the upcoming HD 4850 X2 but let’s compare those prices to the NVIDIA competition. The GeForce GTX 280 1GB card is currently selling for $430 and up in our pricing engine. This is a HUGE price drop from the original $649 that it launched at, a change brought about mainly because of the power or the RV770 GPU and the fear of the R700 card we reviewed today. At $549 (lower according to some partners we talked to), the AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB is the most expensive single card on the market, but it is also by far the fastest as our benchmarks and testing clearly showed.
We did compare the HD 4870 X2 to a pair of GTX 260s in SLI mode since those NVIDIA cards sell for about half of the HD 4870 X2 and the performance of NVIDIA’s parts was very good. If NVIDIA can get a pair of these GPUs on a single graphics card (and I have my doubts) then they have a chance of re-taking the performance crown.
Oh, and these HD 4870 X2 cards were already showing up for sale this weekend so I would guess you’ll find them at your favorite e-tailer this week.
UPDATE: These cards are finally showing up online at Newegg.com:
Final Thoughts
Just like we concluded in our preview last month, the AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB graphics card is incredibly impressive and easily takes the performance lead for a single graphics away from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280. The power consumption is pretty high, on par with a pair of GTX 260s and we were let down by the performance of CrossFireX but neither of these factors over-shadow the power the card provided for high-resolution and high image quality gaming. If you need an enthusiast-class graphics card for your next gaming system then AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB is your ticket to gaming nirvana.
Performance
There is little room to debate that the new AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB is the best performing graphics card on the market. By combining the power of a pair of RV770 GPUs along with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the R700 design is able to run away from NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 280 1GB card handily. Our various game tests proved this – Crysis, Call of Duty 4 and GRID showed big gains for AMD’s new card at resolutions 2048×1536 and 2560×1600 though they were minimal at 1600×1200. If you are stuck with a monitor resolution of 16×12 or so, then the GTX 280 would probably be powerful enough to max out your gaming experience but if you have, or plan on having, a higher resolution screen then the HD 4870 X2 2GB is for you.
We threw in a test configuration that consisted of a pair of GeForce GTX 260 cards in SLI against the Radeon HD 4870 X2 card simply because the pricing structure made it interesting. With a price of about $275 in some places you can get two of them for the estimated price of a single HD 4870 X2. How did they perform? Actually quite well – they were able to keep pace with or best the Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB card in most of our games but not all. However, keep in mind that this solution requires an NVIDIA 790i SLI motherboard as well as four expansion slots and four PCIe power connectors compared to half that with the HD 4870 X2.
That’s a lot of horsepower…
One area I was very disappointed was with the HD 4870 X2’s ability to scale with four GPUs. In nearly all of our tests we saw at BEST minimal scaling going from 2 GPUs to 4 GPUs even at the top 2560×1600 resolution. Obviously AMD was more focused on getting 2 GPU performance at its best for the HD 4870 X2 release and we are hoping to see Quad CrossFire X scaling better in the coming months.
Pricing and Availability
We already mentioned the prices of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and the upcoming HD 4850 X2 but let’s compare those prices to the NVIDIA competition. The GeForce GTX 280 1GB card is currently selling for $430 and up in our pricing engine. This is a HUGE price drop from the original $649 that it launched at, a change brought about mainly because of the power or the RV770 GPU and the fear of the R700 card we reviewed today. At $549 (lower according to some partners we talked to), the AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB is the most expensive single card on the market, but it is also by far the fastest as our benchmarks and testing clearly showed.
We did compare the HD 4870 X2 to a pair of GTX 260s in SLI mode since those NVIDIA cards sell for about half of the HD 4870 X2 and the performance of NVIDIA’s parts was very good. If NVIDIA can get a pair of these GPUs on a single graphics card (and I have my doubts) then they have a chance of re-taking the performance crown.
Oh, and these HD 4870 X2 cards were already showing up for sale this weekend so I would guess you’ll find them at your favorite e-tailer this week.
UPDATE: These cards are finally showing up online at Newegg.com:
Final Thoughts
Just like we concluded in our preview last month, the AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB graphics card is incredibly impressive and easily takes the performance lead for a single graphics away from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280. The power consumption is pretty high, on par with a pair of GTX 260s and we were let down by the performance of CrossFireX but neither of these factors over-shadow the power the card provided for high-resolution and high image quality gaming. If you need an enthusiast-class graphics card for your next gaming system then AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB is your ticket to gaming nirvana.
Where do l download new
Where do l download new drivers for my 4870×2 2gig graphic card and can it play crysis 3