AMD/ATI introduces fastest graphics cards yet
The other major AMD related news release today was the introduction of the new ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card which AMD/ATI calls the “world’s fastest graphics card.” Unlike NVIDIA which opted to create larger and faster GPUs, AMD opted to go the multi-processor route by building smaller GPUs and then combining them for graphics processing performance. According to AMD, the new Radeon HD 4870 X2 delivers 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing power on a single card thanks to 2GB of GDDR5 memory and two RV770 GPUs on the card clocked in at 750 MHz for a total of 1600 stream processors.
So that’s nice and dandy but is this all marketing fluff or is there something to what ATI is saying when it comes to multi-processor graphics cards? Luckily, there are a number of first hand reviews on the net so let’s see what they’re saying online.
First off, we have the folks at ExtremeTech:
ATI takes the performance crown by a good margin with the 4870 X2, but we expect future products to solve the common multi-GPU problems.
Over at Guru3D:
Money aside, what a true pleasure it has been testing the 4870 X2 cards. Personally I play my games at 2560×1600, I’m one of those lucky bastards to own a 30″ Dell screen, and playing games like Call of duty 4 or Mass Effect with framerates over 80 FPS in that resolution with the highest Image Quality settings available .. that’s just amazingly impressive .. well even that might be a slight understatement. Astounding is likely the right word for this product.
At the TechReport:
However, if you want the absolute ultimate graphics subsystem, you’ll find it in a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards, which unspooled a fluid ribbon of track in front of us in GRID at over 100 FPS at 2560×1600 resolution.
HotHardware has this to say:
In the end though, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 simply rocks.
Good ol Anandtech says:
The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is good, it continues to be the world’s fastest single card solution, provided that you’re running a game with CrossFire support.
Yes, those are certainly good reviews for the new Radeon.. but if you read the reviews yourself, you’ll notice a common theme – these cards are expensive! Heck – they’re more expensive than some low end PCs out on the market. Now if money is no object, then it appears the HD 4870 X2 is certainly the fastest card out there – also assuming you run the right games.
However, if money is something of a concern, you might be interested in the other new ATI product announced today – the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 graphics card. The 4850 will be priced under $400 dollars (which is still darn expensive in my eyes) and offer 2GB of DDR3 memory and two GPUs clocked at 625MHz.
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