ATI Radeon HD 4730 Review

[krusha03]

As far as I know this hasn’t been posted here yet and could very well be the first the review of HD4730, just be aware the site is in German.

In short from what I have seen the cards has as previously said 700MHz core, 900MHz GDDR5 128-bit memory and 640sp, but only 8 ROP with reduces performance quite a lot. They are as well puzzled to why does Powercolor opted for 2x 6pin Molex connectors since the card it supposed to use 110W (same as 4830) which would mean 1 is sufficient.

Generally the cards is around 20-30% better than the 9600GT, trades punches with the 8800GT/9800GT and is around 10% weaker than the 4830 and around 20% weaker than the 4770. I think the site rightfully calls it a paper tiger and unfortunately we don’t have another 4770 surprise

 

[KainXS]

all they did was take there old 4870 boards and stick cut down gpu's on em and put of 4 GDDR5 pcs on them so it would only detect as 8 rops, they better be cheap at least.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

That pic looks exactly like my powercolor 1g 4870.

 

[krusha03]

I don't know about the US, but here in Netherlands they are around €75 which makes them the same price as 4830 and like €5-15 euros cheaper than 4770 and 4850 which are all better buy than this one. But i think the 4790 will be a killer card if priced right

 

[CH@NO]

like I said before It seems a piece of JUNK, a total waste of money.

even if It's priced low, It needs 2xPCI-E connectors, therefore the market that this card is aimed not all have reliable PSUs that have two PCI-E cables, then they must use one adapter sacrificing 2xMolex.

EDIT: Just viewed all the benchies....I dunno why ATI launched this card, It sucks.......the HD 4790 looks a lot more promising.

 

[LittleLizard]

like I said before It seems a piece of JUNK, a total waste of money.

even if It's priced low, It needs 2xPCI-E connectors, therefore the market that this card is aimed not all have reliable PSUs that have two PCI-E cables, then they must use one adapter sacrificing 2xMolex.

EDIT: Just viewed all the benchies....I dunno why ATI launched this card, It sucks.......the HD 4790 looks a lot more promising.

dont you think in

A-The possibility of work with only one pcie connector as the old 2900 pro and xt
B-The insane oc potential of this

If A is true, then your theory is unvalidated and is just anothe card with insane B potential for OC.

 

[Agility]

Don't forget that the 4830 is a "broken" version of 4850. The 4730 is just a 4830 but in a 4850 PCB + Cheaper GDDR5.

 

[1Kurgan1]

Don't forget that the 4830 is a "broken" version of 4850. The 4730 is just a 4830 but in a 4850 PCB + Cheaper GDDR5.

I'm doubting this is a broken version of a 4830. They will go through a binning process most likely, but remember all these chips start trying to fiti na 4890 > 4870 > 4850 > 4830 then 4730.

And if any lesson was to be learned, the reason they get binned down is almost never the OC potential, but SP issues andn ow probably ROP issues. As I don't think I have ever heard of a 4830 that couldn't get close to 700mhz on the core, thats down right impressive, as they clock just about as well as 4850's.

 

[a_ump]

wow, the HD 4790 does look very promising. If it overclocks nicely i'd say it'll have performance right on top of the HD 4870. in fact if it's priced about $120, i don't see HD 4870 sales doing very good as with an overclock on the memory, which i would think the ddr5 on it can reach 900mhz as all GDDR5 seems to have, and the core it should perform exactly like the HD 4870. The core is clocked at 600mhz, but seeing as how its the RV790 core, which is supposed to clock to 850mhz stock, i would again expect the RV790 cores to reach at least 750mhz. those overclocks are the same as teh HD 4870's stock clocks, and as the RV790 core is slightly better than the RV770, you could presume the HD 4790 at the same clocks as a stock HD 4870, is a better performer.

 

[jagass]

Thanks for posting this review...

 

[a_ump]

i just noticed the HD 4730 has a higher TDP than the HD 4770 by 30watts, don't see that very often, lower end with higher tdp

 

[krusha03]

That's because its the same core as the 4830 just with 128bit DDR5 and 8 ROPs because of the 4 chips I guess

 

[KainXS]

it probably overclocks like crap too since we know ati would be crazy not to stick their low binned gpu's . . . . kinda like how their momma AMD did to cut down Phenom X4's with problems to X3's.

Ch@no is right, this is a waste of money, more than likely a way to dump their garbage low binned gpu's and old unused 4870 pcb's if anyones a sucker enough to buy one, they succeeded.

 

[CH@NO]

and is just anothe card with insane B potential for OC.

For that purpose exist the HD 4770 my friend, launch another card that requires 2xPCI-E connectors and performs maybe equal or worse than it is just plain stupid.

 

[W1zzard]

my card should arrive tomorrow

 

[krusha03]

my card should arrive tomorrow

Can't wait to see the review and maybe you could provide further info about the 2x 6-pin molex requirement

Anyway I guess I will be going with 4830 or 4850 since this card is really not worth it and 4770 are hard to find