Basic Guide on ATI Radeon video cards of Fall/Winter 2009

[Bo_Fox]

A quick review of today's cards to buy (1GB configurations for all versions will be compared against each other):

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Radeon HD 4770: 750 MHz, 640 shaders / 32 TMU's, 51.2 GB/s

Radeon HD 4850: 625 MHz, 800 shaders / 40 TMU's (roughly equal GPU fillrate to 4770), 64 GB/s (result: 8% faster than 4770 overall)

Radeon HD 5750: 700 MHz, 720 shaders / 36 TMU's (roughly equal GPU fillrate to 4770), 74 GB/s (result: 16% faster than 4770 overall)

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Radeon HD 5770: 850 MHz, 800 shaders / 40 TMU's (36% more GPU clock than HD 4850), 77 GB/s (result: 35% faster than 4770 overall) (25% faster than 4850)

Radeon HD 4870: 750 MHz, 800 shaders / 40 TMU's (20% more GPU clock than HD 4850), 115 GB/s (result: 45% faster than 4770 overall)

Radeon HD 4890: 850 MHz, 800 shaders / 40 TMU's (36% more GPU clock than HD 4850), 125 GB/s (result: 60% faster than 4770 overall)

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Radeon HD 5850: 725 MHz, 1440 shaders / 72 TMU's / 32 ROP's (54% more GPU fillrate than HD 4890), 128 GB/s (result: 32% faster than 4890)

Radeon HD 5870: 850 MHz, 1600 shaders / 80 TMU's / 32 ROP's (100% more GPU fillrate than HD 4890), 154 GB/s (result: 60% faster than 4890)

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(A 4870 X2 is practically equal to two 4870 1GB's in Crossfire, and a 5970 is right in between two 5850's and two 5870's in Crossfire).

Enjoy the numbers!!!!

The 4770 and the 5xxx series are made on 40nm process. A 5750 should eat around half the power that a 4850 requires, and still be faster. All of the 40nm GPU's are incredibly energy-efficient when idle.

The 5xxx series come with DX11 support (and tiny bit better I.Q. with AF and new SSAA modes) which is another plus, but hardly makes up for relatively low bandwidth. The 5750 seems to be the least bandwidth-bottlenecked of all the 5xxx cards.

Originally Posted by AzN (from another forum)

Bandwidth plays a vital role in minimum frame rates where 4890 has whole lot of. You go back track some reviews of the 5770 vs 4870/4890 and the average frame rate difference and minimum frame rate difference show quite a bit of discrepancy. So if 5770 was 10-15% slower in avg frame rates it might be 25% slower in minimum frame rates which matter more to a gamer than peak frame rates.

Also, just avoid the 512MB version if you can. It hardly makes sense to buy a card because of DX11 support, but with 512MB instead of 1GB (unless you game at lower than 1680x1050 for the next 2 years). A 1GB version is usually only $20 more or so.

Try to avoid anything with a lower number than the 4770 (or 4830 which is 5% slower than 4770), if you plan on using the video card for more than 2 years, and still play games. Even if those cheaper video cards are newly released, they will have difficulty running some of today's demanding games at 1680x1050 resolution with normal or default settings. You would have to bother turning down the settings in Crysis, Neverwinter Nights 2, Stalker Clear Sky, etc.. with anything considerably slower than a 4770. With cards as bad as integrated graphics, you might not even be able to play some of the newer games at all.

Hope this post is helpful for newcomers who try to decide on which card to buy this year. Merry Christmas, y'all!


(Here's a similar guide on Nvidia's cards of 2009: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=109006 )


TPU has a wonderful performance summary (some numbers might be a bit different with 512MB versions--just add around 5% for 1GB versions):
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...50_PCS/30.html

[Kantastic]

Simple and straightforward summary of the more recent cards.

[HammerON]

Thanks Bo!
Nice summary~

[Jstn7477]

Nice summary.

I voted NVIDIA because I have 2 NVIDIA cards in my rig and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

[Lionheart]

Looks good man, gonna grab a HD5970 when ever I can!

[newfellow]

Originally Posted by CHAOS_KILLA

Looks good man, gonna grab a HD5970 when ever I can!

combine that with an PhysX card and we got a deal.

[wolf]

Good stuff, Mite get another 5870 as an Xmas pressie for myself, but already have one

[Lionheart]

Originally Posted by wolf

Good stuff, Mite get another 5870 as an Xmas pressie for myself, but already have one

One's never enough man, we all know that LMAO

[Jeffredo]

Nice summary - that HD 5750 is an awesome little card for modest systems. I've always been impressed with tech that cuts power usage, heat and physical size while increasing performance.

[chaotic_uk]

so the 4870 is 10% faster than the 5770 ? , strange cause my 5770 beats the 4870 i had in my setup

[Bo_Fox]

Originally Posted by chaotic_uk

so the 4870 is 10% faster than the 5770 ? , strange cause my 5770 beats the 4870 i had in my setup

Yeah, the 5770 does beat 4870 in a few games. If the 4870 has only 512MB, the 5770 is closer to 4870's performance overall (although the 512MB 4870 still beats 5770 at 1920x1200 according to TPU's reviews). It might change when DX11 games start coming out.

(Edit, no not 10% faster. Just divide 145 by 135 and you get 7.4% difference, for a rough estimation. Perhaps it's closer to 5% overall, for the 1GB version of 4870?)

[sweeper]

considering I JUST replaced my XFX Geforce 6600GT with a XFX Radeon HD4650 1GB .... umm I don't plan on upgrading anytime soon. LOL.

[Bo_Fox]

Originally Posted by sweeper

considering I JUST replaced my XFX Geforce 6600GT with a XFX Radeon HD4650 1GB .... umm I don't plan on upgrading anytime soon. LOL.

Well, that's pretty good of an upgrade from a 6600GT.

[wolf]

That's a massive upgrade from a 6600GT, my 6800Ultra was a good 20 cards ago, I WISH I could be satisfied for that long

[Lionheart]

Hey wolf, how much did your Asus motherboard cost!

[wolf]

Twas ~$440 at the time of purchase in May/June, I highly recommend it for reasons I've been over like o/c and dual card spacing, but Gigabyte X58 UD5's are about the same price here and have more sata, o/c as good or better, and can tri card, where mine cant...



See the first slot (blue) and second slot (white) have awesome spacing for 2 cards, but the third (black) is too close and you cant tri card it unlless the last two are single slot.

But hey, 2 GPU's is the optimum over a single anyway, 3-4 GPU scaling is in the toilet, for the most part.

[Lionheart]

Originally Posted by wolf

Twas ~$440 at the time of purchase in May/June, I highly recommend it for reasons I've been over like o/c and dual card spacing, but Gigabyte X58 UD5's are about the same price here and have more sata, o/c as good or better, and can tri card, where mine cant...

http://images.hardwareinfo.net/produ...rge/056262.jpg

See the first slot (blue) and second slot (white) have awesome spacing for 2 cards, but the third (black) is too close and you cant tri card it unlless the last two are single slot.

But hey, 2 GPU's is the optimum over a single anyway, 3-4 GPU scaling is in the toilet, for the most part.

Ok cool, thanx for the info and pic, theres a couple on ebay I was thinking of getting it, I was really after the EVGA 768 Classified X58 board but its around $600 and thats not worth it at all, I heard the gigabyte ones were good too but i have never liked their colour scheme to plain for me, so i was considering the board you got, its around $450 on ebay right now, better than $600 but still quiet pricey, maybe down the track i will pick one up if Im lucky enough

[HossHuge]

I figure my 4850's fit somewhere between the 4890 and 5850 so I feel ok for now. Too bad they suck so much power.

Great idea OP!

[Lionheart]

if you got money, sell em both and grab 2 HD5770 for CF

[InnocentCriminal]

All depends if my girlfriend buys me a 5850.

:/

Told her not to until the January sales.

:P

Nothing wrong with my 4870, love it!

[HossHuge]

Originally Posted by CHAOS_KILLA

if you got money, sell em both and grab 2 HD5770 for CF

No chance. I can't believe the wife let me have rig 3.

I guess Wiz is going to have to include Larrabee in the Graphics Card sub-section soon eh?

[Lionheart]

When is Larrabee coming out!

[HossHuge]

Originally Posted by CHAOS_KILLA

When is Larrabee coming out!

according to wiki..

The first video cards featuring Larrabee are likely to be released in the first quarter of 2010.

Who do you think will be first? Larrabee or Nvidia with the g3XX cards?

[wolf]

Originally Posted by HossHuge

Who do you think will be first? Larrabee or Nvidia with the g3XX cards?

the $64,000 question....

[Lionheart]

Intel making graphic cards, that weird but interesting!