HD 4860 Starts Shipping in Two Weeks, HD 4750 Follows

[btarunr]

ATI surprised us last month, when sections of the Chinese media leaked information about Radeon HD 4860, a new SKU that intends to succeed Radeon HD 4850 in the $120~$130 segment. Fresh information suggests that the SKU indeed will see the light of the day, even outside China. Slated to ship from around August 18, the HD 4860 will substitute the HD 4850, which is handling the lower price segment of $90~$110. This only gives you an idea of how intense competition has become in the sub $150 graphics market.

Another bit of information surfacing is about the Radeon HD 4750. Even as the Radeon HD 4770 is suffering stock shortages around the world, ATI seems to be going ahead with the HD 4750, a graphics card based on the 40 nm RV740 GPU. The HD 4750 has similar specifications to the HD 4770. It even sports GDDR5 memory. The RV740 core runs at 730 MHz, and its memory at 800 MHz (3200 MHz effective). While the memory clock speed is identical to that of the HD 4770, the core is clocked slightly lower. Overall, the card won't have as much overclocking headroom as the HD 4770, because it will not draw power from a 6-pin power connector. The design ensures existing low-performing raw materials are utilized more effectively. The HD 4750 is expected to be priced at $88 initially. The first batch of these cards will be very small, quantity-wise.

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to Florence (INPAI) for the information.

[hat]

4750...

Forget flooding the market, the water level has hit the ceiling, all they're doing now is increacing the water density/pressure.

[btarunr]

And it's working in favour of ATI. Consumers needn't care. They'll see more "ATI" when they walk into a store. For ATI it means that it has several different SKUs, and their own inventories to play with. There won't be shortage of an ATI GPU at any price-point.

[Semi-Lobster]

Originally Posted by hat

4750...

Forget flooding the market, the water level has hit the ceiling, all they're doing now is increacing the water density/pressure.

I wouldn't say they're flooding the market. They're filling in niches. AMD/ATI knows that a lot of people have different things they want to see in a videocard. Such as a 4770 without a 6pin connector, but all these SKUs are kinda getting crazy, they really didn't need one for something this (like the Albatron Radeon HD 4830 'Green Edition' for example, which was still called a 4830 even though it had 800 shading units).

Also whatever happened to the Radeon HD 4790 that was going to be based on the RV790 GPU? Did it turn into this Radeon HD 4860?

[DaJMasta]

Damn they're milking this product generation..... I guess with all the similar divisions from nVidia neither company wants to have a product that doesn't match up with a counterpart from the other..... or both want one but both make new skus to stop the other.

[tigger]

Its getting a bit confusing now with so many differant 46xx/47xx/48xx cards :S

[ShadowFold]

I think I understand why they're doing this. When you go to newegg and real life shops, you always see twice as many nvidia cards.. That's because they have twice as many different cards.. AMD is just flooding the market like they are in hopes of getting caught up with nvidia. I think.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by ShadowFold

I think I understand why they're doing this. When you go to newegg and real life shops, you always see twice as many nvidia cards.. That's because they have twice as many different cards.. AMD is just flooding the market like they are in hopes of getting caught up with nvidia. I think.

Yup, that's the thing. The consumer doesn't stand to lose anything since there always are reviews to look up to. If you didn't do your homework before buying the graphics card, it's your problem. All it takes is Google.

[rake]

Clearly the superior card can be chosen merely by perusing the box it's packaged in. Why else would every two-bit hardware review site dedicate THREE WHOLE pages to describing the box in minute detail?

[a_ump]

true true. If the price point is $80, i really don't see how the HD 4750 is gonna lack compared to the 70. 30mhz difference in core clock isn't much and i realize without the 6-pin connector it won't oc much but hey, PCI-E 2 is supposed to be able to provide 150watts isn't it? it just hasn't been like approved or implented right?

[Static~Charge]

I have to ask the obvious question: if ATI is already having trouble meeting demand for the 4770, where are they going to get RV740 GPUs for the 4750? Or is ATI using RV740s that didn't measure up to the 4770's specs? That would explain the "first batch of these cards will be very small, quantity-wise" comment....

[a_ump]

they did say in short supply :P. There is a thuoght around that the reason HD 4770 availability is so bad is because most of the 40nm efforts are being used to produce enough RV870 cores. that is just a thought though XD

[F2K]

TSMC has improved the yield in 40nm process. They are at 60% success rate now and when the first HD4770's came out they were at 30%.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by btarunr

And it's working in favour of ATI. Consumers needn't care. They'll see more "ATI" when they walk into a store. For ATI it means that it has several different SKUs, and their own inventories to play with. There won't be shortage of an ATI GPU at any price-point.

Now isn't that the truth.

I'm really confused now over which card performs how - especially as now a lower numbered card can be better than a higher numbered one ie 40nm tech in the lower end one. The only way to get a handle on it is to have a great big table listing all the vital stats of each card, similar to the one in a TPU review so that one can compare.

Of course, one then has to take into account benchmark results, cooler performance, PCI-E connectors etc...

[tastegw]

so is the 4750 >, =, or < the 4830

(your thoughts)

[MrAlex]

Originally Posted by tastegw

so is the 4750 >, =, or < the 4830

(your thoughts)

4750 <= 4830.

[inferKNOX]

Originally Posted by hat

4750...

Forget flooding the market, the water level has hit the ceiling, all they're doing now is increacing the water density/pressure.

Ah, ha ha ha! True that!
Good for ATI for it's furious marketing. If only they'd name in a way that made sense to non-geeks, that'd be great! They got to push while they got momentum or they'll fizzle out.

[WarEagleAU]

So, what are the specs for the 4860 then? I mean the 4850 is a bad ass card and capable of playing any game very well, not sure what the 4860 is gonna bring, unless it has GDDR4 or GDDR5.

[a_ump]

GDDR4 isn't really anything anyways. It's probly in smaller production than GDDR5 so more expensive lol. I'd have to assume that it's maybe the RV790 core, so probly higher stock core clocks than the HD 4850. but that's the only improvement i can see. I highly dout GDDR5, but using the RV790 core would support the idea that ATI is tryin to clean out their stock of RV7X0 cores.

[newtekie1]

That is all I really have to say about that...

Originally Posted by ShadowFold

I think I understand why they're doing this. When you go to newegg and real life shops, you always see twice as many nvidia cards.. That's because they have twice as many different cards.. AMD is just flooding the market like they are in hopes of getting caught up with nvidia. I think.

ATi already has more cards currently in production than nVidia, so that logic makes no sense...

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by WarEagleAU

So, what are the specs for the 4860 then?

RV790, 700 MHz (core), 750 MHz (memory, effective 3000 MHz), 256-bit GDDR5, 640 stream processors.

[eidairaman1]

4860~ Rv770gt

[Hayder_Master]

more ATI cards , looking good for crossfire , also new products keep it on titles