ASUS EAH4830 512mb mini review

[ShadowFold]

WORK IN PROGRESS

AMD ATi Radeon HD 4830 512mb by ASUS - Single Card

Summary
The ASUS EAH4830 is a very nice card. I bought it for 88$(before shipping) and for that price I have to say it's the BEST in its range. The gaming performance is phenomenal. Which is great considering this card is marketed towards budget gamers.
The bundle it comes with is fairly weak. Two CD's(manual and drivers), a molex to 6pin PCIE and a DVI to VGA adapter. I was disappointed that they didn't pack a crossfire bridge in with it! This card is priced to where you can get two of them and get HD 4870/GTX 260 performance so the lack of crossfire bridge was a bad move.

Pictures
http://img.techpowerup.org/090207/DSC03805.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/090207/DSC03806.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/090207/DSC03807.jpg



Benchmarks

-TEST SYSTEM-
AMD Athlon X2 7750 @ 3.1ghz, 4gb Corsair XSM2 DDR2800, AMD 790GX, Antec Earthwatts EA500D 500w, Seagate 250gb 7200.10RPM, Antec 300 case and Windows Vista 32bit
Programs Running(to create a realistic test bed) - Xfire, Steam, ATi CCC, FRAPS and ASUS GamerOSD


Left 4 Dead - All settings on the highest: 4x AA 4x ASF 1920x1080
82.03 FPS Average (Using custom Dead Air, Act 5 Finale Time Demo)
Of course, Valve's Source Engine comes out on top with the smoothest game play experience. While playing the game(not benchmarking) it was incredibly smooth. Never saw the frame rate drop below 60FPS. Definitely the card to get if you are looking to play Source engine games maxed out with the best performance!

SCREEN SHOT

FarCry2 - All settings on high: 0x AA 0x ASF 1920x1080 DirectX10
Average FPS: 39.93, Max FPS: 64.14, Min FPS: 27.35 - Using the "ranch small" benchmark
Wow! These are some great frame rates for a DX10 game on such a high resolution! I was shocked and impressed with the performance!

World in Conflict - All settings on the highest: 2x AA 4x ASF 1920x1080 DirectX10
Average FPS: 23, Max FPS: 47, Min FPS: 9
This game's benchmark is good. Lots of explosions and close ups.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare I - All settings on the highest: 4x AA 16x ASF 1920x1080
Average FPS: 76, Max FPS: 178, Min FPS: 37 - Using fraps to count my FPS. I played in a 24/7 Broadcast server with 40 other players for the most part. Ran exceptionally well with minimal stutter.

More benchmarks to come.. Have FarCry2, Vantage, World In Conflict and Stalker Clear Sky coming up. If you have a time demo for Clear Sky, please send it to me.

Cooling + Overclocking
The cooler on this card is very good. It only has a 2pin fan header, however, it keeps the card cool enough while creating almost no noise. It keeps the GPU at around 41c idle(46c idle OC) and 55c load(59c load OC) which is pretty impressive. It also covers the memory which most of the other 4830 models seem to ignore. I did find it strange that one of the memory chips was left uncovered..(link) Another thing that's great about the cooling is it has a heatsink on the VRM's which again, most other 4830 models ignore.
This card not only cools great and runs great, it overclocks like a dream. I had it running at 700mhz on the core for well over 5 hours playing Left 4 Dead non-stop and I did not see a single artifact.. My old HD 4850 couldn't even clock that high on stock voltage!



Score
Performance: 9/10
Cooling: 9/10
Overclockability: 10/10
Price Performance: 10/10
Overall: 9.7/10

The only this card really needs is some packaged Crossfire bridges and a 3pin fan header.. Other than that, ASUS has another winner on their hands.


AMD ATi Radeon HD 4830 512mb in Crossfire by ASUS and HIS - CrossfireX, Dual GPU Setup
Summary

The HIS ATi Radeon HD 4830, like the ASUS EAH4830, is a budget gamer card. It performs exceptionally well like the ASUS counterpart and still overclocks fairly high. I was slightly disappointed to see that it doesn't go higher than 650mhz in CCC unlike the ASUS which goes up to 700(and is stable at that speed). One thought that I had when I saw the HIS cooler was that it was going to be weak. I was wrong, it cools better than the ASUS cooler by nearly 10c on idle and at load. Again, like the ASUS card, this HIS card comes with a weak bundle. A molex to PCI-E cable, DVI to VGA adapter, driver CD, case sticker and the card. Lack of Crossfire cable kills these cards since they are easily Crossfire'd.

Pictures
http://img.techpowerup.org/090219/DSC03899.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/090219/DSC03900.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/090219/DSC03901.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/090219/DSC03902.jpg

-TEST SYSTEM-
AMD Athlon X2 7750 @ 3.1ghz, 4gb Corsair XSM2 DDR2800, MSI DAK790GX Platinum AMD 790GX and SB750, Forton Source FSP PowerMod 700w, Seagate 250gb 7200.10RPM, Raidmax Katana Case and Windows Vista 32bit
Programs Running(to create a realistic gaming environment) - Xfire, Steam, ATi CCC and FRAPS

Cooling + Overclocking
The HIS HD 4830 card's heatsink may not look very powerful.. In fact, when I saw it was expecting much worse temps than my ASUS card but it actually performs better. 34c idle, 46c load. It's still got a 2pin fan header but it moves air fairly well without making any noticeable noise. The overclocking was stopped short as it only goes up to 650mhz in ATi's CCC Overdrive. It's stable at 650mhz so it was kept at that for testing.

[Damian^]

A+ man!
Get some more benches!

[Drizzt5]

2 of them would do way better then a 4870...

2x 4830's would be close to if not better then gtx 280

[KainXS]

is that the model where you can up the voltage with software

also, why is this in General Nonsence, some people would find this useful

and you have an acer lcd, do you like it, i have been eying an acer lcd at bestbuy for a while now, are there lcd's dependable

[ShadowFold]

Originally Posted by KainXS

is that the model where you can up the voltage with software

No idea.. Where can I check? I most likely wont up the voltage tho. It's fine where it is.

[KainXS]

the 4850s and 4870's work with the same mod as the G200's voltage control app that was just made, well some do

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=215521

if it works thats awesome for a card like that

[ShadowFold]

says device not recognized

[Drizzt5]

Ya, i don't think that mod will work with ANY asus 4850 but I can't say for sure.

It didn't work for both my asus 4850's and I haven't heard of it working for anyone else. I got real excited about that mod too

[KieranD]

crossfire looks cool too so thats a bonus, i think 2 of these cards wouldnt be dearer than a gtx 280

nice specs and benches

[RadeonX2]

check the World in Conflict benchmark there's a typo on max and min FPS

btw nice review! now I know crossfire takes these babies more than a GTX260!

[mlee49]

Shadow I'm really considering getting two of these. Send me your card and I'll benchmark Trifire with three of these!!!!

[ShadowFold]

Originally Posted by mlee49

Shadow I'm really considering getting two of these. Send me your card and I'll benchmark Trifire with three of these!!!!

Haha your a funny guy I'm not letting this beast go with out a fight!!!(or enough money)

[ShadowFold]

Stability Update: Card is still going strong at 700mhz on the core. No artifacts, nothing like that. Getting another HD 4830 very soon for Crossfire.

[inf3rno]

This is the younger beast and can grow to the real one.

[ShadowFold]

Just ordered an HIS HD 4830 for crossfire
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161260

[hat]

About that uncovered memory chip... I'd rather have ALL my memory uncovered. Air is not a very good conductor. The only thing I want my memory covered by is a thermal pad, which has direct contact with the heatsink, or in some cases actual thermal paste but generally if you use thermal paste instead of thermal pads, the memory won't actually make contact with the cooler anymore.

[ShadowFold]

Updated with part of the crossfire review. Benches tomorrow, going out with some friends so it will be later in the day

[mlee49]

I'm excited, my second will be here tomorrow!!

What benches are you running? By chance do you have UT3? UT3 has a great benchmark that'll give some good numbers here.

[ShadowFold]

STALKER Clear Sky, FarCry2, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4 and Crysis Warhead. I'm downloading pretty much all of them off of steam, I only have L4D installed since I have a hard copy of that. I don't have UT3, not my type of game.

[mlee49]

Originally Posted by ShadowFold

STALKER Clear Sky, FarCry2, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4 and Crysis Warhead. I'm downloading pretty much all of them off of steam, I only have L4D installed since I have a hard copy of that. I don't have UT3, not my type of game.

Umm,
Stalker-FPS
FC2-FPS
L4D-FPS
COD4-FPS
Crysis-FPS

UT3 is right up your alley. It's a great first person shooter with intense action and good online play. Plus for $20 is a great buy.

Anyways you may like it after all.

[ShadowFold]

I tried the demo but I didn't really like it.. It's too rock paper scissors for a MP game if you know what I mean.