Wednesday, January 21st 2009
Radeon HD 4870 X2, HD 4850 X2 Faster and Better Than GeForce GTX 295, 285: AMD
AMD started its marketing offensive against NVIDIA's new dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295, and single-GPU GeForce GTX 285 accelerators, in an attempt to put the Radeon HD 4800 X2 series accelerators ahead of its competition in terms of performance on a "broad scale", and used the cards' availability in non-reference designs as a USP against NVIDIA's offerings using a uniform company-specified design. All this, in an internal presentation leaked to Donanim Haber. As for those wondering why, ATI and NVIDIA have a history of picking on each others' flagship products by means of such presentations, with which they intend to influence OEMs and channel vendors, though it always happens so, that these presentations reach public domains. Viral marketing or something plausible? Find out for yourself:
Source:
Donanim Haber
145 Comments on Radeon HD 4870 X2, HD 4850 X2 Faster and Better Than GeForce GTX 295, 285: AMD
The memory comparision's are just wrong. One is using crossfire, making it in reality only 1GB
www.techpowerup.com/img/09-01-21/150e.jpg
They mention RAM bandwidth but what about the controller width?
Also who would use 8xAA?
www.techpowerup.com/img/09-01-21/150b.jpg
There are 1GB and 512MB 9800GTX+'s which they fail to mention.
www.techpowerup.com/img/09-01-21/150c.jpg
Their definition of "Top games" seems to fail to me. By what do they mean by top? Those games aren't the top(most popular) games of today.
This sample of benchmarks is no worse then that was.
Its clear that ATI have selected very few games, and even fewer res/aa/af settings to show the benchmarks for. Only the ones that beat nvidia infact (*shock horror*). I think these benchmarks are as honest as every other review site out there.
So what if the 4870x2 outperforms the 295 for less money on a few things, its hardly unexpected or lies. The 295 does outperperform on almost every other test, which is what you would expect at its price point.
As for the presentation, of course it's not lies, it's just very "selective" in it's information for a reason we all understand, whether we like it or not is another thing, personally I dont like it, not because i prefer one card or the other but because being "selective" with marketing and information of course can be misleading, it's like going to buy a car that is marketed as having the most powerful engine on the planet, but when you go to collect it....you find it has no wheels! :laugh:
It is especially beneficial when there is foliage that you are moving through, e.g. much less "shimmer" from the trees as you pan or move past.
The same goes for wire-link fences, power lines, tree branches and such "fine" lines.
and not noticeable in regular gameplay,
unless you going slow and looking for the differences.
But like I said before, these screenshots are simple marketing 101..
You should only show your own product's positives/benefits over the competition.
For example,
Are you ever going to see a Nissan 350Z car commercial that says:
"The 350Z has more engine horsepower than a Porsche Cayman S..
The 350Z costs $8,000 less than the Cayman S..
The 350Z brakes aren't as good and have worse stopping distance than the Porsche Cayman S.."
Never.
The differences are definitely not minimal, and very noticeable in regular gameplay, for me atleast.
The only marketing that gets me anymore is Apple's Mac vs PC marketing. The apple customers will come in your face and spout it at you even if its not true. Kinda anoyying.
RV770 was more than a step in the right direction, it forced the market to change, and god bless it for that.
bottom line is, no matter what spin you put on it, Wiz's review clearly shows whats what.
and remember what newtekie said, ATi's 2 GPU solution is being matched by a single GPU, which has a lower MSRP at the moment.
their market control is going well i think, their fastest single card par's ATi's best, and the 295 is a cut above.