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Force3D Ushers Forth HD 4870 SKU Specifications

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Navin

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Force3D has, today, announced the specifications of its first SKU powered by AMD's HD 4870 GPU. A core speed of 750 MHz, paired together with 512 MB of GDDR5 memory running at a frequency of 3.6 GB/s are the order of the day, whilst technicalities such as the presence of 800 stream processors and a 256-bit memory interface prove commonality with AMD's HD 4850 offering. Using Extreme settings, Force3D's own 3DMark Vantage results claim that their HD 4870 iteration has a speed advantage of 58% over the HD 3870X2.



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Looks sweet... :) 58% faster than X2? If that is indeed correct, this card will become a must have item.
 
Welcome to the forums Navin!
 
If you didn't know (I didn't): Force3D is the ATI brand of Inno3D
 
Your welcome!

Bad pun. ;)
 
Something doesn't sound right about that bandwidth: 3.6GB/s
I think the 3870 pumps out something like 72GB/s, so if we're to believe this article, the 4870 has a memory bandwidth of a Radeon 9250 with a 64bit memory controller...
 
Does that say 512mb? ...WHAT?

Lame.
 
ShinyG said:
Something doesn't sound right about that bandwidth: 3.6GB/s
I think the 3870 pumps out something like 72GB/s, so if we're to believe this article, the 4870 has a memory bandwidth of a Radeon 9250 with a 64bit memory controller...
Click to expand...

The figure of 3.6 GB/s they mention, is referring to the frequency of the memory, not the bandwidth.

Force3D, as per the PR linked to the story, are quoting that the bandwidth is 107 GB/s on the 4870 SKU, versus 72.96 GB/s on the 4850 SKU.

I hope this helps.
 
That review was well worth the read! Beats the 260 in most things, especially when the eye candy is cranked up! :D
 
newconroer said:
Does that say 512mb? ...WHAT?

Lame.
Click to expand...

Not really: hardly any games use more than that: PC User magazine did some tests and got a negligble increase of 512 MB to 1 GB on an nVidia card (can't remember which).
Other than that: I'm exited!
 
Not interested! 512Mb/256-bit.. that`s old! How come the 8800GTX, that`s 2 years old, beat almost all of the new cards... Come on, it`s time for something NEW.
 
substance90 said:
Not interested! 512Mb/256-bit.. that`s old! How come the 8800GTX, that`s 2 years old, beat almost all of the new cards... Come on, it`s time for something NEW.
Click to expand...

What's the point in going more RAM and a wider bus when it isn't advantageous to speed but costs more money?

EDIT: wow, average of 10% behind GTX 280, that's fantastic!
 
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substance90 said:
Not interested! 512Mb/256-bit.. that`s old! How come the 8800GTX, that`s 2 years old, beat almost all of the new cards... Come on, it`s time for something NEW.
Click to expand...

You do realize even the lowly 4850 destroys the 8800GTX, heh, this thing is as fast as 3 3870s :eek:
 
What is ATI thinking? Only 512MB and only 256bit? Come on, they would have a killerproduct if it was 1024MB and 512bit. It's 2008, 512MB can last another 6-12 months tops.
 
you people crying about 256-bit only obviously have no idea what you are talking about. please calculate bandwidth gddr3 1000 mhz @ 512 bit and then gddr5 1000 mhz @ 256 bit.

if the 4870 was $649 with 512-bit and 1 GB you'd all cry that its so expensive
 
^yeah.... im sure there's a reason for the 256bit bus.... there has to be, people that make computer chips are pretty darn smart :D

107gb/second it says--wasnt the 2900 with 512 bit slightly less than that?
 
W1zzard said:
you people crying about 256-bit only obviously have no idea what you are talking about. please calculate bandwidth gddr3 1000 mhz @ 512 bit and then gddr5 1000 mhz @ 256 bit.

if the 4870 was $649 with 512-bit and 1 GB you'd all cry that its so expensive
Click to expand...

Ok, I know that the GDDR5 compensates GDDR3 at 512bit, but 512MB extra would really put it over the top. I am pretty sure that it wont take long untill we see the 4870 1024MB for the GTX260 price.

The 4870 upgrade will be my last upgrade up to 2010. I can already play my favourite games on 2048x1536, but I want to play them with high AA and AF settings and that will require more then 512MB ( correct me if I am rong ).
 
Basard said:
^yeah.... im sure there's a reason for the 256bit bus.... there has to be, people that make computer chips are pretty darn smart :D

107gb/second it says--wasnt the 2900 with 512 bit slightly less than that?
Click to expand...

Yep, the reason is price. It is very costly to implement a 512-bit bus as ATi found, you have to have many more layers on the PCB and it's all a bit messy to design. On the other hand, prices for fast RAM that will keep the bandwidth high are always dropping and a 256-bit bus requires much less work and fewer layers to implement.
 
Jelle Mees said:
Ok, I know that the GDDR5 compensates GDDR3 at 512bit, but 512MB extra would really put it over the top. I am pretty sure that it wont take long untill we see the 4870 1024MB for the GTX260 price.

The 4870 upgrade will be my last upgrade up to 2010. I can already play my favourite games on 2048x1536, but I want to play them with high AA and AF settings and that will require more then 512MB ( correct me if I am rong ).
Click to expand...

It over compensates it by a fair margin. The 512mb 4870 doesn't need 512-bit mem. A 1gb version might due to the insane bandwidth of GDDR5 but then how much would the thing cost. ATi might be holding back a little but they have that same right as NV. There's no doubt in my mind that they will push these cards to the limit. ATi has never launched its flagship first. The only thing about a 1gb 4870 is that it should be priced around $350-400. If a 4850x2 comes about it will be a bit faster than that 4870 so it will occupy the $400-450. This is the kind of stuff that happens when you cap your cards at $500 :o
 
substance90 said:
Not interested! 512Mb/256-bit.. that`s old! How come the 8800GTX, that`s 2 years old, beat almost all of the new cards... Come on, it`s time for something NEW.
Click to expand...

Checked any reviews lately? The 8800 GTX is bested in almost every benchmark by just the 4850 -- who knows how much higher the 4870 will be.
 
I don't think we need a 1GB GDDR5 card. this will make it too expensive to compete well with nvidia. and yeah, beside future proofing, the gain with 1GB is small.
I think AMD-ATi will actually use 1GB GDDR4 setup for the 4870.. maybe even GDDR3. more ram with less bandwidth, and a small or no price bump.

All in all, a great round for AMD-ATi, at last! :D :toast:

AMD-ATi FTW!
 
RV770, theoretically will make good use of that memory (wtf 3.6Ghz mem clock? Quad pumped? O_o), and I think this wont be like the HD3870 and HD3850 where the HD3850 could be OC'ed up to HD3870 performance.
 
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