PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 512 MB

[W1zzard]

jelle why dont you start writing vga reviews for a website?

 

[XodiloS]

Will there be a 4850 with gddr4 ?

 

[holy_]

Same with MSI. Why not give it 10.0? =)

 

[JRMBelgium]

jelle why dont you start writing vga reviews for a website?

No connections and my English isn't good enough.
Like I sad, love the TPU reviews but a few new games and overclock performance results would make them a lot better, I doubt that you disagree with this.

 

[lemonadesoda]

I think it's great to see a variety of benchmarks. TBH, I dont want a card just benchmarked on the most popular games, or the most popular resolutions. Why? Because MY favourite game, or a game I haven bought yet, is more likely to play like the blended average of all tests, than any one specific driver-optimised "favourite".

And popular resolutions are limited to the consumer sized TFTs. Mines bigger than yours so I want to know how it performs!

But I do have a couple of requests:

1./ Always have a legacy LAST GENERATION card in there. Why? Because which card is 5% or 10% better than the other is interesting, but the comparative against an older e.g. x800 or x1950 helps people see how much the GPUs have improved over the last years. And MOST people upgrading dont upgrade a "tick"... they upgrade a "tock". Using a benchmark not only to identify the best cards today, but to decide, OK, NOW is the time to upgrade my card, I will gain 150%. etc.

2./ A couple of other synthetic benchmarks are popular here on TPU. And TPU members all have scores of their own rigs on them, like: Aquamark, Lightsmark2007, Furmark.

Otherwise, great reviews, and thanks for all the time and effort putting them together! :cheers:

(And I am amazed the GTX280 is 70% faster than the 4850 at 2560x1600. That's obvioulsy the RIGHT card for the cinema 30).

 

[Gam'ster]

1./ Always have a legacy LAST GENERATION card in there. Why? Because which card is 5% or 10% better than the other is interesting, but the comparative against an older e.g. x800 or x1950 helps people see how much the GPUs have improved over the last years. And MOST people upgrading dont upgrade a "tick"... they upgrade a "tock". Using a benchmark not only to identify the best cards today, but to decide, OK, NOW is the time to upgrade my card, I will gain 150%. etc..

I agree, my 7900gs has around the same performance as an 8600gt/gts give or take, and i like that fact the i can look at the chart and then decide what card would give me a good performance jump over what i have now, but as Jelle Mees was saying maybe 1-2 new ones wouldn't go amiss or an sli/crossfire once in a while..
But that said im very happy with TPU's reviews as there very easy to read, digest and take in for those of us less well informed than others .

Gam

 

[imperialreign]

awesome review, w1z!

I'm quite surprised by what these mid-range cards are pulling out! It's really impressive to see ATI stepping back up to the plate, and I'm thoroughly hoping that trend continues with the 4870s!

A couple of thoughts I had going over the reviews, though, but would it be safe to assume that extremelly low performance in some games at some settings could very well just be lack of driver optimization at this point (i.e. UT3)? Don't get me wrong, though, it appears these cards are blazing fast across the board.

Either way, though, excellent to see this new hardware competition going full-steam!

 

[yogurt_21]

(And I am amazed the GTX280 is 70% faster than the 4850 at 2560x1600. That's obvioulsy the RIGHT card for the cinema 30).

those 32 rops and 240 shaders aren't there for nothing. as I've said before spec wise the gtx280 is exactly the card we wanted it to be. now if the 4870x2 could do the same, then we'll be seing an ati/nvidia battle as good as the old days.

 

[theonetruewill]

I thought I was not going to be impressed- but I was wrong. AMD/ATI have really pulled this one out of the bag. It's always the silent ones you have to be careful of!

 

[HAL7000]

Wizzard, these 4850 reviews were just a work of art......THANK YOU for the hard work that answers many of the questions out there. I was very impressed with the overall performance of this card. I look forward to your 4870 reviews. Kudos

 

[HAL7000]

It's not about high-demanding games. So many reviewers think that they need to test games that are high-demanding, others think they need to test games on very high resolutions with unplayable AA and AF settings, and most of them think both.

It's about good games, popular games, new games. Nobody cares how Far Cry runs on a 4850HD when you can run the game just fine with a card that is two years old. Nobody wants to know about 3DMark on 2560x1600 with AA enabled but I see so many websites using those kinds of benchmarks for their review-conclusions.

Look at the Top3 resolutions on the Valve survey ( 1.776.835 Submissions, last updated on 3:53am PST (11:53 GMT), June 19 2008 ):
1. 1280x1024, 1280x800, 1280x768
2. 1024x768
3. 1680x1050

Only 2.29% players higher then 1680x1050.

It's not just TPU, every hardware-review websites should look at the trends. To bad none of them do...

Are you for real ......??????? There are plenty of people that care. Valve surveys are not the fact but for their population that frequent their surveys.....its an average.

What Wizzard did is enlighten those that want to be informed prior to making a purchase the basic facts about a product and where is falls within the competition. Enthusiast want to know ......just because it is in their blood to know

 

[Mussels]

Jelle Mee's: wizzard has said before, that if he uses all new benchmarks every review they become useless. If you cant compare it to previous cards, its useless.

In my opinion, resolutions should be more important.

1280x1024
1680x1050
1600x1200
1920x1080

Four common resolutions, and test each one with 4xaa 8x AF and 8xAA 16xAF. that covers just about everyones interests... but again, it means wizz needs to re-bench hardware to make the graphs useful.

 

[Blacklash]

Hmm I wonder how much faster the HD 4870 will be...

 

[Nitro-Max]

Looks like AMD ATI just unleashed some awsome beasts!! bring a whole new meaning to price v's preformance.

 

[RyoBerlin]

Hmm in Crysis not much faster then the 8800GS.
(1280x1024 ... i use 1360x768 wich should be nearly)

Some sites show more fps as others.. terrible..whats true

I think it's better to wait for a final Driver and then Bench again

 

[arkadij]

My opinion on the latest TPU reviews:

Company of heroes, I don't know for sure but my guess is that this game did not sell well at all. I don't know a single gamer who owns this game and I am active on game-forums all over the planet and none of my friends ( Belgium, USA, Canada ) know or own this game. I know it's a good game and everyone that did buy it enjoyed it, but come on, that game is like two years old and I really think that nobody cares about that game anymore. So for me, a useless benchmark.

How dare you! check gamereplays.org to find out which RTS king of the hill for today.
Company Of Heroes

You're actually right about that COH isn't good benchmark anymore, game that gets 90-200 FPS won't show any bottlenecks of graphics card but.... COH isn't dead and won't be until
StarcraftII or DawnOfWarII relase

 

[PhiloShock]

Excellent Review...!

Excellent job!!!

This could be the benchmark for all sites - how to review a video card.

Thank You!!!

 

[W1zzard]

Hmm in Crysis not much faster then the 8800GS.
(1280x1024 ... i use 1360x768 wich should be nearly)

Some sites show more fps as others.. terrible..whats true

I think it's better to wait for a final Driver and then Bench again

all our older crysis scores were conducted at the wrong resolution and can not be compared. only gtx 280 and newer has correct crysis scores

 

[RyoBerlin]

Wrong resolution?..... oh... thats really bad...

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/2008/kurztest_ati_radeon_hd_4850_rv770/19/

Here the 4850 looks great
World in Conflict 105,5fps where the 9800GTX just get 89,2fps


But Crysis and WiC are the only games i have because this are the games with the best grapic @ the moment
The other games are too old to use it for benching... 50fps and more....not very usefoul..

 

[Mussels]

Wrong resolution?..... oh... thats really bad...

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/2008/kurztest_ati_radeon_hd_4850_rv770/19/

Here the 4850 looks great
World in Conflict 105,5fps where the 9800GTX just get 89,2fps


But Crysis and WiC are the only games i have because this are the games with the best grapic @ the moment
The other games are too old to use it for benching... 50fps and more....not very usefoul..

well i cant stand gaming below 60FPS, so they are useful to me. What aboout lost planet, mass effect, Call of duty 4? they all have excellent graphics too.

 

[niko084]

Are you for real ......??????? There are plenty of people that care. Valve surveys are not the fact but for their population that frequent their surveys.....its an average.

What Wizzard did is enlighten those that want to be informed prior to making a purchase the basic facts about a product and where is falls within the competition. Enthusiast want to know ......just because it is in their blood to know

TBH, I know TONS of people that own 9800Gx2s and 3870x2s and guess what resolution they play most games at 1024x768... Very few people actually run their computers in the native resolution of their lcd, and less have something larger than a 17-19" screen to start with.

Yes there are some, there always are, but it doesn't matter, you can sell 5 9800GTX's or 100 HD4850s that perform better for the average customer. Thats the key supply/demand performance per dollar for the specific user, in which case the choice is more than obvious.

 

[crazyelmo]

jelle why dont you start writing vga reviews for a website?

Yo, Oh great wise admin/editor. Can you please a do benchmarking for 8xMSAA please.

http://www.computerbase.de/art...tt_unreal_tournament_3

Unreal Tournament 3 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF:
GTX 280 : 145
HD4850 : 65
9800GTX : 81

Unreal Tournament 3 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:
GTX 280 : 72
HD4850 : 63
9800GTX : 34

---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.computerbase.de/art..._clive_barkers_jericho

Clive Barker's Jericho 1600x12004xAA/16xAF:
GTX 280 : 53
HD4850 : 29
9800GTX : 25

Clive Barker's Jericho 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:
GTX 280 : 26
HD4850 : 28
9800GTX : 7


---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.computerbase.de/art...v770/8/#abschnitt_fear

FEAR 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF:
GTX 280 : 147
HD4850 : 92
9800GTX : 83

FEAR 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:
GTX 280 : 93
HD4850 : 60
9800GTX : 49


---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.computerbase.de/art...schnitt_call_of_juarez

Call of Juarez 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF
GTX 280 : 30
HD4850 : 21
9800GTX : 20

Call of Juarez 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF
GTX 280 : 24
HD4850 : 17
9800GTX : 6


---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.computerbase.de/art...nitt_company_of_heroes

Company of heroes 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF
GTX 280 : 84
HD4850 : 46
9800GTX : 47

Company of heroes 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF
GTX 280 : 66
HD4850 : 42
9800GTX : 35

---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.computerbase.de/art...#abschnitt_lost_planet

Lost planet 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF:
GTX 280 : 58
HD4850 : 31
9800GTX : 34

Lost planet 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:
GTX 280 : 45
HD4850 : 29
9800GTX : 24

As you can see ATI 4850 is a monster with when using 8xAA, it only looses few FPS. 9800GTX is no match for ATI when it comes to 8xAA.



Now i am looking for more review that has done 8xAA to confirm these sort of result. Since your the very few editors that actually corresponds with its forum member, is the reason i registered. I shall leave the other website's forum to become a full time forum member here.:

Thanks in advance ... even if you reply saying NO

 

[echo75]

umm guys is it just me or are we looking at different charts??

i am out to upgrade my 8800gt so i really would like to understand which card will give me the better results.

From the review , lets take the 3 things i have on my current PC now so i can better compare them to W1zzards review and relate em to my current card.
1Crysis
2.Farcry
3.3Dmark06

unless i am blind the 9800GTX beats it in almost all the charts in those 3 categories and i look at the other games too , its not like the card it on standing out.

Someone please explain to me why i should get this card over the 9800gtx for my next graphic update soon.

TBH i am actually thinking of getting the 9800GTX x2 which is bold enough to compete with the GTX 280 without costing an arm or leg.

 

[HAL7000]

TBH, I know TONS of people that own 9800Gx2s and 3870x2s and guess what resolution they play most games at 1024x768... Very few people actually run their computers in the native resolution of their lcd, and less have something larger than a 17-19" screen to start with.

Yes there are some, there always are, but it doesn't matter, you can sell 5 9800GTX's or 100 HD4850s that perform better for the average customer. Thats the key supply/demand performance per dollar for the specific user, in which case the choice is more than obvious.

ahhhhhhh...........your point is ? I wasn't making any claims to resolutions....you need to read the post a little closer please

 

[wolf2009]

nice card .