Sapphire 4870 1gb Card..Want me to bench it?

[BigCactus]

I got a sapphire 4870 1gb card coming in tomorrow. The price fell to $299 so though the 4870 512mb card is about $50 cheaper AR...the 1GB of ram seems appealing...whether it will really be effective or not. I know in future games it will help a bit. I already know the performance of a the 4870 512mb card is excellent even at 1920x1200...so I expect to see about the same results. My gaming rig has the 4870x2 in it and the 4870 1GB card is going to be placed in my htpc rig that's going to go in the living room. I'm thinking about pulling the 4870x2 for a while and benching the 4870 1gb card in my gaming rig using fraps in a few games. I got Grid, COD4, Bioshock, and Crysis. Let me know if you want to see some numbers. Maybe I'll just do a little video review on youtube. Not too sure how to post videos on youtube though.

This is the card at the egg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102795

 

[boogah]

What's your max res ?

If you can bench it at higher than 1920 x 1200 it would be more beneficial.

what would be best comparison is to do a 4870 1gb vs a 4870 512 at the same clocks to see true benefit of 1gb of ram.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I'm interested in what kind of overclock you can get out of it. Especially on the memory.

 

[Risco]

Oblivion with Quarl Texture Pack 3 @ 1680X1050 with 4XAA.

GRID = 1680X1050 8XAA, choose the "Race Day" and just click all the way through so it loads the first track. Let me know if there is slowdown after going under the first bridge ( big rainbow shape bannered one )

Crysis = 1680X1050 2XAA.

 

[BigCactus]

What's your max res ?

If you can bench it at higher than 1920 x 1200 it would be more beneficial.

what would be best comparison is to do a 4870 1gb vs a 4870 512 at the same clocks to see true benefit of 1gb of ram.

Max Res is 1920x1200. Maybe more ram will help with higher AA / AF settings is my guess. We'll see.

 

[BigCactus]

Oblivion with Quarl Texture Pack 3 @ 1680X1050 with 4XAA.

GRID = 1680X1050 8XAA, choose the "Race Day" and just click all the way through so it loads the first track. Let me know if there is slowdown after going under the first bridge ( big rainbow shape bannered one )

Crysis = 1680X1050 2XAA.

I don't have oblivion and won't be able to test that game. I will test Grid out for you at 1680x1050 2xaa, but at that resolution I would think your standard 4870 512mb card would play grid smoothly at those settings. Never the less, I'll give that a shot...and I'll even play grid with the same settings that I use my 4870x2 at...which is 1920x1200 8xmsaa.

 

[Fastmix]

I would be nice to see if the card benefits from the extra memory.

 

[BigCactus]

Oblivion with Quarl Texture Pack 3 @ 1680X1050 with 4XAA.

GRID = 1680X1050 8XAA, choose the "Race Day" and just click all the way through so it loads the first track. Let me know if there is slowdown after going under the first bridge ( big rainbow shape bannered one )

Crysis = 1680X1050 2XAA.

You know I'm not sure what track you are talking about, I did a run at Nurburg at 1920x1200 8xmsaa with vsync on and I'm getting some great results with the newly released Catalyst official 8.9 drivers. Ran 3 laps and the minimum fps I get is 53...and the max of course 60 since I'm using vsync. Very smooth with no slow downs whatsoever. I didn't see one hiccup. I think the extra memory on this card must really help in Grid...or is this normal fps numbers for a 4870 512mb?

I'll also add that power play is really great with this card. Without manually adjusting the fan, idle temps are 53c and load temps still climb to 80c after playing grid for a while. Perhaps the bios on this 1gb card is a bit better than it's 512mb counterpart.

 

[BigCactus]

Alright, I think your talking about okotuma on grid...I ran fraps for 200 seconds which basically covers 2 1/2 laps and at 1920x1200 8xmsaa settings. Note that I'm using the same clocks in my sig, on a fresh install with the official 8.9 drivers. I didn't notice any slow downs even when I wiped out in the dirt and made a nice little dust cloud. Very smooth, and honestly at these settings this card is playing Grid as good as my 4870x2. After running at this resolution at 8xmsaa I don't see it necessary to run it at a low resolution with 8xmsaa.

Frames Time (ms)
11983 200000

FPS
Min: 56
Max: 63
Avg: 59.915

 

[BigCactus]

I'm interested in what kind of overclock you can get out of it. Especially on the memory.

max oc i can push on this thing is 950...and the max I can push on the core is 790 as overdrive won't let me push it further. Not sure if riva works with these cards yet.

 

[Risco]

Thanks mate. You have same motherboard as me. Is it true the 4870x2 only works with bios 12? Also seems there is a frame buffer issue with 512mb and grid if you get no slowdown. What speed is your fan idling at for 53c? I have a sapphire 512mb could you do a bios dump for me?

 

[Kwod]

I whether it will really be effective or not. I]

 

[modder]

please ,larger images I see nothing

 

[Kwod]

please ,larger images I see nothing

Try clicking on the image....DOH!!!!!!!

 

[Fastmix]

From that image, it looks like that the extra 512 does make a noticeble difference.

 

[MadClown]

i want a card with a terabyte of memory

 

[Kwod]

i want a card with a terabyte of memory

I guess they don't call you a Madclown for nothing

 

[BigCactus]

Thanks mate. You have same motherboard as me. Is it true the 4870x2 only works with bios 12? Also seems there is a frame buffer issue with 512mb and grid if you get no slowdown. What speed is your fan idling at for 53c? I have a sapphire 512mb could you do a bios dump for me?

Works with bios 10, 11, and 12. It did not work with bios 13 and 14 for me. Also bios 12 seems to be the latest official released bios any who...not sure exactly what issues bios 13 or 14 resolves...but you have to hunt those down in the abit forums.

 

[BigCactus]

Thanks mate. You have same motherboard as me. Is it true the 4870x2 only works with bios 12? Also seems there is a frame buffer issue with 512mb and grid if you get no slowdown. What speed is your fan idling at for 53c? I have a sapphire 512mb could you do a bios dump for me?

The only "slow down I get" is when it dips to 53 fps or so in Grid. So perhaps grid does make a difference! After running cod4 with numerous drivers there is definitely not a performance gain with the 4870 1gb card. 4870x2 really shines in cod4 as the 4870 still has difficulty handling very heavy smoke and explosions..so if I had to recommend which version to get, I would tell the guy to go ahead and just by the 512mb version(then crossfire one later on when these cards head in the $199 mark) unless you think the little bit of extra performance in Grid or Crysis is really worth the extra $50. If you plan on running just a single card the gtx260 core 216 is showing some impressive numbers as well.

 

[Binge]

From that image, it looks like that the extra 512 does make a noticeble difference.

remember those are STOCK 4870s and the 4870 1gig is an overclocked card

 

[Kwod]

remember those are STOCK 4870s and the 4870 1gig is an overclocked card

A mild overclock won't account for close to 90% performance advantage, IOW, BIG RAM ROCKS