Sapphire HD 4870 X2 2048 MB

[Megasty]

Oh god, Sparta is a queen & hell has frozen over - we're all friggin doomed

 

[WarEagleAU]

Awesome review. I will admit I was a tad disappointed, but only because I had my hopes up uber high. Its still the fastest, and still a beast. And ridiculously priced ::Roll:: The GTX280/260 was uberly ridiculously priced as well but it came down since ATI release their monster 4850.4870 cards.

 

[KainXS]

man, i wish i could afford one right now

 

[AddSub]

TechReport is okay, as far as their testing methodology and accuracy is concerned at least, but Tom's Hardware lost my respect when they did that whole "Hot Spot" article/video review back in 2001. The one where they removed the CPU heatsinks from running CPUs to see what exactly happens and how various CPUs cope with it. Pure hardware-porn. An example of special sort of junk review and brand-name mud-slinging real professional sites should stay away from.

Also, Guru3D reviews? I've never seen Guru3D give a thumbs down to any GPU. For Guru3D it's all good and thumbs-up, short of a video card starting a fire and burning down their town or something! Guru3D = easily impressed.

Very thorough review W1zzard. Real professional. This type of stuff keeps me coming back to TPU.

 

[AsRock]

So what if it's the worst review that you've seen? Wiz makes valid points and gives it what he thinks it deserves. Go write your own review if you want. The tech world is very subject to hype and bias, Wiz conducts some of the most unbiased reviews of any I've seen around, based almost completely on numbers until the end where he gives his 2 cents. He has given raving reviews to ati and nvidia cards. Check your "infos" before posting.

Funny, it's the worsed and still beat the 280 lol.. .. Thanks for your time W1zz

 

[W1zzard]

i clearly stated that its the fastest vga card in the world, yet there are other things that also make up a good video card (at least for some users).

if you have infinite money, dont care about power or noise, dont want to overclock and never use windowed 3d then get two 4870 x2's.

alternate suggestion: go out, find a bunch of nice girls and enjoy your infinite money - better than gaming

 

[KainXS]

alternate suggestion: go out, find a bunch of nice girls and enjoy your infinite money - better than gaming

I second that

 

[paulo7]

nice girls????? never seen one of them ;-) now sexy ones thats what u should be talking about! Only two users have donated then? Pretty crazy u must make money off advertising? or does that only cover cost running TPU?

 

[robspierre6]

Myabe,it's beacause the system setup they used. But,this review actuallly destroys the card.
I mean have you people check the 4870x2 reviews at techreport and thg

Does nvidia pay techpowerup to do so?

"Just wondering"

 

[Kursah]

Great review W1Z, I wish I had time to read it this morning, but had to work early...

I've been interested behind all the hype I've heard of this card, so many gtx 2xx vs hd48xx threads and bickers, this card was supposed to quelm it all, with the supreme conquering of all cards. While it's impressive, I'm also dissapointed...but I know power and speed come at a price..not only cash, but size, heat, power consumption. I'm interested to see what happens when side-band is enabled, whether or not it will truly give a performance boost or is a technology implemented a generation or two too early, and something that may only be used later on after this card fades in the sunset.

Good job ATI for making the king-kong graphics card for 2008! Those who've been waiting for it I'm sure will be happy and content with the performance, even 1GB 1GPU performance was pretty good, kinda interesting a 4870 512mb tended to be faster by a tad tho, but that's probably due to having the interface chip and other designs for dual gpu that aren't as efficient for single gpu mode? Who knows, even at that, still good performance.

I can see the bench hounds the world round going crazy lol! Hope this card treats all of you well that decided to purchase...me I'll be fine with my GTX260, sure it's not as fast as the X2, but it doesn't need to be for what I do, but it's also not as-far behind as some had claimed either...but as with every new product, future drivers and support can still change the game!

Again, great job W1Z on the review, ATI, good job, a tad sloppy imo, but it got the job done, and as long as there aren't mass failures and driver bugs, it'll be a true winner that is sure to drop in price within a couple month's time! Good to see ATI on top of the heap, even if it took 2 GPU's at this point...and even tho I'm using NV cards atm. This is what the market needed, gotta have the coin flip for go well for the other guy every once in a while, get the competition stirring a little more. It's not quite as uber as many hoped, but it's not a total loss either, it came, it still conquered (mostly), and I'm sure has more to offer later on!

 

[ShadowFold]

Myabe,it's beacause the system setup they used. But,this review actuallly destroys the card.
I mean have you people check the 4870x2 reviews at techreport and thg

Does nvidia pay techpowerup to do so?

"Just wondering"

Well, why the hell are you here then? Go over there and stop posting the links, its that simple dude

 

[Darkrealms]

i clearly stated that its the fastest vga card in the world, yet there are other things that also make up a good video card (at least for some users).

if you have infinite money, dont care about power or noise, dont want to overclock and never use windowed 3d then get two 4870 x2's.

alternate suggestion: go out, find a bunch of nice girls and enjoy your infinite money - better than gaming

Wow that is sig worthy, LoL.

Myabe,it's beacause the system setup they used. But,this review actuallly destroys the card.
I mean have you people check the 4870x2 reviews at thg and techreport

Does nvidia pay techpowerup to do so?

"Just wondering"

The best Nvidia does is provide testing samples same as ATI (err actually that would be the MFG huh, guess they don't do anything then . . .)
Try some actual links not just repeatedly hitting their homepages. . . .

 

[AsRock]

Great review W1Z, I wish I had time to read it this morning, but had to work early...

I've been interested behind all the hype I've heard of this card, so many gtx 2xx vs hd48xx threads and bickers, this card was supposed to quelm it all, with the supreme conquering of all cards. While it's impressive, I'm also dissapointed...but I know power and speed come at a price..not only cash, but size, heat, power consumption. I'm interested to see what happens when side-band is enabled, whether or not it will truly give a performance boost or is a technology implemented a generation or two too early, and something that may only be used later on after this card fades in the sunset.

Good job ATI for making the king-kong graphics card for 2008! Those who've been waiting for it I'm sure will be happy and content with the performance, even 1GB 1GPU performance was pretty good, kinda interesting a 4870 512mb tended to be faster by a tad tho, but that's probably due to having the interface chip and other designs for dual gpu that aren't as efficient for single gpu mode? Who knows, even at that, still good performance.

I can see the bench hounds the world round going crazy lol! Hope this card treats all of you well that decided to purchase...me I'll be fine with my GTX260, sure it's not as fast as the X2, but it doesn't need to be for what I do, but it's also not as-far behind as some had claimed either...but as with every new product, future drivers and support can still change the game!

Again, great job W1Z on the review, ATI, good job, a tad sloppy imo, but it got the job done, and as long as there aren't mass failures and driver bugs, it'll be a true winner that is sure to drop in price within a couple month's time! Good to see ATI on top of the heap, even if it took 2 GPU's at this point...and even tho I'm using NV cards atm. This is what the market needed, gotta have the coin flip for go well for the other guy every once in a while, get the competition stirring a little more. It's not quite as uber as many hoped, but it's not a total loss either, it came, it still conquered (mostly), and I'm sure has more to offer later on!

Only reason i see the 4870 x2 not as good is due to NV dropping there prices because ya know they would of lost sales. I'll stick with way and i would prefure to drop the $500 on the 4870 x2 than the 280 due to NV ripping people off till it's time for a ass whooping.

Think the cards got a hell load more performance to give if companys would get of there asses and support it more.

 

[robspierre6]

Well,I think that the review didn't show what the card is capable of.Nothing against the wizard.It probably was because of the system setup "the pci-express 1.1 slot and the cpu".
Anyway,i believe that the wizard did his best with the card.

 

[AsRock]

Well,I think that the review didn't show what the card is capable of.Nothing against the wizard.It probably was because of the system setup "the pci-express 1.1 slot and the cpu".
Anyway,i believe that the wizard did his best with the card.

Only thing i have against W1z's reviews with v cards is that he does not include the 2900 in them.

One thing for sure you can trust them more say about a lot of others. IF you don't like them move along.

 

[theonetruewill]

where did you get that from?
At least confirm your infos before posting them.
And yes,This is the worst review of the the 4870x2.

Oh goodness what is that noise? Sounds like sirens to me, wait could it be? Oh wow it's the 'Twat alert!" Yay!....................moron

Thanks for the review- shame about the power draw, it is a little insane. I definitely want to see Nvidia's response.

 

[PCpraiser100]

There's nothing wrong with this review. You have to remember that this is an ATi launch card. Everything that's included with that are immature drivers & unused technologies. The card still pwns everything that's out there which is a major accomplishment in itself. I thought it would lose to NV in many of the games just because of the usual drivers issues but that wasn't the case. The card will grow on AMD's own accord. Multiple reviews is what give us the best inclination of what this card can do.

Yeah, in fact R700 hasn't even unleased its full potential yet as drivers are still an issue. Soon, ATIs cards will leave a scar on Nvidia instead of a bruise once they get the driver problem solved.

 

[candle_86]

As long as it remains at its current price its a horrid price/preformance ratio. Also the GTX280 55nm that is supposed to be clocked significantly higher will likly topple it, the GTX280 isn't to far behind in all honesty from the R700, so ATI has some gloating room for now, anyone rememeber what Nvidia does?

x1800XT -> 7800GTX 512 -> x1900XTX -> 7900GTX -> x1950XTX -> 7950GX2

same here

HD3870 X2 -> 9800GX2 -> HD4870 -> GTX280 -> HD4870 x2 -> GTX280 55nm

Nvidia doesnt like to loose

 

[btarunr]

The irony...nobody cried "horrible price/performance" so loud when 8800 Ultra sold for $700 while 8800 GTX sold for $500...or even when GTX 280 gave you nearly the same performance (slightly higher/debatable) as 9800 GX2 for $650 at launch.

 

[candle_86]

everyone did BTA, everyone saw how overpriced the Ultra was and most hated it.

The 9800GX2 vs the GTX280 though is the simple fact the GTX280 is a single card and uses less power and allows SLI the 9800GX2 does not

 

[btarunr]

The 9800GX2 vs the GTX280 though is the simple fact the GTX280 is a single card and uses less power and allows SLI the 9800GX2 does not

l2read 9800GX2 is very much a single card, and allows SLI

NVidia doesn't like to loose

On a lighter note, "I'd like to loosen myself up" means "I need to pee/dump"...applying that to NVIDIA that..erm..nevermind. I think you mean 'lose', not 'loose'.

 

[Black Hades]

Very good review, quite the impressive card ,but I'm waiting for the 1Gb version of HD4870 with enhanced cooling. Now that is the weapon of choice for the masses.

P.S.
Why doesnt somebody ban this robspierre6 dude already, he's still at it spamming like crazy even after being warned:shadedshu

 

[AsRock]

Very good review, quite the impressive card ,but I'm waiting for the 1Gb version of HD4870 with enhanced cooling. Now that is the weapon of choice for the masses.

P.S.
Why doesnt somebody ban this robspierre6 dude already, he's still at it spamming like crazy even after being warned:shadedshu

Yeah, please already before the thread gets clossed.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Oh goodness what is that noise? Sounds like sirens to me, wait could it be? Oh wow it's the 'Twat alert!" Yay!....................moron

That made me laugh.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Myabe,it's beacause the system setup they used. But,this review actuallly destroys the card.
I mean have you people check the 4870x2 reviews at thg and techreport

Does nvidia pay techpowerup to do so?

"Just wondering"

You continue to go around every 4870x2 thread "trolling" the same comments with the same links (as well as all the other Video card threads), you continue to select reviews that most support what you want to hear and continue to ignore what members are saying to you, so if you will forgive me just this once, I will repeat basically what about 30 people have already said to you in various threads.......

Most reviews have different test rigs, most reviews use varied and sometimes different benches and games, most reviews bench at a range of resolutions, not always the same, most reviews use different levels of AA/AF in those resolutions.....so you are bound to get differing results, now W1z tends to use mid ranged hardware for the testbed (because the majority of PC users have mid ranged setups), he uses mostly (but not exclusively) common resolutions with sensible detail levels and tests/compares over a HUGE range of benches and games, probably more than you will see anywhere else.....the idea behind this is simple, you can select the resolutions that you play at, the detail levels you like along with the games you like to play from a W1z review......it's more or less all there, this allows YOU to make a sensible conclusion about how the card will perform for YOU........this IMO is so much better than a site doing a review for example, knowing that a cards strengths are without AA/HDR enabled, so they dont enable it to show that the card is a strong performer and vice versa, I am not suggesting that your favorite reviewers do that, just showing an example, the more widespread a reviewer is in his use of resolutions, games, benches and detail levels makes for a better and more informed review in my opinion.

These comments are not intended to defend W1z's reviewing skills, he certainly does not need me to do that, to call a person biased or on the payroll of NVidia is slanderous in itself, especially if you knew his background and history in development and his work with ATi tool amongs numerous other things for the hardware community.

So, at risk of receiving an infraction, might I suggest that if you clearly dont like the reviews here or many of the comments on other video card related stuff posted by other TPU members in the countless threads you troll, and that you are so supportive of one or two other hardware sites, you go take a quick jog along to them and join their clearly fantastic sites and stop boring the ar*e off me by trolling anything Anti NVidia that you can dream up. I am all for healthy debate and I certainly dont think NVidia has all the answers, I also like to see ATi giving them a from time to time because that is what caused me to spend an aweful lot less than I would have done for the GTX260 I just bought, but you my friend are neither constructive or un-biased and that.....IMO contributes little to these forums.