Release date for the HD4870 1Gb ?

[Axil]

I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card from my 8800GT which just isn't hacking it in the main game i play and mod for ,Oblivion @ 1650x1050, as i've found it can't hold HDR + AA stably at all. I'm pretty sure it's to due with the the size of VRam not beeing enough for the texture I usually use (600-700Mb) and have been looking at 1Gb vram cards.

This card will probably need to last me for about 18 months so it will be need to be a little future proof.

I was looking at getting a 1Gb HD4870 as prefer to go back to ATI as I've always found the crivers to be better plus I prefer the IQ, Also as I watch a look of video on my PC I would like to get decent IQ for that as well quick i have heard the HD4870 is good at.

On that count is there a definite release date for the 1Gb HD4870? as I noticed the date on the Powercolour card as been icreasingly put back and no appears to have no ETA

 

[Shocky-FM]

The IQ is about the same on both now, besides the 4870 1GB is very poor value compared to the 512mb version, if you want 1GB then a GTX280 is a much better buy.

 

[TheRealDeal]

I don't think there will be any noticable difference between a 512 and a 1gb at your resolution even with aa.

 

[Axil]

I was thinking about the 280GTX as an alternative (though I have seen the 1GB HD4870 on another site at £200 inc vat)

Anyone able to tell be what the IQ quality is like on the 280GTX compared to the 8800GT (both in video and game) and if the drivers are ok? ( had nothing but trouble with the 8800gt drivers)

EDIT : the next upgrade I will probably do is move to a 24" Monitor or Higher as I do a lot of graphic work so having >512 mb is a bit of a must

 

[Axil]

Anyone else got experience of the 280GTX in Oblivion?

 

[mame]

have a look at this http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4850-2-gb-gddr3-review/1

It's the 4850 not 4870 though. It's a review comparing the 4850 512mb and 2gb eek versions. It should be enough to show that it's not worth the money to pay for extra vram

 

[Helios1234]

have a look at this http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4850-2-gb-gddr3-review/1

It's the 4850 not 4870 though. It's a review comparing the 4850 512mb and 2gb eek versions. It should be enough to show that it's not worth the money to pay for extra vram

To be fair that card has a lower memory clock than the normal 4850s.

 

[Axil]

Unfortunately I my main 2 games definitely use more than 512mb even after compression. This is the reason why i'm looking to move to a 1GB card. I also do a lot of 3d/artwork and have found that the extra Vram definitely helps.

BTW anyone been able to compare the IQ directly between the 280GTX and HD4870 - Is there a big difference?

 

[OCOCOC]

Unfortunately I my main 2 games definitely use more than 512mb even after compression. This is the reason why i'm looking to move to a 1GB card. I also do a lot of 3d/artwork and have found that the extra Vram definitely helps.

BTW anyone been able to compare the IQ directly between the 280GTX and HD4870 - Is there a big difference?

I don't recommend any nVidia cards to you if you really care about the HDR+AA cos N cards' drivers have very poor supports on it. As far as I know, N cards can not run such settings on Crysis.

HD4870 1GB is a perfect choice cos the VRAM size does make huge differences on high res (16x12 above) and AA AF. My HD4870 512mb can't pass the test with Crysis at 1680x1050 8xAA, neither of my HD4850 512MB. On the top right corner of the testings in Crysis Bench, it indicates such settings require at least 800MB VRAM.

Although 200 quids for a 1gig 4870 is slightly too expensive, but it still be a better choice than GTX280 regarding to the HDR issues.

 

[kitch9]

I would expect these to be imminent. I've seen forum reports that they are arriving in stock (in Australia at least!) If they are in Aus they can't be far away from here......

 

[Misiowiec]

I was thinking about the 280GTX as an alternative (though I have seen the 1GB HD4870 on another site at £200 inc vat)

Anyone able to tell be what the IQ quality is like on the 280GTX compared to the 8800GT (both in video and game) and if the drivers are ok? ( had nothing but trouble with the 8800gt drivers)

EDIT : the next upgrade I will probably do is move to a 24" Monitor or Higher as I do a lot of graphic work so having >512 mb is a bit of a must

I too am holding off getting a GPU until the 1Gb 4870 becomes available; have a 24" monitor and 512Mb of VRAM will not cut it for native resolution gaming with AA / AF, not to mention the next crop of games. I completely support your decision to go for a 1Gb card; don't give in to the "512Mb is enough!!11!" crowd - these are probably the same people who said 64Mb was more than anyone would ever need a few years back

With regards to IQ the general consensus seems to be that current ATI cards surpass the nVidia cards, if only slightly. Mind you both the 4870 and 280GTX are have work-in-progress drivers being very new. I can't point you to any articles, but I've read many reviews which discussed this - just do a search. Don't know if there's a difference between the 8800GT and the 280GTX as I own neither.

Finally, to address your initial question: there just is no firm ETA on the 1Gb 4870. It's probably a combination of DDR5 shortages and that ATI doesn't want anything to steal the show of the 4870X2. I've emailed numerous etailers and most say they don't know or suggest first week of September, but again there's no firm ETA. I do agree the 1Gb 4870 can be had for no more than £200 inc VAT; over the past couple of weeks numerous cards had appeared for sale and many are much cheaper than the PowerColor. I'm sure OcUK will adjust the price once the card is launched.

 

[J.D]

I too am holding off getting a GPU until the 1Gb 4870 becomes available; have a 24" monitor and 512Mb of VRAM will not cut it for native resolution gaming with AA / AF, not to mention the next crop of games. I completely support your decision to go for a 1Gb card; don't give in to the "512Mb is enough!!11!" crowd - these are probably the same people who said 64Mb was more than anyone would ever need a few years back

Well my very picky friend at 1920x1200 who loves to use AA with his 4870s in Crossfire isn't feeling the burn and trust me, he'd be going nuts if this was to happen. He bought the X48 DFI mobo, two 4870s, two EK full waterblocks and a drive bay water cooling solution for the GPUs as he wanted his normal watercooling for his CPU only. He's having no problems at all on Vista 64 and using the BenQ FP241W.

I've heard reports of vram limitations around here but none at all from one of my closest friends who would moan the face off me as I was the one who suggested the 4870s. I think it may be down to the games you play and maybe if people are trying to use higher than 8xAA?.

 

[The_Abyss]

I've got the 512mb 4870 and it DOES cut it at 1920 x 1200 with AA + AF.

By the time the next crop of games comes out, there'll be newer, cheaper cards anyway that will be better than buying now. You can buy a platform for the future, but for specialist components like this, buy for today and you'll be happy. Buy for the future, and you'll either be disappointed or forever waiting.

 

[Misiowiec]

Well my very picky friend at 1920x1200 who loves to use AA with his 4870s in Crossfire isn't feeling the burn and trust me, he'd be going nuts if this was to happen. He bought the X48 DFI mobo, two 4870s, two EK full waterblocks and a drive bay water cooling solution for the GPUs as he wanted his normal watercooling for his CPU only. He's having no problems at all on Vista 64 and using the BenQ FP241W.

I've heard reports of vram limitations around here but none at all from one of my closest friends who would moan the face off me as I was the one who suggested the 4870s. I think it may be down to the games you play and maybe if people are trying to use higher than 8xAA?.

I'd say your friend is abolutely right. There's no evidence that 512Mb of VRAM on the 4870 is limiting it in any curreent games, even at 1920x1200 and with a reasonable amount of AA/AF. You can hit and exceed 512Mb with very high amounts (stupidly high, some would say) of AA/AF however.

I tend to keep my parts for quite a while though (I'm on a 7900GT after all) so I know that things will be different in a years time. The way I see it spending say £40 extra to get 1Gb is a small amount for my peace of mind and the prevention of those minimum fps which stem from too little VRAM.

 

[kitch9]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that 512mb will be enough for all games already released. 1GB cards were rare so there was no point making games for non-existant hardware unless you are Crytek of course.

In the future who knows? Id's Rage may make use of it as old Carmack likes pushing the boundaries and tends to work to the hardware thats out there. It may not be long before games will make use of the extra memory as par for the course and I intend to keep my next card for a while till DX11 and Nehalem is the norm. I have no qualms spending and extra £20-30 to ensure I have no future worries.

 

[The_Abyss]

Cards like the 4870 are likely to run out of grunt before they run out of memory to be honest. There's no point in getting all that vRAM used if you're displaying it at 5 fps.

 

[Final8y]

Well my very picky friend at 1920x1200 who loves to use AA with his 4870s in Crossfire isn't feeling the burn and trust me, he'd be going nuts if this was to happen. He bought the X48 DFI mobo, two 4870s, two EK full waterblocks and a drive bay water cooling solution for the GPUs as he wanted his normal watercooling for his CPU only. He's having no problems at all on Vista 64 and using the BenQ FP241W.

I've heard reports of vram limitations around here but none at all from one of my closest friends who would moan the face off me as I was the one who suggested the 4870s. I think it may be down to the games you play and maybe if people are trying to use higher than 8xAA?.

CF helps overcome some of the 512MB VRam limit as it gives more time for Vram refresh that a single card does not.

On my setup at 2560x1600 2xAA in GRID all; detail maxed except for shadow MED & particles low, i get single digits on a single 3870/512MB on 3870 CF i get 40fps avg..now already that is over 200% more than before & on 3870 TriF i get over 60fps that will drop to 40 fps incar view & 30fps at night 24 hour race & 20fps incar view.

If i drop down to 190x1200 4xAA it still does not hold 60fps under all conditions.
Saying that tho its the only game i have so far that can max out the Vram like that so easily & if you install the HQ mod & max that out the game will use over 4GB of system ram for its self from its normal 700MB avg with my 8GB of ram & vista idle with 2GB prefetch & 6GB shown used total.

 

[Axil]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that 512mb will be enough for all games already released. 1GB cards were rare so there was no point making games for non-existant hardware unless you are Crytek of course.

In the future who knows? Id's Rage may make use of it as old Carmack likes pushing the boundaries and tends to work to the hardware thats out there. It may not be long before games will make use of the extra memory as par for the course and I intend to keep my next card for a while till DX11 and Nehalem is the norm. I have no qualms spending and extra £20-30 to ensure I have no future worries.

I can name one game that definitely needs 1Gb though in it's QTP3 modded incarnation and that's Oblivion as it constantly uses 600-700 outdoors and essentically kills the 512 Mb 8800GT because of that. in normal vanilla release form (which I don't use as the textures suck) it runs at 300-400Mb

If the release date for 1Gb HD4870 is early sept then I'll probably be choosing the 280GTX as with the 10% voucher (I'm one of the lucky ones ) the cost won't be much more than the HD4870 without the voucher

 

[fizzy]

CF helps overcome some of the 512MB VRam limit as it gives more time for Vram refresh that a single card does not.

On my setup at 2560x1600 2xAA in GRID all; detail maxed except for shadow MED & particles low, i get single digits on a single 3870/512MB on 3870 CF i get 40fps avg..now already that is over 200% more than before & on 3870 TriF i get over 60fps that will drop to 40 fps incar view & 30fps at night 24 hour race & 20fps incar view.

I've also been waiting for the 1GB 4870 card, as I get worse performance in GRID when crossfire is enabled with my two 3870's 512(well, during racing I do - loading screens/text seem a lot faster) and thats at "only" 1920x1200 on medium settings so was going to revert to a newer gen single card.

I wonder if there's something up with my crossfire then if your system sees an improvement. This is with a freshly rebiult install of XP, and bought GRID through steam. On a socket 939 crossfire board though, with an amd X2 @ 2.75G, so may be the issue?

 

[Final8y]

I've also been waiting for the 1GB 4870 card, as I get worse performance in GRID when crossfire is enabled with my two 3870's 512(well, during racing I do - loading screens/text seem a lot faster) and thats at "only" 1920x1200 on medium settings so was going to revert to a newer gen single card.

I wonder if there's something up with my crossfire then if your system sees an improvement. This is with a freshly rebiult install of XP, and bought GRID through steam. On a socket 939 crossfire board though, with an amd X2 @ 2.75G, so may be the issue?

2.75 should be just fine.
Your using the latest drivers i take it.