• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

4870 1GB Review up!

really really REALLY terrible review which is all I've come to expect of Anand after the last few years :(

There is one game, yes one, which benefits from the extra ram, we all know Grid is the only game to show a real difference above 512mb on an ATi card, and its the only game here to show a significant increase at a SINGLE resolution.

The other biggest increase, Age of conan, is 2.5fps faster low res, 3 fps faster mid res and 3 faster high res. As in, its a common element, it has nothing to do with running out of frame buffer. All the other games also show a common speed increase at all resolutions.

Now most likely the cause is much higher spec ram, they've waited for new memory, from Hynix, they noted this but didn't manage to draw any conclusions or notice that speed increase was apparent when clearly not memory limited. yes the 1gb is good for grid, its the only game I've seen so far that needs that much mem, considering AMD already spanked Nvidia in that game and gave more than playable performance, who cares tbh.

My guess would be tighter timings on newer memory that are different enough to show extra speed at all resolutions. Theres an outside shot they didn't notice it was a higher core clock speed card, it would make sense to introduce an inbetween card with a slightly higher price gap with higher clock speed and better more expensive memory, with lots of overclocked versions maybe they simply got a pre-clocked one, though less likely, Anandtech have gotten crap but hopefully not that bad.


Either way, its very much worth waiting to see if newer 512mb/X2 cards come with Hynix mem rather than the old stuff, if they are faster, and if a price gap opens up with a drop in 512mb price that makes it the better buy.

Anandtech 2 years ago would have spotted the speed increase across the resolutions and actually thought up a reason, these days they really do suck.

Keep in mind also, if thats the case, tighter timings, overclocks might be more limited, though I have no clue how the current 4870's/x2's overclock as it is.

I wouldn't buy for a month at least, more stock, more brands, lower prices, hopefully a drop in the 512mb card price and maybe an idea of why its faster.
 
Have to disagree about it being a terrible review, it's clearly a better card than the GTX260-216 at the same price, it's snapping on the heels of a stock GTX280 for a great deal less money since the GTX280's have had a price hike and on the basis it can be had for the same price as the majority of 512Mb 4870's then at the just below £200 price point it's a no brainer, the only thing missing from the review is the effect of o/c memory to 4000ish

Nice little summary
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=2
 
phaded said:
Is it really worth getting the 1gb version of a 22" monitor, I want Sapphire's Toxic version but it's only 512 ram.
Click to expand...
To me it looks like early adopters (me included) who are gaming at 24" or less don't have to upgrade as the benfits aren't worth it at present*.

*Future games may change all this...
 
ten80p said:
Have to disagree about it being a terrible review, it's clearly a better card than the GTX260-216 at the same price, it's snapping on the heels of a stock GTX280 for a great deal less money since the GTX280's have had a price hike and on the basis it can be had for the same price as the majority of 512Mb 4870's then at the just below £200 price point it's a no brainer, the only thing missing from the review is the effect of o/c memory to 4000ish

Nice little summary
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=2
Click to expand...

Try reading, the speed increase WASN'T restricted to high res, in all but one game the speed increase was similar across the entire range, that means something other than size of memory is responsible. The likelyhood is ATi switching to better quality(tighter timings) memory thats making a noticable difference. Firstly don't buy now, we might see the 512mb version with the new memory, its cheaper for AMD to stick with one source, the 512mb with same memory might be just as fast as the 1gb, but due to the 1gb price the 512mb is likely to drop in price.

Yes while they are both the same price its a no brainer, but if the 1gb remains around £200, or even £190, the 512mb is likely to drop to at least £160, maybe less, and if with the new memory has the same performance, becomes a no brainer to NOT waste money on the more expensive card.

Its a terrible review because the numbers are right there, done by themselves and completely ignored. Age of Conan is faster across all resolutions, nothing to do with 1gb. Grid is the only game faster, and is the ONLY game that benefits in the review from 1gb mem. Despite them doing the numbers, they failed to pick up on it or comment on it, thats what makes it bad. We knew before the 1gb card was out that the only game that benefits is Grid and only at 1920x1200 and above, the review backs that up, when the card runs out of memory buffer space the speed drops dramatically, look at the numbers on Grid at high res, the 512mb card isn't a few fps slower, it takes a about a 40% hit between the resolutions, that is how you see memory size is an issue, no other games show that sudden hit, ergo, none of them need 1gb. The card is faster for a reason other than the 1gb, something that might be available on all cards for all we know.

I mean, its possible they tweaked something very very small but not that likely, new bios, possibly, if the controller works much better with 1gb, it should have shown up on the X2 cards, it really points to better memory tbh.
 
Last edited:
sambo_joseph said:
wow, very different to the article that was posted up here the other day. Its a shame that the 1gb versions have now gone up to £223 when it was £187 last week :(
Click to expand...

They have only gone up to their original prices, the £187 was for one week only, as they were put in the 'This Week Only' sale, that changes every Wednesday, so theres a good chance it will go back in again sometime. :)
 
Last edited:
drunkenmaster said:
Try reading, the speed increase WASN'T restricted to high res, in all but one game the speed increase was similar across the entire range, that means something other than size of memory is responsible. The likelyhood is ATi switching to better quality(tighter timings) memory thats making a noticable difference. Firstly don't buy now, we might see the 512mb version with the new memory, its cheaper for AMD to stick with one source, the 512mb with same memory might be just as fast as the 1gb, but due to the 1gb price the 512mb is likely to drop in price.

Yes while they are both the same price its a no brainer, but if the 1gb remains around £200, or even £190, the 512mb is likely to drop to at least £160, maybe less, and if with the new memory has the same performance, becomes a no brainer to NOT waste money on the more expensive card.

Its a terrible review because the numbers are right there, done by themselves and completely ignored. Age of Conan is faster across all resolutions, nothing to do with 1gb. Grid is the only game faster, and is the ONLY game that benefits in the review from 1gb mem. Despite them doing the numbers, they failed to pick up on it or comment on it, thats what makes it bad. We knew before the 1gb card was out that the only game that benefits is Grid and only at 1920x1200 and above, the review backs that up, when the card runs out of memory buffer space the speed drops dramatically, look at the numbers on Grid at high res, the 512mb card isn't a few fps slower, it takes a about a 40% hit between the resolutions, that is how you see memory size is an issue, no other games show that sudden hit, ergo, none of them need 1gb. The card is faster for a reason other than the 1gb, something that might be available on all cards for all we know.

I mean, its possible they tweaked something very very small but not that likely, new bios, possibly, if the controller works much better with 1gb, it should have shown up on the X2 cards, it really points to better memory tbh.
Click to expand...

Thats such a comprehensive analysis that I think I'll revisit the review, not sure I understand what your saying but will prob be clearer in context of looking at the results again whilst referring to your comments
 
LoadsaMoney said:
They have only gone up to their original prices, the £187 was for one week only, as they were put in the 'This Week Only' sale, that changes every Wednesday, so theres a good chance it will go back in again sometime. :)
Click to expand...

I see the 512s have jumped in price a little too
 
well i got the 1gb powercolor from ocuk yesterday and im impressed can play games now a2560x1600 at good frame rates and it was only 187 quid, some of the 512's were more expensive
 
Just got mine delivered at the 'last week only' price, so glad I went for it. Even if it's a neglible difference it's worth the extra tenner it cost me.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Try reading, the speed increase WASN'T restricted to high res, in all but one game the speed increase was similar across the entire range, that means something other than size of memory is responsible. The likelyhood is ATi switching to better quality(tighter timings) memory thats making a noticable difference. Firstly don't buy now, we might see the 512mb version with the new memory, its cheaper for AMD to stick with one source, the 512mb with same memory might be just as fast as the 1gb, but due to the 1gb price the 512mb is likely to drop in price.

Yes while they are both the same price its a no brainer, but if the 1gb remains around £200, or even £190, the 512mb is likely to drop to at least £160, maybe less, and if with the new memory has the same performance, becomes a no brainer to NOT waste money on the more expensive card.

Its a terrible review because the numbers are right there, done by themselves and completely ignored. Age of Conan is faster across all resolutions, nothing to do with 1gb. Grid is the only game faster, and is the ONLY game that benefits in the review from 1gb mem. Despite them doing the numbers, they failed to pick up on it or comment on it, thats what makes it bad. We knew before the 1gb card was out that the only game that benefits is Grid and only at 1920x1200 and above, the review backs that up, when the card runs out of memory buffer space the speed drops dramatically, look at the numbers on Grid at high res, the 512mb card isn't a few fps slower, it takes a about a 40% hit between the resolutions, that is how you see memory size is an issue, no other games show that sudden hit, ergo, none of them need 1gb. The card is faster for a reason other than the 1gb, something that might be available on all cards for all we know.

I mean, its possible they tweaked something very very small but not that likely, new bios, possibly, if the controller works much better with 1gb, it should have shown up on the X2 cards, it really points to better memory tbh.
Click to expand...

Read it again twice, have to disagree still. I think you have an issue with Anandtech and had made your mind up before reading the review, talk of memory timings is an assumption, bottom line is it's faster than the 512
 
ten80p said:
Read it again twice, have to disagree still. I think you have an issue with Anandtech and had made your mind up before reading the review, talk of memory timings is an assumption, bottom line is it's faster than the 512
Click to expand...

yes which clearly isnt a result of the extra ram if its happening across vastly different resolutions. think about it.

on another note, no review should focus on percentages, it totally distorts the actual performance figures and is a real peeve of mine.
 
james.miller said:
yes which clearly isnt a result of the extra ram if its happening across vastly different resolutions. think about it.

on another note, no review should focus on percentages, it totally distorts the actual performance figures and is a real peeve of mine.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? The effect is greater at higher resolutions. The effect isnt simlar across all resolutions and the game in which this is most profound is

grid.jpg


Look at the 512MB card stick to the 1GB version until 2560*1600. I don't know what review you've been reading.

Again with Age of Conan, the gap increases in nominal and relative terms (relative being the more important measure) even if it isnt as stark as in GRID.

ageofconan.jpg


Across resolutions the difference is 6.6%, 10.2% and 17.2% respectively.
 
Last edited:
I think I will get one of these. Not sure I want to pay more then £200 for it though :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom