ATI HD4830?

[Cyber-Mav]

what do you guys make of this card which is reviewed here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/HD_4830_Green/1.html

it seems to be very interesting and unique to me.

a 4830 card that has full 800 shaders and doesnt require external power cable. this just raises a few questions about the 4770 to me.

 

[D13]

that does look interesting but the one they have here

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-125-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

it looks like double-slot cooler, it must need a power cable, if not the 4670 looks fairly weak

 

[Cyber-Mav]

yep also if that xfx is a reference 4830 card it will have only 640 shaders where as that albatron card has the full on 800 shaders.
this is one ati card that seems to have me interested.

 

[D13]

before today i never even heard of albatron, it is interesting that they break so far from reference design.

 

[james.miller]

looking at the benchmarks id get the 4770 tbh. i dont know how they would reduce the peak draw of the card to the extent where they can do away with the pci-e power connector unless the reference design didnt need it to start with and indeed, the power consumption is near identical to a standard 4830 so that would suggest a 4830 doesnt need one either. Its a good feat considering it has a full 800 shaders, but it is basically a 4850 @ 4830 clocks at the end of the day. a 4770 is faster and uses less at load than a standard 4830 does in other bench test - i dont know why the techpowerup benchmarks dont reflect this:

http://en.expreview.com/2009/04/24/first-review-of-radeon-hd-4770-99-monster.html/9
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4770,2281-13.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd4770_5.html
http://www.goodcleantech.com/2009/04/power_consumpution_of_the_new.php

all show the 4770 to have a lower peak draw than a 4830, sometimes up to 30w lower!

 

[Cyber-Mav]

if 4770 uses less power than the 4830 then how come the 4770 needs external power cable?

 

[james.miller]

does a 4830 need one if it pulls the same juice as the 4830 green you linked to? page 26 from your link:

system peak consumption:

albatron 4830: 243w load.
Hd4830 {reference card}.....243w load.

and consider this:

The results turned out absolutely shocking: the peak power consumption of our Radeon HD 4770 didn’t exceed 50W in 3D mode, while Radeon HD 4830 with the same core configuration but working at only 575MHz frequency consumed around 85W! Excellent unprecedented result! Moreover, Radeon HD 4770 has no real need for a separate power connector: the total load on both +12V power lines is a little over 47W, while the power part of the PCI Express x16 slot may provide up to 75W of power. In other words, even if we power the card solely through the PCIe x16 slot, there still will be more than enough reserves for serious overclocking. I am sure that ATI partners will soon roll out Radeon HD 4770 modifications like that, too

i think thats made my mind up about my own 4830 as well. ill be selling it lol

 

[Cyber-Mav]

then the question is, why does the 4770 use a external power cable when it doesnt need one?

probably wont be long then till a non reference one comes out that doesnt use external power cable.

 

[james.miller]

because they can i guess lol. I dont know if anybody has tried running one without the pci-e lead connected?

probably wont be long then till a non reference one comes out that doesnt use external power cable.

you can bet on it, if those results are anything to go by!

 

[Art]

probably wont be long then till a non reference one comes out that doesnt use external power cable.

That might be the 4730.

I could see this getting confusing in future.

 

[Runningkid]

so the 4730 is basically a 4830 with gddr5?

 

[Art]

so the 4730 is basically a 4830 with gddr5?

Apparently, it the same chip as a 4830 with a faster clock, smaller bit interface and GDDR5.