Radeon HD 4870 X2 Might Feature 2GB GDDR5 Instead of 1GB

RizL4 · 9 Jul 2008 at 18:08

Referring to graphics card manufacturers, the source claims that the "senior brother" of ATI Radeon HD 4850/4870 will be officially introduced late in July, when AMD starts shipping reference cards with 2GB GDDR5.

In mid-August, partners of AMD that plan on releasing custom products will start receiving 4870 X2 (RV770XT) GPUs.

As you know, Radeon HD 4870 features 8 x 512 Mbit GDDR5 chips produced by Qimonda. We've seen 16 chips on images of R700 - 8 per side. Thus, 2GB capacity can be reached only by using 1Gbit chips. According to the source, Qimonda launches shipments of such chips this month. Besides, Hynix also has similar offerings

Lightnix · 9 Jul 2008 at 18:12

I think Fudzilla's been saying this for a while now.

RizL4 · 9 Jul 2008 at 18:14

opps sorry if its old news

will the Radeon HD 4870 X2 power with my 650w psu i have a 4850 atm

Big.Wayne · 9 Jul 2008 at 18:15

I wonder . . . . is 2GB a marketing feature or will it show a big improvement or the 512MB and 1GB versions?

You just know eddie-ePeen will go for it right!

to match his 8GB of system ram, 4TB of Storage and QX9770

Scougar · 9 Jul 2008 at 18:34

It will will hopefully mean that it won't have a problem against the GTX280 with a lack of memory at higher res's (it's what kills the 9800gx2)

Matthew

FrankJH · 9 Jul 2008 at 18:44

Big.Wayne said:
to match his 8GB of system ram, 4TB of Storage and QX9770

Surely that was last year (apart from the CPU)

TheRealDeal · 9 Jul 2008 at 19:10

Scougar said:
It will will hopefully mean that it won't have a problem against the GTX280 with a lack of memory at higher res's (it's what kills the 9800gx2)

Matthew

The 4870 has nearly double the memory bandwidth of the 9800gx2 and does not seem to suffer much at high res with some aa. Overclocked it can reach around the same bandwidth as the gtx280 but i would have thought a high end card like the 4870x2 will come with 1gig.

elmuzzy66. · 9 Jul 2008 at 19:23

With 2gig these cards run the risk of being more expensive which could deter people buying them if performance is below expectations. Same with the rumor that the gtx refresh will have 1gig drr5 with the current bus, again costs.

Crashgate3 · 9 Jul 2008 at 19:26

I'm so getting one of these instead of a GTX280 if its true.

jrodga2k5 · 9 Jul 2008 at 22:24

Repost

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17893398

darkblade · 10 Jul 2008 at 01:18

Still lots of not-well-thought out rumours on the 4870x2 then.

Don't forget that the memory of the X2 card is split between each GPU, so a 1Gb card is in effect the same as running two 4870 512Mb cards in Crossfire.

A 2Gb X2 would have always been on AMD's/ATI's roadmap. The dual GPU card is designed to be more efficient than the 4870 in crossfire, so it makes no sense not to provide the option to have the card with 1Gb on each core. Otherwise you will get better performance at high resolutions with two 4870 1Gb cards in crossfire.

I've heard that only AMD will be making the 2Gb card though - no idea how much truth there is in that. Maybe AMD bought all the DDR5 chips a while ago to ensure enough availability?

mk17 · 10 Jul 2008 at 01:20

FrankJH said:
Surely that was last year (apart from the CPU)

exactly right - still waiting for x58 to get 24GB DDR3 in there

. /jk btw

Bin Boy · 10 Jul 2008 at 01:47

Hey is possible to put an Ati HD 4870 in to an Nvidia 790i board, will that work as normal?

J.D · 10 Jul 2008 at 03:21

Bin Boy said:
Hey is possible to put an Ati HD 4870 in to an Nvidia 790i board, will that work as normal?

Yes, as will an X2 as it's on the single slot. Just no two ATI cards will work though. I think there might be a way round it or I might have got it wrong and it might be that you can use SLI on an Intel board with a workaround. Not sure.

DarkMatter · 10 Jul 2008 at 09:41

god for everyone with a 32bit OS this could be problamatic. means even with 2gb of ram installed you willl lose some becuase of it. I would much prefer a 1gb version.

Greebo · 10 Jul 2008 at 09:45

DarkMatter said:
god for everyone with a 32bit OS this could be problamatic. means even with 2gb of ram installed you willl lose some becuase of it. I would much prefer a 1gb version.

Not could be but will be. 4gb of ram shows up as 3.25gb on 32bit Vista. If 2gb more gets mapped to the graphics card that only leaves you 1.25Gb for running windows and any games you want to.

I would imagine the gains from the 4870x2 will be wiped out by the restricted free memory and the paging which will go on.

I guess the 4870x2 is only aimed for people with 64bit OPs

I can see a lot more 64bit Vista shifting. Perhaps ocuk ought to do a special package of a 4870x2 plus vista 64 at a reduced price?

DarkMatter · 10 Jul 2008 at 11:11

i prosumed the limit was 4gb-other ram, but still ether way its pretty much a no go 2gb card + 32bit OS. sigh i so wish i went witha 64bit vista now, they should make a stepup program on microsofts website for 32bit-64bit.

ten80p · 10 Jul 2008 at 11:31

Greebo said:
Not could be but will be. 4gb of ram shows up as 3.25gb on 32bit Vista. If 2gb more gets mapped to the graphics card that only leaves you 1.25Gb for running windows and any games you want to.

I would imagine the gains from the 4870x2 will be wiped out by the restricted free memory and the paging which will go on.

I guess the 4870x2 is only aimed for people with 64bit OPs

I can see a lot more 64bit Vista shifting. Perhaps ocuk ought to do a special package of a 4870x2 plus vista 64 at a reduced price?

^ Top idea re. GPU and Vista 64 bundle

Vertigo · 10 Jul 2008 at 11:56

J.D said:
Yes, as will an X2 as it's on the single slot. Just no two ATI cards will work though. I think there might be a way round it or I might have got it wrong and it might be that you can use SLI on an Intel board with a workaround. Not sure.

The only Intel board that supports SLI is Skulltrail, and then only because they put an NVidia chip on it.

Greebo said:
I can see a lot more 64bit Vista shifting. Perhaps ocuk ought to do a special package of a 4870x2 plus vista 64 at a reduced price?

They'd be better off offering a twin 4870 card package with a new X38/X48 mobo and a Vista 64 licence as most people would need a new mobo to take full advantage of Crossfire and may also need a new OS licence to go with it.

Schnippzle · 10 Jul 2008 at 12:00

Vertigo1 said:
The only Intel board that supports SLI is Skulltrail, and then only because they put an NVidia chip on it.

They'd be better off offering a twin 4870 card package with a new X38/X48 mobo and a Vista 64 licence as most people would need a new mobo to take full advantage of Crossfire and may also need a new OS licence to go with it.

Too true.