ATI's new HD48xx range

Things are looking good for ATI

Published on June 22, 2008 By Phazon88 In Personal Computing

ATI has been hard at work on their next series of graphic cards. After the excellent HD38xx release, things are looking better for ATI since the release of the HD2xxx series which didn't go down too well at the time.

The HD48xx series of cards are armed with ATI's new RV770 chipset, built using 55nm production. The card also sports 512MB of GDDR3 memory. It is extremely powerful for its size (with the stock HD4850 being a single-slot product), price (launch price for HD4850 is only $200 USD) and power usage (with the card only using 269 watts when under a load).

Just check out some of the benchmarks over at the Guru3d article I linked to see this little beauty in action. Its got a little more grunt than Nvidia's 9800 GTX in most titles, with ATI's card retailing cheaper to boot (and sporting a better feature set).

In a few more weeks the HD4870 will be unleashed (with more agressive clock speeds and sporting GDDR5 memory) that'll pack even more bang. A little while after that we will see the HD4870X2 which is 2 GPUs stacked onto one board.

Needless to say its exciting times for both ATI fans and even Nvidia fans alike, because this newfound competition will drive down prices in every direction and lead to even more innovation in graphic solutions.

Comments (Page 2)

hydrocarbn

on Jun 23, 2008

Have you seen the price of the HD 4850? It's $200 at Best Buy with a $50 dollar rebate. How is that not a good deal considering it's on par with a 9800GTX and the drivers at the moment are far from being anywhere near the cards full potential.

Right, and my point was that the ATI marketing team should emphasize that. Still, I think it's relatively stupid to compare to the 9800GTX, as the 9800GTX is a pretty shitty launch all around.

It's more like "at higher resolutions and with AA enabled, this card does marginally better". And for $150, that's great. For $200, it's a little less great, but it's still a better buy for higher-resolution setups.

Astyanax

on Jun 24, 2008

as the 9800GTX is a pretty shitty launch all around.

Not true, check out the benchmarks on the XFX Black Edition, it's a pretty nice card.

For $200, it's a little less great, but it's still a better buy for higher-resolution setups.

Good enough to make nVidia practically drop the price on the 9800GTX $100 USD.

Campaigner

on Jul 08, 2008

Everything launched past the 9600GT has been crap as far as price/performance. A 512 8800GTS is still $150 in the States. I agree 100%. I'm still using my 8800gtx 768mb card and I have no plans on upgrading anytime soon. I just don't see it worth buying any of the 9 series cards or the new 280 series. To little performance boost for way to much money. Of course I've used Nvidia cards all my life and I can't see myself using anything but Nvidia. We'll see /shrug.

I know hardware enthusiasts upgrade atleast every other generation (and I'm the exception that confirms the rule) but is it really necessary..? (Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that many people do so the graphics technology gets raised).

I bought my 8800GTS(G92) 3 months ago and am not gonna switch until atleast ATI 5870.

Looks like ATI's gonna win this round. Great work

Now things will finally even out after Nvidias successes with the 8800 series.

Lantec

on Jul 08, 2008

I got the HD4850 about 2 weeks ago.....try looking for drivers for it on the ATI site.

They rushed the card to market without providing certified drivers. Then they found the drivers that were packaged made the cards run way too hot. So right now you have to use an unsupported "hotfix" driver. I'm being patient because the hotfix driver seem to be fairly stable so far and it is a screamin card.

silolauncher

on Jul 08, 2008

It is cheaper than 9800GTX on the release but pack the same punch

Phazon88

on Jul 08, 2008

Yes I'll agree in that they did push the release out before the drivers were completely ready but you can you blame ATI for wanting to put the heat on Nvidia? Nvidia does exactly the same thing so you can't blame ATI for not wanting to delay the card's release.

That said the new 8.7 release will be a substantial release for almost all Radeon cards (its providing support way back to the 9500).

MarkMcQ

on Jul 10, 2008

Ditto here too. Day I got mine I went off on a wander to find some up to date drivers, and it wasn't even listed. Thankfully someone pointed out the hotfix ones to me.
It's a great card, I had it OC'd with the memory over 1GHz at one point.

MadDeez

on Jul 13, 2008

well, i lost my rig a couple weeks due to a lightning strike. to replace my 3870, i bought a 4850 (asus flavor). so far, everything is great. using the included asus software, i can increase the fan speed so the gpu runs cooler. the fan noise is a bit louder, of course, but not loud enough to complain.

GenBlood

on Jul 13, 2008

I've got the 3870 ... It's working good and I don't
plan on upgrading till the next release from ATI/AMD
or DAMMIT ... for short

I figure around xmas time ... their will a new GPU ..
I can wait ... HEY ... I'm still waiting for 3Drealms
Duke Nukem Forever too ....

MarkMcQ

on Jul 13, 2008

Reckon that software would work on the Sapphire one too John?

erathoniel

on Jul 13, 2008

I'm using nVidia, but I want an ATI again. When I had an ATI card, I never had to worry about running anything, now with nVidia, I can't run much. Though, it is a laptop. It was still a "upgrade" though, and wasn't really.

Phazon88

on Jul 14, 2008

Hippy

comment 22

It's a great card, I had it OC'd with the memory over 1GHz at one point.

Apparently one site got the HD4870 (uses more expensive, higher standard memory) memory clock to 4.4Ghz - and this was the max the offical ATI overclocking tool allowed it to go to. Theoretically it can go even faster.

Zoomba

on Jul 14, 2008

With the last of my parts coming in this afternoon, I'm building a new PC with a 4850 512MB card. This is a jump from a 7800 256MB AGP card

For those who already own one, any thoughts or considerations for when I install the card beyond the driver issues?

Campaigner

on Jul 14, 2008

Got a powerful enough PSU?

Zoomba

on Jul 14, 2008

750W. Should be enough

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