4870 benchmarked: http://translate.google.com/transl [...] page%253D1

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/ [...] index.html
RADEON FTW!!!

(EDIT: http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] i=3338&p=1 - One of the best out there)

(EDIT: http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd- [...] wercolor/1 - Complete Review - Awesome site regarding GFX Cards)

(EDIT: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] 850/7.html - Complete Review Updated)

Bah, ya beat me to it.

Isn't really a beating, but if you add Bang/buck ratios on it, its a very nice option to have. Probably going to my next rig. Or the 4870..dunno yet.

Oh, man! It beats GTX280 in some tests and catch up in the others! But yours is exactly the point: price/performance (a.k.a e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g)

they are comparing TWO 4800s to ONE GTX280... not a real good comparison there. Even the 3870x2 is close to a single GTX280. stop posting fanboy crap from biased hardware review sites. AMD is dying they just dont know it yet... Hector forgot to read the memo. I hate a lone intel senario prices gonna fly through the roof. On a side note i hate seeing ATI dragged down by AMD , that has to be the biggest Corporate blunder in history for a company.

lol. Funny when you talk about "fanboyism" while being a fanboy, heh? Besides, I haven't seen any "bias" evidence in there: does it simply hurts your green heart? I'm going for an INTEL rig and 2 4850s or 4870s, BUT, that's just ME. If you don't mind spending 600$ bucks when two 200$ cards can give you the same or better performance then it's YOUR problem. You don't need to troll just because 2 mainstream cards beat the supreme-launch-of-all-time.

Sorry. Forgot to tell you: the comparison is *absolutely* valid, since two of those cards cost less than one GTX 280.

Ehm, hacker, when you consider the price of 2 4850's, it's still cheap.

In fact, although nVidia continued on monolythic GPUs, AMD adopted using lots of average GPUs to achieve the same performance.

nVidia can't scale as easy as AMD/ATi, as they need to create a new mask and new design for each level of GPU.

But in case of AMD/ATi, all they have to do is, an architecture which can be scaled just by adding more of the GPUs on the board or system, which is quite cost effective.

If in the x2 versions of these cards, AMD manages to share the framebuffer as a whole, then, it's the real threat to nVidia.

You make a good point hacker...the 3870x2 isnt far behind the gtx280, 2 8800gt in sli are very nearly the same as the gtx280...AND... Two 4850 can pretty much beat it.

The point is that all of the above are significantly cheaper than the gtx280.

Running a single gtx280 really is looking like a foolish thing to do at the moment.

Sure 2 cards for $500 to get near a single card solution that costs $600 (Probably will drop fast) and sometimes beats it isn't a bad idea. Of course you have to have a more expensive motherboard with Crossfire support, you also need a more powerful power supply to handle the additional cards. Your computer will then draw more power, costing you more money on your electricity. Your case will also run hotter, possibly hurting and OCing performance on your CPU or GPUs.


So actually you are going to spend just as much money on your Crossfire solution when a single card solution is just simpler. For an extra $50 get a good aftermarket cooler on your single card solution and OC it.


And once these cards launch and nVidia sees that the ATI cards are pretty close to the GT200 cards, they prices will fall accordingly.

From the page you link:

"3DMark06 is the very latest version of the “Gamers Benchmark” from FutureMark. "

Right-o.

Still, good numbers in the gaming benchmarks, but it is a shame that these didn't include AA and AF - again they just fall back on Vantage and 3DMark 06.

I'm still more interested in the 4870X2.

I wouldnt count on that price. With 4870s a few weeks behind the 4850s and with if that type of performance shown by Tweaktown review holds up you'll be lucky to get your hands on any 4850 below $250.

over the last year or so ATI/AMD has had to sandwich two radeon's to equal the performance of a single Nvidia card but they have done an excellent job of it and pricing them at an undercut. They are trying the same with their Phenoms with slightly less success for the simple fact Phenoms lack the overclock factor the Core's do. If the 280GTX was priced around 450 it would be a good deal and tempt folks into getting two in SLI and slapping all other cards around.

GTX 280: 649$ at Newegg.
4850: 199$ at Amazon. 2x = 398$. (EDIT: it seems that that link is gone as of now)

It's quite a difference for me. Yeah, you're right about the "dual-gpu-solution" thing, however, I like the approach. I guess they are a lot better than they were some months ago and probably they are just going to improve. Regarding your other points, I haven't seen either data related to the 4850 real power draw nor the noise it produces. Can't make any conclusion right now.

Price drops? Nah. Not until Nvidia shrinks the core. It's damn expensive to produce. Anyway, if you assume a GTX 280 price drop, you can be sure as hell that a 4850/4870 price drop will happen too = same situation as before.