Affiliates
PowerColor HD 4870
Date: 2008-08-15 | Author: Gregory Gonsowski
Company: PowerColor
Share:
Tools:
Related Reviews:
INTRODUCTION
A few weeks ago the world was greeted to a sight many people only read about. The sight I am referring to is the dead coming back to life. No I'm not talking about the next Robert Rodriguez joint. I am talking about the rebirth of ATI and their return to the forefront of PC gaming. In an event that took the world, and NVIDIA, by surprise ATI unleashed their HD 4800 series of cards upon us. With performance levels far surpassing the previous generation and coming in at a price reserved for lesser cards, is it any wonder ATI was able to return to their former glory overnight?
Today's review comes in the form of the HD 4870 from PowerColor. Armed with 800 stream processors and ridiculously fast DDR5 memory, the PowerColor HD 4870 is ready to take the battle to NVIDIA. Let's jump right in.
SPECIFICATIONS
| GPU Specifications | ||||
| GTX 260 | GTX 280 | ATI 4850 | PowerColor 4870 | |
| Fabrication Process | 65nm | 65nm | 55nm | 55nm |
| Transistor Count | 1.4 Billion | 1.4 Billion | 965 Million | 965 Million |
| Core Clock Rate | 576 MHz | 602 MHz | 625 MHz | 750 MHz |
| SP Clock Rate | 1,242 MHz | 1,296 MHz | - | - |
| Streaming Processors | 240 | 240 | 800 | 800 |
| Memory Clock (Effective) |
999 MHz (1,998 MHz) |
1,107 MHz (2,214 MHz) |
1000 MHz (2000 MHz) |
900 MHz (3600 MHz) |
| Memory Interface | 448-bit | 512-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 111.9 GiB/s | 141.7 GiB/s | 64.0 GiB/s | 115.2 GiB/s |
| Memory Size | 896 MB | 1024 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| ROPs | 28 | 32 | 16 | 16 |
| Texture Filtering Units | 64 | 80 | 40 | 40 |
| Texture Filtering Rate | 36.9 GigaTexels/s |
48.2 GigaTexels/s |
25.0 GigaTexels/s |
30.0 GigaTexels/s |
| RAMDACs | 400 MHz | 400 MHz | 400 MHz | 400 MHz |
| Bus Type | PCI-E 2.0 | PCI-E 2.0 | PCI-E 2.0 | PCI-E 2.0 |
| Power Connectors | 2 x 6-pin | 1 x 8-pin 1 x 6-pin |
1 x 6-pin | 2 x 6-pin |
Looking at the specs of the PowerColor 4870 we quickly notice how similar it is to the ATI 4850. The core itself is nearly identical save for a bump in speed. The real difference comes when we look at the type of memory used. A quick glance would show the memory runs at 900 MHz and without any further details it is reasonable to conclude this is your everyday DDR3. Boy would we be wrong. The RAM used on the 4870 is DDR5 and is the absolute newest type available. It is quad pumped which means that meager 900 MHz is equivalent to 3600 MHz which is simply mind blowing.
This allows companies like PowerColor to produce a card that offers tons of memory bandwidth without the expense of implementing an expensive 512-bit interface. Just how well this serves to increase performance of the 4870 over its little sibling reamins to be seen but the stage is certainly set.
Share:
Tools:
Disclosure: Bjorn3D review products are sometimes provided by the vendors who manufacture the hardware. Review samples are in some cases retained by the reviewer that reviews the product for further comparison to other similar products. Companies that buy ads on the site do not get any special treatment when it comes to reviews and any ad-sales are not connected to the reviews or the review scores.