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Summary

The following is a summary of the more detailed analysis of the AMD Radeon HD 4870 and HD 4850 GPUs. For all the in-depth analysis and testing you'd expect from us, be sure to click this link to get all the details!

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If you were confused into believing that AMD's next-generation architecture, the RV770 design, was supposed to be out MUCH earlier than today, you wouldn't be alone.  We started posting about the RV770 design as far back as late December and the stream of news and rumors about the number of shader processors, memory technologies and more.  Last week we were "gifted" with the early release of the Radeon HD 4850 512MB- one of the products based on the RV770 design, but today we'll walk you through not only both the HD 4850 and HD 4870 graphics boards but also the RV770 architecture itself.



First up is the Radeon HD 4870 - the highest end part being released today.  It is a two-slot graphics card with a cooler design that looks pretty familiar to previous designs.  Specifications are as follows:

• Radeon HD 4870
• 800 Stream processors
• 750 MHz core clock
• 1800 MHz GDDR5 memory clock
• 512MB frame buffer
• Max board power 160 watts

Our Radeon HD 4850 samples came courtesy of MSI; a single slot design makes for one HOT card, but let's look at the specs:

• Radeon HD 4850
• 800 Stream processors
• 625 MHz core clock
• 1000 MHz GDDR3 memory clock
• 512MB frame buffer
• Max board power 110 watts

Let's take a look at some performance from these two new GPUs:

Pricing and Availability

One thing you won't have a problem finding today is an AMD Radeon HD 4850 card - they were actually sold earlier than AMD expected which prompted our own "previews" of the card last week.  Newegg has a slew of them in stock already:

• Diamond Radeon HD 4850 - $199
  
• ASUS Radeon HD 4850 - $199
  
• MSI Radeon HD 4850 - $199
  
• Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 - $199
  
• HIS Radeon HD 4850 - $199
  
• Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 - $199
  
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 - $199
  
• PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 - $199

The HD 4870 512MB card will be a bit more sparse: AMD is still claiming availability this week but we haven't seen anything for sale just yet.  It is no secret that the GDDR5 memory that powers the HD 4870 is more expensive and still somewhat difficult to come by - AMD is the only buyer right now so production is probably pretty limited.  The MSRP for the HD 4870 should be around $299 and if the prices on the HD 4850 are any indication, AMD is dead set on meeting that price.

From NVIDIA that pits these RV770 cards up against the GeForce 9800 GTX/GTX+ cards and presumably the GeForce GTX 260 which should sell for $399 or GeForce 9800 GX2 which is going for just over $420 in some places.  That puts AMD in a great position - if they can get the HD 4870 out in quantity before NVIDIA can deliver on the cheaper GTX 260 they should rake in the sales of these cards. 

Final Thoughts

AMD's and NVIDIA's philosophies in GPU design are obviously splitting in a way they haven't for several generations of GPUs and it will be interesting to see how that plays out.  What matters today is gaming performance for your dollar and AMD has delivered two of the best mid-range cards we have seen in a very long time; the HD 4850 and HD 4870 will no doubt appeal to many gamers looking to take a plunge with a sub-$300 or sub-$200 graphics solution. 


Be sure to use our pricing engine to find the best prices on NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards and anything else you might need:

Next Page - RV770 Makes its Debut

Review Index:
- Select - Summary RV770 Makes its Debut RV770 Architecture - a lot has changed AMD Radeon HD 4870 512MB AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB System Setup and Testing Methodology Bioshock Call of Duty 4 Unreal Tournament 3 Crysis 3DMark Vantage Power Consumption Conclusions and Final Thoughts