1. ATI HD 4770
estimate price : $110
Did you think that that the HD 4890 was the last video card to come out of ATI's HD 4000 series? Well if you did, it turns out you were wrong. Sorry about that.
While the HD 4890 is likely the last high-end card in ATI's current generation of GPUs, it is not the last card to bear a new HD 4xxx designation. That honor will instead – most likely – will belong today's review focus, the HD 4770. The HD 4770 is not just another middle-road performance video card. While it bears some similarities to ATI's HD 4670, when it comes down to performance, as you will see, there is more that is different than the same.
For the first time ever, AMD is introducing a brand new, smaller manufacturing process first in it's graphics chips, before making an introduction in a processors. Today's HD 4770 is the first video card to feature an extra-microscopically small, 40 nanometer manufacturing process. Positioned against the 65nm 8800GT/ 55nm 9800 GT, and the 65nm 9800 GTX / 55nm GTS 250, the 40nm design of the RV740 isn't the only surprise featured in today's HD 4770.
Let's get on our spectacles and take a peek at this very stimulating graphics card. Could the HD 4770 be a game-changer?
| Product: | ATI Radeon HD 4670 |
| Manufacturer: | AMD |
| SKU code: | RV730XT |
| Street price: | 79 USD \ 55 EUR |
So then dudes and dudettes, you'll agree with me that AMD's ATI division is certainly on a roll lately. Today we are testing their new entry level product, which quite honestly performs at pretty reasonable mid-range performance and carries a stack load of features.
See it's like this, AMD took a couple of punches over the last year and a half, and really you can see them getting back on their feet. The processor market is slowly gaining it's confidence thanks to the latest Phenom processors, their chipset market is growing and ever since the release of the 4800 series product, the ATI subdivision have very large smiles on their faces, and they have the intention to keep it that way. The 4800 graphics card series is however not where the biggest chunk of money is to be made for AMD. Sub 100 USD products, that's where a lot of money is made as you can save a lot of money on components and design yet make good margins and volume in that segment. So to date there have been plenty of choices in that segment products wise, but never something really interesting from a price performance point of view for the casual gamers. And today AMD is trying to 'capture that flag' as well with the release of the Radeon 4600 series.
As stated the Radeon HD 4680 will roughly offer you last year's mid-range performance at 79 USD. With that amount of performance the card will allow you to flick on 4xAA and 16AF and still play modern games at 1280x1024 and maybe even 1600x1200. And for you as a gamer on a budget, is an immensely interesting fact for your feature and framerate budget.
Today we'll show all about that polite performing product called Radeon HD 4670 .. and why am I thrilled in the opening of this review already you ask ? Again, this product sells for 79 USD - and that is roughly 60 EUR. It's a steal ...
3. HD 4830
manufactur : HIS
estimate price : $ 130
See, right now every move that NVIDIA makes is being counter-acted by ATI. And today they are launching a new mid-range class product. It's called the Radeon HD 4830 and again is a product that will bring a couple of surprises in the performance versus price ratio, to fight against the 'new' GeForce 9800 GT. A sub-$150 HD 4000 series video card that will take on NVIDIA, in the shape of the Radeon HD 4830. We expect its price to settle at 119-129 USD. This card will have 640 stream processors, a 256-bit memory interface and GDDR3 memory, and slot in-between the Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4670. What is the HD 4830 targeted against? Well, considering the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT and 9800 GT retail for around $130, it seems likely AMD would continue the pressure by also aiming for these products. So without further ado, let's have a peek at the product, the technology and obviously it's features and performance. Today we'll also introduce three new applications to our benchmark test suite, Brother's in Arms: Hells Highway, Crysis Warhead and Far Cry 2.
Never say that the graphics industry isn't an exciting and changing one. Ever since the year 2007 AMD has been having a really rough time, they were in the lowest position they have ever been. Then they fix a processor bug, and directly after that release Radeon HD series 4000. And ever since the Radeon HD series 4000 AMD's ATI has been on a roll. It's nearly bi-weekly that they announce and introduce a new product. On the other side of the scope we have NVIDIA which has been leading in many segments for years and counter-acting every move that ATI made, yet that ball turned around, didn't it?
