Analysis - AMD GPU sales VP says ?At last we?re making a dent in NVIDIA?

[HEXUS]

There's no doubt that John Byrne is right, but the question is: how much of a dent and for how long?

Read more.

[=TcQi=]

The 38xx/48xx ranges have put AMD back in the game. They appear to have learnt some valuable lessons from the underwhelming 2900. AMD have relatively high temps and power consumption, but they are far more competitive on price. Nvidia may be heading into harder times!

[TooNice]

The 38xx reminds me of the 8500, whereas the 48xx reminds me of the 9700 Pro. The 38xx put AMD back on the map after a less than stellar predecessor just as the 8500 did for ATI after the less than amazing Fury MAXX. However, I consider both the 38xx and the 8500 to have shown a lot of promise, but neither were decisive winners in their generation. Okay, I may be a bit harsh on the 38xx, as it was far better on release than the 8500, but nevertheless, it's greatest strength was the multimedia capability more than anything else. From a bang4buck and absolute performance perspective, they did not have much over the 9600GT/8800GT. And I remember that despite the smaller fabrication process, the 38xx did not win in terms of performance per watt other the nVidia offerings.

The 48xx on the other hand is almost ideal for most. Technically, it's not really comparable to the 9700 Pro in the sense that it's not the indisputable performance leader, but it's got most things right (notably, outstanding bang4buck on the upper end). To be fair, I wouldn't give it to them in terms of power consumption. The idle power consumption is too high, and the gap between the 4870 and the 280GTX on idle is greater than the gap under load.

[shaithis]

Well, considering that they have released a range of CPUs as well recently.....which have bombed, plus the 4870s seem to be dropping like flies (according to user feedback), I am not so sure that they are as happy as they make out.

And as the article states, AMD have to keep up the pressure, else its all for nothing. We aren't going to know for quite some time whether they can keep it up or not.

I just hope they can keep up the pressure (and sort their CPUs out) as it only benefits the customer.

To be fair to nVidia though, they pushed the Geforce 8 series at very good prices considering they had virtually zero competition.

[=TcQi=]

the 4870s seem to be dropping like flies (according to user feedback)

Got a link to that?

[shaffaaf27]

4870s dropping like flies? (if you mean from shelves to customers then your right)

[IT Troll]

Got a link to that?

Most (if not all) of these reports have been attributed to people flashing their cards with an incorrectly sized BIOS. Re-flashing with the correct BIOS resurrects the flies.

http://www.dvhardware.net/article28266.html

[shaffaaf27]

that is NOT ATI's fault.

[IT Troll]

I agree. A little knowledge...

[Mithrandir]

If only AMD brought the tri-cores to the £60-£70 boundary then they would also give Intel a smacking.

[shaithis]

Dig around all the usual forums, plenty of people saying they have done nothing and the cards are dead.

Others have flashed and killed them (their fault, although resurrectable it seems)

And you have to ask the question "Why are they flashing them?"........

[=TcQi=]

Dig around all the usual forums, plenty of people saying they have done nothing and the cards are dead.

Others have flashed and killed them (their fault, although resurrectable it seems)

And you have to ask the question "Why are they flashing them?"........

Perhaps because the early adopters of said cards are often enthusiasts, who are typically interested in extracting the maximum performance possible (even at the expense of the warrantee)....

Care to provide least one article/post that details more than three failures that are not attributable to user error? I've done a little digging and all I could find was a couple of cards that were dead on arrival....

Edit: If you are refferring to http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ight=4870+dead in particular, then I suggest you read the posts towards the end of the thread

[shaithis]

Just head over to xtremesystems, plenty of threads there.

No one is going to know for sure for at least a few weeks whether the reports are true or whether its people lying (after messing with the cards).

The bottom line either way though is that a brand new card shouldn't need to be flashed to get the fan working properly. I know I do not feel confident buying one right now. If you do, more power to you.

[shaffaaf27]

you dont nee dot mess with bios for the fan, you can edit the .xml