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About LinkBacksRead more.Sapphire is first in line with a custom-cooled Radeon HD 4850 X2, but is it enough to best NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280?
Read more.Sapphire is first in line with a custom-cooled Radeon HD 4850 X2, but is it enough to best NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280?
Does it beat 4850 crossfire?
I would expect it to be comparable 4870X2 and 4870CF deliver very similar performance.
My only concern is that it is priced far to high, you could buy 2x 1GB 4850's for £260, especially when you consider that a 4870X2 costs less than 2 4870 1GB to buy.
If I was spending £320 on a graphics card I think I could find the extra £30 and get a 4870X2.
For this card to be competitive its price would need to be more ~£250 mark in my opinion.
Agreed about the price - £225 area would have made sense, but the asking price is too close to the 4870x2..
Unless they rethink the price, I can see stock not moving..
I guess price wise they do not want to be too close to the 4870 1GB which sells for ~£225 although the are bargains to be had for less than £200Still it should be much cheaper than has been suggested I reiterate a price ~£250 would be about right, that would put its Hexus bang for buck up to a much more reasonable 1.19 which would make it the card of choice in the £200-250 price bracket.
I reckon we'll see these available for around £270 before long. Whether that makes them worth considering over s £170 4870 is a matter of opinion.
I doubt they'll be £250 before february.
What I'm interested in seeing is the 1GB version of this kind, and that should cost around £250 when released in a month or so's time.
Guys I love the site, but why such a low number of games tested? Personally I'd like to see at least 10, a greater cross-section of games. Do you not get a lot of time with the card?
Si
10 games would be immaterial I think, the ones they use now cover a good range of engines. But I shall allow Tarinder and crew to reason it out with you.Originally Posted by [jF]
I think this picture makes people smile
Cos that's gonna sell cards I reckon.
I agree even i was kinda surprised by that. I think this would be one hell of a card in an HTPC10 games would be immaterial I think, the ones they use now cover a good range of engines. But I shall allow Tarinder and crew to reason it out with you.
I think this picture makes people smile
Cos that's gonna sell cards I reckon.
Even a HD3650 would be marginally overkill in a pure HTPC
Really, ya think? 4 covers all engines/genres? Just comes across as being a little lazy to me tbh
it doesn't need to cover all genres of games... it just needs to cover a spread of engines that the games are using..
if they were to cover all engines it would literally take years to do properly due to the amount there are...
(yes i know not all of them are current or PC based)
tis much better to just have a game from the current top engine pitted against a game from another engine... as the games based on that engine will usually behave similarly... and that gives you an idea of how a GFX card is likely to perform with what engines etc etc
while staying away from games which are heavily optimized for a certain companies drivers (such as some games towards nVidia) so that it remains fair unbiased results
such as the current crop of test games are:
CoH: Essence
Enemy territory: quake wars: id Tech 4
COD4: ([edit] no idea anymore... so just saying proprietary[/edit])
GRID: Ego
so you get a look at 4 current game engines and their performance on a current card.
Last edited by TAKTAK; 05-11-2008 at 11:57 PM.
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Where did he say it covers all engines/genres? He said it just covered a good range.
We had this debate a few weeks back just before they changed to the current set of benchmarks - previously they still used 4 games, but they used ones with engines that weren't very representative.
To be certain, you have to test every single game out there, and every tech demo, and on every combination of hardware and software. Unless you have 300 staff and the entire Dell factory output it's going to take so long to do even a large portion of that that by the time you've finished the card you were reviewing is already 2 years old.
Remember, Hexus is a multi-purpose, general technology site - they don't have the resources or even the remit to conduct the most thorough technical and performance analysis of each piece of hardware out there - there are other sites better suited to that. Instead Hexus need to be able to put out articles that can still give a representative impression for its readers, hence the choice of four benchmarks that vary quite widely and give a more balanced level of performance for any given card.
There are always going to be exceptions, but if you choose a sample of benchmarks intelligently then you will be able to give a good idea of how a given card is going to perform accross the majority of cases.
I personally believe the recent selection of benchmarks is pretty good at that - certainly it's a lot more representative than it used to be. But just as they listened to our request to change in the first place, I'm sure they would listen to your carefully reasoned arguement if you were to suggest an even more representative set of benchmarks.
Put your thoughts forward and we'll listen.
I have personally seen how ATI tests its graphics cards in Markham, Toronto.
The benchmarking team prepares reports that include around 30 gaming titles tested at various resolutions and image-quality settings.
They do this as competitive analysis against NVIDIA, and I'm sure NVIDIA does the same.
I would LOVE, absolutely LOVE, to have the resources of those two companies and publish reviews that cover every facet of a card.
We don't have even a smidge of their financial resources and try to the do the best we can, knowing that readers will always want more - and why not!
For me, it's a balance between allocating our testing resources between a whole array of products, and whilst I share your sentiments for completeness, I really do, I'd need to win the lottery to make it happen.
Bottom line: we're not going to be testing 10-15 games, per card, in the near future, but we're absolutely willing to listen to what our readers have to say and try to incorporate changes which make the reviews better.
I agree. Not because it will "sell HTPCs", but because I think there's a market for powerful graphics cards with more than 2 outputs. (I for one would buy such a card. Eventually want 3+ monitors.)10 games would be immaterial I think, the ones they use now cover a good range of engines. But I shall allow Tarinder and crew to reason it out with you.
I think this picture makes people smile
Cos that's gonna sell cards I reckon.
Time and cost obviously have to be taken into account by companies that make reviews. Despite that, it would be useful to cover the major "genres" of games: FPS (2 games, pref), RTS, RPG, Sport/Driving, etc.
If you could find a game from each of these genres, I would be "more" pleased.
As an example:
- FPS: Crysis + STALKER: Clear Sky
- RTS: C&C RA3 or SC:FA
- RPG: Oblivion (might be a bit old, but can't think of others...)
- CAR: GRID or NFS title (or SPORT: FIFA09)
There you are: suggeestions from me...
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