Reviews - Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 512MB in CrossFireX: beating up on high-end GPUs?

[scaryjim]

Hicks, we double-checked the figures and they were pretty consistent. We, too, were surprised by how low the cumulative power-draw was.

Removing one fully loaded card from the test system would give a load power draw of ~ 150W, which sounds about right to me. Also, the jump from idle to load from the 2 x 4770 was 69W, compared with the jump in the single GPU test of 33W - which also sounds about right. If ATI can produce a driver that throttles back the memory at idle to reduce the idle power draw too, this would bode very well for future cards built on the 40nm node...

[Main]

It is a pity , ATI after the digital voltage regulation made in the 4870 went back again to analogue voltage regulation with this new card , I think was better to made the voltage regulation using digital because with digital there are anymore capacitors , and therefore I think is better that way , pity

They've used digital VRMs long before the 4870, they first appeared on the X1950 pro, and since then have only turned up on the top end models.

While they're a nice new technology they're expensive and run a lot hotter than analogue equivalents, with their only chief advantage being that they need less PCB space.

Every partner that makes ATI cards have ditched the digital VRMs in favour of cheaper components that can do the same job for their non-reference models in every case except the X2 cards. This is part of the reason graphics cards come down in prices at all, the 4770 for example would have had a higher starting price if they'd used digital VRMs.

[zephod]

surely there must be a 4770x2, surely! The damage it would cause to the 4870 and 4890 might be fatal, but shouldn't they be able to make massive margins on the card?

[tonschk]

They've used digital VRMs long before the 4870, they first appeared on the X1950 pro, and since then have only turned up on the top end models.

While they're a nice new technology they're expensive and run a lot hotter than analogue equivalents, with their only chief advantage being that they need less PCB space.

Every partner that makes ATI cards have ditched the digital VRMs in favour of cheaper components that can do the same job for their non-reference models in every case except the X2 cards. This is part of the reason graphics cards come down in prices at all, the 4770 for example would have had a higher starting price if they'd used digital VRMs.

Thank you very very much for the explanation ,I was without the info that digital VRM makes the VGA run hotter , thanks again

[Runningkid]

surely there must be a 4770x2, surely! The damage it would cause to the 4870 and 4890 might be fatal, but shouldn't they be able to make massive margins on the card?

I doubt they would want to drive the prices down too much as they need to leave a bit of room for future generations cards. But man... i would love one if they were to release one.