Crisis Management Solution 2: ATI Radeon HD 4670 CrossFireX Performance Review
March 30, 2009 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
In the times of economic meltdown solutions that provide acceptable performance at a relatively low price are extremely demanded. We decided to check out one of solutions like that: ATI Radeon HD 4670 CrossFireX tandem.
We used to say that multi-GPU solutions, especially discrete ones, were limited to expensive and luxurious computers of enthusiasts who did not care about money when it came to ensuring maximum performance. Even if not worse in terms of sheer speed, entry-level multi-GPU solutions used to be inferior to single-GPU cards in such consumer properties as reliability, compatibility, ease of use, etc.
Still, multi-GPU technologies have been evolving and getting rid of their downsides. And we can now say that they have matured for real, especially in the hands of AMD/ATI specialists. Their Radeon HD 4870 X2, based on two rather simple and inexpensive RV770 GPUs, has enjoyed a long period of being the fastest single-PCB graphics solution, beating the best single-chip products Nvidia could offer.
CrossFireX technology has not been that successful in the lower market sectors, though. For example, the Radeon HD 4850 X2, a less advanced counterpart of ATI’s flagship model, has not been recognized by ATI’s manufacturing partners and is so far represented with only one product on the market (it is the Sapphire HD 4850 X2 2G/1G GDDR3 and you can read about it in our earlier review). Users’ demands seem to be fully satisfied with classic single-chip graphics cards in the lower price segments although there is a niche for multi-GPU technologies there, too. As we showed in our earlier article, a pair of Radeon HD 4830 cards cost less than one Radeon HD 4870 but delivered higher performance (and offered an inexpensive way of upgrading the graphics subsystem for people who had one Radeon HD 4830).
Considering the recent reduction of prices on AMD/ATI’s produces, we are interested to learn how appealing an even cheaper CrossFireX subsystem, based of two Radeon HD 4670 cards, may be. This simple affordable RV730-based graphics card is a perfect choice for HTPCs but is no good for gamers due to its low performance in modern games – it has only 8 raster back-ends and a 128-bit memory bus. The new recommended price of the Radeon HD 4870 is only $149 (for the version with 512 megabytes of memory) and buying two Radeon HD 4670 cards at once won’t be much of a saving. But is there an option of cheap upgrade if you’ve already got one such card? Let’s see how effective this anti-crisis solution is from a technical point of view.
GECUBE Radeon HD 4670 with GDDR4 Memory
March 13, 2009 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
Taipei, Feb. 18th., -GECUBE, an exclusive partner of AMD with ATI graphics solution launched a new version of the HD 4670 equipped with GDDR4 memory – driving the Mainstream segment to the ultimate performance for enthusiasts with an affordable budget.
The new GECUBE HD 4670 GDDR4 has been production engineered to bring the highest performance to the mainstream segment previously associated only with high end cards. With its 320 stream processors utilizing 512MB of GDDR4 memory, the GECUBE HD 4670 GDDR4 is now the ultimate performance product in the mainstream class. Clock speeds are 750MHz for the core and 1100MHz (2.2GHz effective) for the memory making this the fastest HD 4670 card available. The card is cooled by a single slot fan based cooler with thermal control monitoring which keeps noise levels to the minimum (<20dBA) or near ZERO dBA when it is idle mode.
The GECUBE HD 4670 series uses the PCI-Express Gen2 interface, and features dual connectors for CrossFire X bridge cables, allowing two or more cards to be used together on a CrossFire X compatible motherboard for higher graphics performance. The design based on the powerful graphics architectures from the ATI division of AMD, incorporated multi-purpose stream processing units and improved memory management architecture. With the latest ATI ATI Catalyst® suite drivers, it offers ATI Stream processing for the acceleration of supported applications.
GECUBE HD 4670 series incorporate the latest ATI Avivo™ HD Technology for enhanced Video display. They feature a new generation of built in hardware UVD (Unified Video decoder) considerably reducing CPU load and delivering smooth decoding of Blu-ray™ and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, as well as Mpeg files. Its video outputs design ofer 2 dual-link DVI for ultra-high resolution up to and 1 HDTV output – allowing direct connection to a variety of displays. Two simultaneous displays are supported.
GECUBE HD 4000 series graphics cards are Microsoft Windows Vista™ Premium certified and supported by the ATI Catalyst® suite of software, providing customers to have ongoing access to software updates for performance, stability and added features. Like the previous generation, these cards support DirectX10.1 for enhanced rendering performance and lighting effects.
GECUBE HD4670 GDDR4 will enable users to get the most out of their gaming experiences for the budget value and is DX 10.1 ready bringing cost effective high performance graphics to the mainstream and enthusiast market.
ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Video Card Review
September 10, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
Every now and then both Nvidia and ATI release cards which are not necessarily at the forefront of performance, but offer something to those of us who don’t want to spend $200 or even $150 on a component which we will replace in a year. In the cut throat world of graphics cards, these little guys are often forgotten or chalked up as also-rans in the grand scheme of things. Even many of us reviewers seem to forget that there is a burgeoning market out there for cards which perform adequately while not costing a month’s worth of lunch money. Granted, readers love seeing the dizzying performance numbers the current high-end offerings achieve but there is a lot more going on behind the glitz and glitter. That is what we will be focusing on in this review: the little guys who make up the bread and butter of the ATI balance sheet. While the card reviewed here today won’t wow any of you with blistering performance numbers, it may just open your eyes to what else this diverse market has to offer.
Flush from their success with their highly-regarded HD 4800-series of cards, ATI knew that they needed to ride off their momentum and attack all parts of the market with the new R700 series architecture. The first step was to launch an assault on the mid-level market with their HD 4870 and HD 4850 which was followed by their high end offering, the HD 4870 X2. Now, in order to consolidate their stranglehold on nearly every price-point ATI is targeting the entry level price point with their HD 4600-series.
Yesterday marked the official release of the HD 4670 and the HD 4650 into the sub-$100 category which was up until now the sole domain of the Nvidia 9500 GT and before it the 8600-series. These cards are not for those of us who want the best of the best; they are for people who want a card to be a jack of all trades which can play games at lower resolutions while offering kick-ass HD video decoding. Both of these cards will have full HDMI and DisplayPort capabilities for HTPC aficionados along with a core based on the RV770 for casual gamers. All of this means that both cards should appeal to quite a few potential customers from a price / performance standpoint.
Even though there will be two cards launching today, in this review we will be looking at the HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 in its reference design. It is being released to fight the already-released 9500 GT GDDR3 on nearly every front from power consumption to performance to price. Indeed, since this HD 4670 512MB should retail for about $85, it is already ahead on the price angle considering the 9500 GT GDDR3 currently goes for around $95 when all is said and done. Another thing that we should point out is that the card we were sent is an engineering sample so when cards are released to retailers, expect quite a few different designs of both the PCB layout as well as the output selection. There will also be 1GB versions available as time goes on so the HD 4670 in one version or another should suit the vast majority of you looking for a budget graphics card.
All in all, this should prove to be a unique review for us since it is not every day that we take a look at a budget video card in detail. We usually see them trailing in our charts but to have one in the limelight is actually pretty exciting. So, let’s see what this pint-sized card has to offer.
