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An Early Peek At AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the soon-we'll-be-back-to-external-video-cards dept.

Dr. Damage writes "AMD has quite a hit in the Radeon HD 4000 series. Coming up next is a product code-named R700, a high-end graphics card based on two 4870s paired together. TechReport has a preliminary look at how the card — to be called the Radeon HD 4870 X2 — performs. Nvidia could have one heck of a fight on its hands."

5 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Re:1gb mem by grasshoppa · · Score: 4, Informative

    1Gb != 1GB

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    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  2. Re:Driver Support by hr.wien · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's time to drop this old complaint. In my experience this hasn't been the case since around the time the Radeon 9700 was king (in Windows). In fact, with the problems Nvidia has been having on Vista I'd say the opposite is closer to the truth. Driver stability just isn't a problem for ATI/AMD any more.

  3. Re:radeonhd driver? by MostAwesomeDude · · Score: 4, Informative

    By the time they ship, we might have released working 3D drivers for these, through xf86-video-ati and xf86-video-radeonhd. Can't guarantee anything, though, since we don't even have the documentation, but I do know that there's been some NDA work going on already.

    And yes, I AM a Mesa dev. :3

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    ~ C.
  4. 4800 running too hot? by Xelios · · Score: 5, Informative
    ATI's release drivers this time around were actually really good, minus one small problem. Default fan speed on all the 4800's was set way too low (20% I think) and the automatic fan speed control isn't working. As a result all the 4800's show some really high temperatures (75C+ idle). There's a work around for this until ATI releases a driver update to fix it (or at least let you set fan speed algorithms in the control center):

    Make a profile in the Catalyst Control Center, make sure ATI OverDrive is enabled and check marked. Now find the profile files in:

    C:/Documents and Settings/{user name}/Local Settings/Application Data/ATI/ACE

    Open the profile you just created in notepad and change these lines:

    <Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
    <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" /> <--- Change to "Manual"
    </Feature>
    <Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
    <Property name="Want" value="0" />
    </Feature>
    <Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
    <Property name="Want" value="30" /> <--- 30 is quiet, 45+ for gaming
    </Feature>

    My 4870 still idles at 58C or so, but anything over 30% is just too loud for me to have running all the time. Swapping the thermal paste on the GPU has also produced some good results for people.

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    Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
    1. Re:4800 running too hot? by schnipschnap · · Score: 5, Informative

      In fact, the article addresses this issue, see this page

      All of the Radeon HD 4800-series cards we've tested have produced some relatively high GPU temperatures, and this early X2 card is no exception. When we asked AMD about this issue in relation to the 4850 and 4870 cards now shipping, they told us the products are qualified at even higher temperatures (over 100 [degrees] C) and tuned for low noise levels. In other words, these temperatures are more or less by design and not necessarily a problem.