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Radeon HD 4670 buries 9500GT

by on10 September 2008

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Review: Crysis with no power connectors

 

The latest AMD strategy consisted of first conquering the performance market in order to gain some long-lost trust in ATI’s graphics cards, and since they did it with HD 4800, they moved on to the next one. Thanks to a dual GPU card known as Radeon HD 4870 X2, ATI succeeded Nvidia on the performance throne. Now all that’s left are midrange and low end markets, the markets that yield the greatest profits for both companies. Sub-€100 range is currently a mess, and if you haven’t done your research you’ll be quite dazed and confused.

Today, AMD announced Radeon HD 4670, but this month will see another two products from HD 4600 and HD 4500 series. The latter card planned for low-end range is based on RV710, whereas the other one is, just like today’s HD 4670, based on RV730 and will go to mid-range.  All three cards are based on 55nm cores 2nd generation, and their main advantage is low consumption and no need for additional power. These PCIe 2.0 cards come with DX 10.1 support, thanks to a core that’s a crippled version of RV770 architecture (HD 4800 series). Of course, we expect some decent gaming with the upcoming DX10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 supporting games. UVD 2 engine and Realtek’s HD Audio 7.1 (integrated into the GPU silicone) are responsible for quality HD reproduction and processing capabilities.

When it comes to mid-low end segments, the price is surely an important factor and ATI claims HD 4670 should be available at €55. At this price this card is definitely a bargain, although a couple of listed HD 4670 cards were priced at unacceptable €70.

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Radeon HD 4670 is based on the RV730 core manufactured by TSMC in 55nm. It packs 320 stream processors, 8 ROPs and 32 texture units. We already mentioned that RV730 is a weaker and cheaper version of RV770 architecture, and although it’s cooler, it’s nowhere as powerful. As far as Radeon HD 4670’s features go, you’ll find that they’re identical to those of much pricier HD 4800 generation. Even with filters on, you should still be able to play games at 1280x1024, and maybe even higher but with filters off, of course. Just like the rest of HD 4xxx series, this card supports CrossFireX multi-GPU technology.

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The card’s cooler is single -lot and pretty quiet. Idle temperatures are about 40°C, whereas the GPU under a workload results in temperatures of about 84°C. The best of all is low consumption, which is evident from a lack of external power connector. So, PCIe slot power will be enough, as the card doesn’t draw more than 75W while in full throttle.

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Due to low consumption and not too hot core, the small and quiet fan, coupled with a slim copper cooler, keeps the temperatures in check. We’re quite certain that we’ll be seeing passive versions of this card in no time.

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The card comes with 512MB of GDDR3 memory running at 1000MHz, coupled with 750MHz for the GPU. The memory is evenly distributed on both sides of the card.

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It’s important to note that reference HD 4670 comes with GDDR3 memory and only a 128-bit memory bus.

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The core runs at 750MHz, whereas weaker HD 4650’s core will run at 600MHz. Other characteristics will follow in HD 4670’s footsteps, meaning 320 stream processors. Our version of GPUZ tool apparently choked a bit, but you can see that it loaded the basics like it should have. Weaker HD 4500 will be a real treat. This card doesn’t pack any serious gaming power, but that will be enough for the OEM market that will simply love it due to its consumption.

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I/O panel features two standard DVI outs and a TV-out, but we’ve seen some cards that will come with either HDMI or DisplayPort. This method also enables HDMI but via the DVI-to-HDMI adapter.






Tesbed:

Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Provided by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Provided by Intel)

Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Provided by OCZ)
        during testing CL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black (Provided by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Provided by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Provided by Artic Cooling)

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM

Vista 32 SP1

In order to provide a realistic HD 4670 comparison, we chose a couple of cards from or close to its price range. Inno3D iChiLL 9600 GS) is a factory overclocked card, just like Galaxy 9500 GT. MSI 9500 GT is passively cooled and runs at reference speeds. Radeon HD 3860 is a 256MB version running at reference speeds.

Futuremark

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Vantage test sees the overclocked Geforce 9600 GSO and HD 3850 with 256MB separating from the pack. At the same time, Radeon HD 4670 is almost 900 points better than the overclocked 9600GT card and more than two times faster than reference 9500 GT. This is truly an excellent result.

Gaming

We tested the games at medium or low detail settings as some cards, such as 9500 GT, wouldn’t be able to complete some more difficult tests. Radeon HD 4670 ran nicely keeping close to HD 3850 and 9600 GSO.

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In Company of Heroes (medium settings, 4x FSAA, 8x Aniso) Radeon 4670 runs on par with 3850, but the overclocked 9600 GSO still takes the cake. As soon as you turn of FSAA and Aniso, 3850 instantly gains some significant power. OC 9600 GSO still wins in this test, but 4670 leaves overclocked and reference 9500 GT cards in the dust. At 1,024x768 9500 GT cards start running faster but 4670 is clearly still better. OC 9600GSO emerges the fastest card in this test, but Radeon 4670 does well, beating the fastest 9500 GT cards.

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In Crysis (low settings), Radeon 4670 proves to be enough for great gaming at 1280x1024. 9600GSO loses to Radeon 3850, whereas Radeon 4670 beats 9500 GT cards on both resolutions.

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Radeon 4670 cards will be great for F.E.A.R. at any resolution, whereas 3850, just like OCed 9600GSO, is faster at every resolution. Still, 4670 beats both 9500GT cards, and even manages to beat the reference one by more than 60%.

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World in Conflict results in Radeon 3850 taking the performance crown. OCed 9600 GSO takes the second place and 4670 consistently beats both 9500GT cards.



Conclusion

Considering the price of €70, low consumption and no need for external connectors, this card runs great. It leaves overclocked and reference 9500 GT cards in the dust, and since they cost the same, we’d really recommend ATI Radeon HD 4670 cards.

Radeon 3850 with 256MB of memory is almost always faster, but bear in mind that 4670 also beats equally priced 3650 cards. Overclocked Geforce 9600GSO wins in every test and it’s not too far “priced apart” from 4670, so we’ll probably see some serious price wars.

We must admit that ATI did a great job on the entry-level market and this is a great low-consumption and most importantly – affordable card. As you can see, it’s enough to play Crysis, which is not an easy task, as this is one of the most muscle-hungry games so far.

Radeon HD 4670 doesn’t need a PSU upgrade, which is also a great plus.


Last modified on 11 September 2008
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