Testbed:

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



Futuremarks

We managed to get some Geforce GTX 280 scores and to see how ATI goes against this two times more expensive competition, just for the sake of argument.

At default 1280x1024 3Dmark06 still scores best on Nvidia's GX2, a dual chip card. It is surprisingly interesting that Sapphire HD 4870 ends up faster than all Geforce 9800 GTX cards, including the super overclocked Black Edition and runs some 300 points slower than the almighty Geforce GTX 280. With new memory, HD 4870 scores more than a thousand points in this test.



In Company of Heroes, the new memory and higher clock are just enough to win against every Geforce 9800GTX. The Radeon HD 4870 is even faster than dual chip 3870 X2 card, which is impressive, but it does lose to both GTX 280 and 9800 GX2 cards by 20 FPS to GX2 and almost 35FPS to GXT 280. Radeon HD 4870 is about twenty percent faster than Radeon HD 4850 in this test and it always wins against any 9800 GTX, including the overclocked ones.



Crysis is a nice surprise, as Radeon HD 4870 scores close to GTX 280 in this game, at least in lower resolutions. It is just faster than any Geforce 9800 GTX and it is always massively faster than Radeon HD 3870 X2 dual chip card. It is impressive that Sapphire 4870 is faster or almost the same as Geforce 9800 GX2 dual chip card. Sapphire 4870 is up to thirty percent faster than Sapphire 4850.



Due to a very limited time, less than 24 hours since we got the card we managed to test good old FEAR and we can say that this game really fits this card. Radeon HD 3870 X2 is still dominant, but 4870 wins or gets tight against GTX 280 and GX2. In FEAR Radeon 4870 ends up on average 10 percent faster than 4850 and both cards are always faster than Geforce 9800 GTX, including the overclocked ones.

Conclusion

Sapphire's HD 4870 is one impressive card. ATI shows that it can be the leader again. This is the first card to use GDDR5 memory and ATI just added one cool marchitecture to its portfolio.

This card continues the 55nm leadership and also supports DirectX 10.1, while not even Nvidia’s flagship, the Geforce GTX 280, upside down naming edition, doesn’t support any of these marchitectures.

When it comes to performance, Radeon 4870 wins against G92, including the chip clocked to 760MHz which gives an interesting implication that Geforce 9800 GTX+ is likely to lose from Radeon 4870. The alternative is that Nvidia might increase the clocks to beat ATI but it will be close.

One thing is certain, we are sure that Radeon HD 4870's current performance leadership in the sub-$300 market means a certain price war and you, our bellowed readers, will benefit, as the prices will have to go down.

Geforce GTX 280 is clearly faster, but not as much to justify twice as much money. For the price of a single Geforce GTX 280 you can buy two Radeon 4870s and get a decent lunch while you're at it.

In this category, we can highly recommend this ATI masterpiece, and Radeon HD 4870 is probably the best card money can buy in sub-$300 / €229 euro price range, but we are sure that this price will go down, sooner rather than later.