ATI Radeon HD 4850 Preview: AMD Delivers Performance for the Masses
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on June 19, 2008 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
AMD: The Peoples' GPU Maker
This week AMD came out and codified its new GPU strategy, but in reality it's the same strategy that has been in place since the release of the R600 GPU (Radeon HD 2900 XT). On paper (or LCD), it's the best idea ever, take a look:
Obviously this mythical GPU that can let you play at any resolution with any detail settings doesn't exist, but the idea is that AMD will continue to target the $200 - $300 market segment with its GPU designs.
The buck doesn't stop there though, AMD will continue to build more and less expensive GPUs, they will simply be derived off of this one mainstream design. Again this is nothing new, it's exactly what AMD did with R600 and RV670.
NVIDIA's approach is markedly different as this week's GT200 launch clearly illustrates. NVIDIA continues the approach of building a very large, monolithic GPU, eventually scaling the architecture down to lower power and price points. The GT200 is the latest example of the large monolithic die and subsequent mainstream parts will be based on some version of that GPU.
AMD argues that NVIDIA's approach means that there's too long of a time to market for high speed mainstream GPUs and it keeps power/costs high. There is truth in what AMD is saying but not entirely.
NVIDIA could just as easily introduce a brand new architecture with a mainstream part, it simply chooses not to as it's far easier to recoup R&D costs by selling ultra high end, high margin GPUs.
The power/cost argument is a valid one but AMD's approach isn't actually any better from that standpoint:
A pair of RV770s, AMD's new GPU, end up consuming more power than a single GT200 - despite being built on a smaller 55nm process.
A pair of these RV770s only costs $400 compared to $650 for a single GT200, but I suspect that part of that is due to differences in manufacturing process. If NVIDIA hadn't been so risk averse with the GT200 and built it on 55nm (not that I'm advocating it, simply posing a hypothetical), the cost differences would be smaller - if not in favor of NVIDIA since GT200 is built on a single card.
When the smoke clears, AMD's strategy is to simply build a GPU for the masses and attempt to scale it up and down. While NVIDIA is still building its GPUs the same way it has for decades, starting very large and scaling down.
AMD isn't taking a radically different approach to building and designing GPUs than NVIDIA, it's simply building one market segment lower.
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formulav8 - Sunday, June 22, 2008 - link
I know this is a late reply but I will do it anyways. :)I am just going by what your testbed specs says...
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Video Drivers
Catalyst
Catalyst 8.5
ForceWare 177.34 (for GT200)
ForceWare 175.16 (everything else)
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If you used Beta drivers you probably should have updated that in the specs and whether they are based on 3.5 or 3.6. It would still be nice to see some results with the new official 3.6 driver though. :)
Jason
formulav8 - Sunday, June 22, 2008 - link
I meant to say 8.5 and 8.6 not 3.5 and 3.6 :)Jason
goinginstyle - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
Is the beta based on 8.5 or 8.6?jpeyton - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
Newegg had the Asus 4850 for $199 with a $30 MIR to bring the total to $169.People are reporting seeing the Visiontek 4850 on Best Buy shelves for $199, but this week's ad has all Visiontek video cards at 25% off, so that brings it down to $149.
$149 for a 9800 GTX killer? AMD is turning the GPU price/performance market on its head overnight with this release.
jovdes018 - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
only if amd/ati could polish performance scaling with future drivers, 4870x2 in crossfire mode would really hit a hammer on every nvdian head.im so exited!!!BikeDude - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
and how do these cards perform playing movies? Without resorting to the malware package aka "PowerDVD"?msgclb - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
On your Crysis benchmarks why don’t you tell us if you’re using AA. You do for most of the other benchmarks. Does the lack of any AA = No AA? I was going to ask DX9/DX10, 32-bit/64-bit but you do list your operating system as Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1 so I’m guessing that you’re using 64-bit DX10.I get lousy Crysis results using Vista 64-bit DX10 with my dual 8800 GT SLI system but I get better scores than yours if I use DX9.
I appreciate all the work you put in to keep us informed.
DerekWilson - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
we do 64-bit dx10 noAA for crysis.bob4432 - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
hopefully this will drop the price of the 3850 :)GlassHouse69 - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
When is a tech company going to stop sucking NDA manchicken?anadtech has lots of bruises on their knees.
"stay tuned kids for the 4870 while we polish off this knob!"