Another Look at the $180 Price Point: 260 core 216 vs. 4870 1GB

With the change in performance with the 185 drivers from NVIDIA, we wanted to breakout one of the other most important price points. With lower resolution performance sometimes showing degraded performance and higher resolutions popping up with improvements, this price point is worth exploring.

Overall, it looks like the 4870 1GB is just a little bit faster in one or two games, but these cards are still pretty well matched after the new driver. the scaling differences really wouldn't change our minds either way. Both of these cards are good options.

What will an Extra $70 Get You? Radeon HD 4890 vs. Radeon HD 4870 1GB Putting this PhysX Business to Rest
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  • piesquared - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link

    Must be tough trying to write a balanced review when you clearly favour one side of the equation. Seriously, you tow NV's line without hesitation, including soon to be extinct physx, a reviewer relieased card, and unreleased drivers at the time of your review. And here's the kicker; you ignore the OC potential of AMD's new card, which as you know, is one of it's major selling points.

    Could you possibly bend over any further for NV? Obviously you are perfectly willing to do so. F'n frauds
  • Chlorus - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link

    What?! Did you even read the article? They specifically say they cannot really endorse PhysX or CUDA and note the lack of support in any games. I think you're the one towing a line here.
  • SiliconDoc - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link

    The red fanboys have to chime in with insanities so the reviewers can claim they're fair because "both sides complain".
    Yes, red rooster whiner never read the article, because if he had he would remember the line that neither overclocked well, and that overclocking would come in a future review ( in other words, they were rushed again, or got a chum card and knew it - whatever ).
    So, they didn't ignore it , they failed on execution - and delayed it for later, so they say.
    Yeah, red rooster boy didn't read.
  • tamalero - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - link

    jesus dude, you have a strong persecution complex right?
    its like "ohh noes, they're going against my beloved nvidia, I MUST STOP THEM AT ALL COSTS".
    I wonder how much nvidia pays you? ( if not, you're sad.. )
  • SiliconDoc - Thursday, April 23, 2009 - link

    That's interesting, not a single counterpoint, just two whining personal attacks.
    Better luck next time - keep flapping those red rooster wings.
    (You don't have any decent couinterpoints to the truth, do you flapper ? )
    Sometimes things are so out of hand someone has to say it - I'm still waiting for the logical rebuttals - but you don't have any, neither does anyone else.
  • aguilpa1 - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link

    All these guys talking about how irrelevant physx and how not so many games use it don't get it. The power of physx is bringing the full strength of those GPU's to bear on everyday apps like CS4 or Badaboom video encoding. I used to think it was kind of gimmicky myself until I bought the "very" inexpensive badaboom encoder and wow, how awesome was that! I forgot all about the games.
  • Rhino2 - Monday, April 13, 2009 - link

    You forgot all about gaming because you can encode video faster? I guess we are just 2 different people. I don't think I've ever needed to encode a video for my ipod in 60 seconds or less, but I do play a lot of games.
  • z3R0C00L - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link

    You're talking about CUDA not Physx.

    Physx is useless as HavokFX will replace it as a standard through OpenCL.
  • sbuckler - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link

    No physx has the market, HavokFX is currently demoing what physx did 2 years ago.

    What will happen is the moment HavokFX becomes anything approaching a threat nvidia will port Physx to OpenCL and kill it.

    As far as ATI users are concerned the end result is the same - you'll be able to use physics acceleration on your card.
  • z3R0C00L - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link

    You do realize that Havok Physics are used in more games than Physx right (including all the source engine based games)?

    And that Diablo 3 makes use of Havok Physics right? Just thought I'd mention that to give you time to change your conclusion.

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