ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870: RV770 Has Arrived

Name: ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870: RV770 Has Arrived - Page 6
Brand: ATI

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

Synthetic DirectX Gaming

3DMark Vantage

The latest version of Futuremark's synthetic 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark Vantage, is specifically bound to Windows Vista-based systems because it uses some advanced visual technologies that are only available with DirectX 10, which y isn't available on previous versions of Windows. 3DMark Vantage isn't simply a port of 3DMark06 to DirectX 10 though. With this latest version of the benchmark, Futuremark has incorporated two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, in addition to support for the latest PC hardware. We tested the graphics cards here with 3DMark Vantage's Extreme preset option, which uses a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200, with 4X anti-aliasing and 16X anisotropic filtering.

The relatively new 3DMark Vantage is far more intensive than the aging 3DMark06, and as such the spread is far more pronounced between the different configurations we tested. Here, the Radeon HD 4850 edges out the upcoming GeForce 9800 GTX+ by a few points and the Radeon HD 4870 finishes just behind the GeForce GTX 260.

3DMark Vantage's individual GPU tests tell essentially the same story, although in GPU test 2 the Radeon HD 4850 finishes just behind the GeForce 9800 GTX+. The Radeon HD 4850's slightly larger margin if victory over the GTX+ in GPU test 1, however, gave it the overall edge in this benchmark. We should also note that both NVIDIA's and ATI's solutions show excellent multi-GPU scaling in 3DMark Vantage with the exception of the quad-CrossFireX 3870 X2 setup, which suffered from visual anomalies and lower than expected scores.

Tags: ATI, Radeon, HD, rv770, 4850, 4870, Radeon HD, ATI Radeon, arrive, Ive, AR, and

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com