Graphics Slugfest: ATI Radeon HD 4850 CF, HD 4870, HD 4870 CF vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, GTX 280
July 17, 2008
There was a lot of hype surrounding the NVIDIA GT200 before it was launched. Fans weren’t happy when NVIDIA took them on a long ride with the G92 core, which is found in both the GeForce 8800 GTS 512, and the GeForce 9800 GTX. To make things worse, the G92 could not give any substantial gains over the aging G80 core.
Many were disappointed when Nvidia’s flagship GeForce GTX 280 1GB was officially launched, as performance was not ‘as good as what many had expected it to be’. On average, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 could not even outperform the older GeForce 9800 GX2, which is based on two separate GPU cores, by even 30%.
ATI launched the RV770-based Radeon HD 4850 512MB shortly after NVIDIA’s launch of the GT200. Suddenly, NVIDIA’s GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB looked like a severly-overpriced piece of equipment as benchmarks of the Radeon HD 4850 showed that it could keep up with the G92 for a much cheaper US$199. To make things worse, a CrossFired Radeon HD 4850 setup runs just as fast as a single GeForce GTX 280 1GB card. Things did not get better when ATI launched the Radeon HD 4870 512MB at US$299 which has about 75% the performance of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1GB (priced at US$649 back then). A CrossFired Radeon HD 4870 at US$600 wiped the GeForce GTX 280 out of the door.
