AMD Radeon HD 4670: Ruling from Top to Bottom
by Derek Wilson on September 10, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Test Descriptions and Settings
Age of Conan
For Age of Conan, we opened up the graphics settings and clicked the high button. For added fun we went into the advanced page and upgraded to SM 3.0, though nothing else on this page was changed. We left AA off, as the graphics on this one were a bit tough already, and getting a good experience might require dropping down to medium settings. It's a shame that AoC doesn't allow us to test at 800x600. On an MMO, screen space can be pretty important, so we do understand the decision. Our tests consist of a swim towards Tortage Island and a quick run to the jungle. The test is a straight line run and very repeatable. We used FRAPS to record the average frame rate.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
We recorded a custom net timedemo for this one. All of our tests are done using the highest possible settings with 4xAA. The Doom 3 engine is getting a little outdated and just about everything can run it well. One of the more interesting issues is that we need to quit out of the game every time we change resolution or our scores get really crazy.
Race Driver: GRID
This game plays surprisingly well at lower resolutions on these cards. We used the ultra high settings, but disabled AA here. Some of the shaders this game uses really benefit from AA though, and the 4670 is actually able to handle AA pretty well on this one at 1280x1024. The test for GRID is the first straight (right into a wall) of a track. We start at the back of the pack and start FRAPS running as soon as we take off. FRAPS is stopped when we hit the wall.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
This test has been with us in some way or another for a very long time. The game is DX9, and we use Ultra High default settings for this one. For our AA/AF testing, we force those options through the driver control panel. The test is a straight line run with FRAPS. Even though there's a little age on this game, it is still a great title to get people hooked on gaming. It's open and fun and it doesn't look bad at lower resolutions with the settings cranked up. And these little cards can deliver as well.
Crysis
Yes, the obligatory Crysis test. This one is done using Medium settings across the board and no AA. We were running in DX10 mode and 64-bit as well. Our test is the built-in GPU benchmark run 3 times, and our score is the average of the second two runs. The game does lose some of its luster under Medium settings, but it is still very playable. Depending on the card you have, you would want to spend some time seeing what settings you could get away with pushing up to High.
The Witcher
For The Witcher we crank everything way up. We would have done more AA tests with this one, but there is this annoying new trend of limiting the maximum resolution AA can be enabled on based on framebuffer size. Aside from being annoying in our testing, architecture has a lot to do with AA performance and framebuffer is sort of a naive metric to use. In any case, this is another FRAPS test, but we benchmark one of the early in-engine cut scenes
| Test Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 @ 3.20GHz |
| Motherboard | EVGA nForce 790i SLI Intel DX48BT2 |
| Video Cards |
ATI Radeon HD 4870 |
| Video Drivers | Catalyst Press Driver 8.9 Beta (Radeon HD 4670) Catalyst 8.7 (Radeon HD 4850, 3850) Catalyst 8.8 (Radeon HD 4870, 3870) ForceWare 175.19 (9600 GSO) ForceWare 175.16 (9500 GT) |
| Hard Drive | Seagate 7200.9 120GB 8MB 7200RPM |
| RAM | 4 x 1GB Corsair DDR3-1333 7-7-7-20 |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1 |
| PSU | PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1200W |
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Spivonious - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
The real advantage to this card over the similarly-priced 3870 is that it doesn't require any extra power connectors. I imagine it also runs much cooler, therefore not needing a loud cooling solution.Are there any fanless versions of this card in the works? It seems like it would be fantastic for the casual gamer who doesn't want a screaming beast of a machine.
mczak - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
is obviously wrong in the chart, should be 192mm^2 or some such (118mm^2 could be the size of rv635 maybe).toyota - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
its 146 mm. http://www.firingsquad.com/media/article_image.asp...">http://www.firingsquad.com/media/article_image.asp...toyota - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
oops I think you were talking about the 3870 in that chart...nafhan - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
In case anyone else is curious, here's a rundown of current lowest prices (from Newegg, shipping not included):3650 $40
2600XT GDDR4 $44
9500GT $54
9600 GSO $75
3850 $75
9600 GT $80
3870 $90
8800 GT $105
4850 $150
So, as long as 4670's slot in below $75 they should sell fairly well. If MSRP is $79, that shouldn't be a problem.
Interestingly, it looks like they are starting to put 768MB of RAM on some 9600 GSO's. Not to interesting though, since that jacks it up to the price of an 8800GT...
reader1 - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
I'm looking for a low power Intel C2D motherboard. What board did you use for the power consumption tests? It says an Intel G45 in the article but neither of your test bed boards are G45 boards.computerfarmer - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
Does it CrossFire?Good Card for the money.
derek85 - Saturday, September 13, 2008 - link
Yes it doesnpp - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
I don't care if the review is biased or not, just don't have so much time to analyze every single word or sentence and extraxt the bias towards nVidia from it... I found it useful, and the 4670 seems a very, very good card for its money - and considering the already low power consumption of the 3850, the 4670 is an instant HTPC favourite, consuming even less. By the way, I never thought of sub-100$ cards as of something more than just a IGP extension, gaming performance is by no means the decisive factor here. If it can run passively, accelerate H.264 and handle some basic graphic tasks, than it's fine for me. If you can play some games with it - you got a nice bonus.Gastrian - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
A few of my famlymembers and myself were looking to upgrading our PCs over the next six months so I've been keeping an eye on new hardware, especially graphic cards.We are only looking at budget systems and seeing the benchmarks for the 4670, especially Crysis, at that pricepoint and I was about to recommend it to my family based on the review. I re-read the article and noticed your test setup, the Q9770 alone costs almost £1000!
I know the point of the article maybe to compare the various GPUs as fairly as possible but these aren't real world figures because I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone in the real world who will use a budget GPU with an ultra high-end CPU.
Myself, like most sane people, would couple this GPU with an entry level Celeron, Core2 or AMD X2 CPU and these charts don't say how much real world performance I'm going to get on this card.
While I'm not expecting to get Crysis playable on the low end I am interested in the likes of Diablo3, Starcraft2 and Dawn of War2 and am severely disappointed at the lack of RTS games in your benchmarks, especially on the mid to budget reviews as these are generally the games you'll get played on lower systems.