AMD Radeon HD 4670: Ruling from Top to Bottom
by Derek Wilson on September 10, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Non-G DDR3? Sure, Why Not
For a while now we've been seeing either DDR2 or GDDR3 on most graphics cards. The future standard looks to be GDDR5 at this point (with 4 being skipped due to its not-that-much-better-ness when compared to GDDR3), but currently board makers are faced with an interesting situation: DDR3 is coming down in price due to its adoption on the desktop.
The push to GDDR3 was to fill the need in the graphics industry for faster DRAM, so it came along a little ahead of DDR3 and has served us well for the past few years. DDR3 is now finding traction in the desktop world and prices are starting to come down as every major platform will support DDR3 going forward. Performance is apparently fairly similar at the speeds DDR3 can hit (we don't really have a way of testing this ourselves right now, but this is what AMD is telling us), so price is really the only differentiator.
The future: GDDR5 at the high end and DDR3 at the low end for graphics cards
Cheaper DRAM means cheaper boards, especially on the low end where we won't see really high speeds where GDDR3 or GDDR5 would be required. This is a good thing as it will hopefully bring performance down to the mainstream faster.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
90 Comments
View All Comments
FishTankX - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
I think this is the only article i've ever seen that uses the term 'Epic fail' in the conclusion.piroroadkill - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
Eh, don't be so elitist and stuffy, if the article is good - and it is - then it doesn't really matter.n00bxqb - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
Same here ... I approve of this term :)As for the HD 4670, keep in mind that this WILL make its way into MAINSTREAM computers (i.e. Dells and HPs), which is a very good thing. The 9600 GSO and 9600 GT probably won't find a home in these PCs because, let's face it, those cards at the $100 price-point aren't high margin and Nvidia and their partners aren't going to be able to offer the kind of substantial discount to OEMs like they can on items like the HD 4670 and 9500 GT.
Also, given the low power consumption, I could see this making its way into laptops soon as well in the $700-$1000 price range.
This will be good not only for your uneducated mainstream computer buyer, but it will also be good for AMD, which really needs it right now, and the PC gaming industry, which also really needs increased demand right now, too.
fri2219 - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
Not to mention "loose" in place of the word lose...Terrible review, even worse writing.
This isn't up to Anandtech standards.
Megaknight - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
Why is it a terrible review? Beacause it shows Nvidia sells old technology like it was new and screws the less informed people?regnez - Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - link
Well, we certainly look forward to your review of this card in the very near future, then. Or at the very least, some constructive criticism. If you cannot provide either of those, how about you just STFU?Also, I would not be surprised to see this card in an iMac refresh, courtesy of its low-power/decent performance. Certainly it would be an improvement over the 2400/2600 GPUs they have now, at least for the baseline models.
fri2219 - Thursday, September 11, 2008 - link
Does your daddy's dick still taste like your shit?I look forward to your review of all the penises you've licked the shit off in the future.
Until then, shut the fuck up/
xeutonmojukai - Thursday, September 11, 2008 - link
Petty bickering makes one look petty, nothing more.Besides that, I have an interest in your expert assessment of your own experience licking feces off of male genitalia, since I'm sure it would be riveting compared to your new rival's most likely empty repertoire of anecdotes.
Back on-topic, I found this review to be great, and I also find that spelling is about as relevant to the quality of a person's writing of a review as an incoherent username is to the inherent coolness of the user on a reply thread.
Gristy - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
I recent upgraded to the agp version of the 4670 my pc is pretty average, i have a 2.8 amd athlon 1.5 GB of ram and im currently running ARMA2 on high graphics with my resolution at 1024 x 768 and the game runs perfectly smooth with absolute fantastic graphics, i HIGHLY reccomend this budget card :Ddellprecision380 - Saturday, July 9, 2011 - link
4670 will work in x16 pci slot and 375watt psu?mother board intel 955xcs and pentium d 3.2ghz