XFX ATI 4000 Series Round Up
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Introduction
In times gone by, if XFX were a stick of rock and you cut them in half, no doubt they would once have had Nvidia written through the middle. Times however, change and with the ever increasing competition in the GPU market. XFX have decided to sell cards from a company who are traditionally a major rival, ATI. Despite making business sense, it is still somewhat of a surprise that XFX, such a pillar of strength for Nvidia have decided to sell cards of Nvidia’s most hated rival – ATI. While XFX’s market share is certainly not the highest, the XFX brand is very popular among enthusiasts, due in part to the overclocked editions XFX are synominous with.
“JUDAS!” scream Nvidia. Well not quite. XFX still intend on selling Nvidia GPU’s and with Nvidia’s GPU market share of standalone GPU’s being around the 60% mark who can blame them. What XFX are attempting to do is tap into the 40% or thereabouts remaining. XFXÂ are still adament that their partnership with Nvidia is as strong as it ever was and now they have the marketing power to meet the demands of the enthuiast regardless of your preference to the red or green team.
This collaboration has produced a new range of graphics cards and the ones I will be looking at today are the overclocked XXX editions of the budget 4850, the 4870, the latest release 4890 and the stock clocked but mighty 4870×2. I will also be calculating these card’s cost per frame to evaluate how much bang-per-buck you get for your cash.
One has to wonder what XFX can possibly bring to the table that isn’t already there but as we have seen with the flagship single GPU card, the XFX4890XXX (reviewed in full here), XFX know a thing or too about what the end user wants: Supreme packaging, useful accessories and perhaps most importantly, overclocked editions backed up with 5 star support. So then. let’s hope this is the case with their new ATI range of GPU’s. Can XFX deliver? IÂ think it’s time we found out.
Specifications
The following specifications were taken directly from the XFX specification page.
| Â | HD 4850 XXX | HD 4870 XXX | HD 4890 XXX | HD 4870×2 |
| Bus Type | PCI-E 2.0 | PCI-E 2.0 | PCI-E 2.0 | PCI-E 2.0 |
| Performance | XXX | XXX | XXX | Standard |
| GPU Clock MHz | 625 MHz | 775MHz | 875MHz | 750MHz |
| Stream Processors | 800 | 800 | 800 | 1600 |
| Memory Interface Bus (bit) | 256 | 256 | 256 | 512 |
| Memory Type | DDR3 | DDR5 | DDR5 | DDR5 |
| Memory Size (MB) | 512 | 1024 | 1024 | 2048 |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1990MHz | 3800MHz | 3900MHz | 3600MHz |
| DirectX | 10.1 | 10.1 | 10.1 | 10.1 |
| Output HDCP Capable | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Max Resolution Analog Horizontal | 2048 | 2048 | 2048 | 2048 |
| Max Resolution Analog Vertical | 1536 | 1536 | 1536 | 1536 |
| Max Resolution Digital Hoizontal | 2560 | 2560 | 2560 | 2560 |
| Max Resolution Digital Vertical | 1600 | 1600 | 1600 | 1600 |
| ROHS | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Dimensions (Imperial) | 9 x 4.376 x 1.5 | 9.5 x 4.376 x 1.5 | 9.5 x 4.376 x 3.8 | 10.5 x 4.376 x 1.5 |
| Dimensions (Metric) | 23 x 11 x 3.8 | 24.1 x 11 x 3.8 | 24.1 x 11 x 3.8 | 26.7 x 11.2 x 3.8 |
| Profile | Double Slot | Double Slot | Double Slot | Double Slot |
| ATI Radeon HyperMemoryâ„¢ | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| ATI Radeon CrossFireXâ„¢ Technology | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| ATI Radeon PowerPlayâ„¢ | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| ATI Radeon Stream Technology | YES | YES | YES | YES |
Let’s sit back now and take a brief look at what each card offers in terms of packaging and appearance…
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