AMD today partially lifted an embargo that prevented hardware review sites from publishing reviews of its upcoming HD 4850 GPU.
Despite previous confusion, it is now confirmed that the GPU will come with 800 stream processors, 965 million transistors, 40 texture units, a core that is clocked at 625 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 memory at 1986 MHz. The maximum power consumption of the card is rated at 110 watts.
In terms of performance, the 4850 goes head to head with Nvidia’s 9800 GTX (which was dropped to $199 today). Reviews published today indicated that the two GPUs deliver a close race in terms of gaming performance. Most reviews we saw today saw the 4850 ahead of the 9800 GTX in games such as Call of Duty 4, FEAR and in the 3D Mark vantage benchmark under Windows Vista. The 4850 came in behind the 9800 GTX in Crysis, ET: Quake Wars, Stalker, Ghost Recon and Grid.
Some may consider Nvidia as keeping the lead and even extending it with the release of the 9800 GTX+ GPU for $229 graphics cards.
But first reviews indicate that AMD has a solid product on its hands. The 4850 version will be announced on June 23 and become available on June 25, according to our sources, followed by the 4870 on July 8 and the 4870 X2 in mid-August.
Example reviews:
Tweaktown
Guru3D
Despite previous confusion, it is now confirmed that the GPU will come with 800 stream processors, 965 million transistors, 40 texture units, a core that is clocked at 625 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 memory at 1986 MHz. The maximum power consumption of the card is rated at 110 watts.
In terms of performance, the 4850 goes head to head with Nvidia’s 9800 GTX (which was dropped to $199 today). Reviews published today indicated that the two GPUs deliver a close race in terms of gaming performance. Most reviews we saw today saw the 4850 ahead of the 9800 GTX in games such as Call of Duty 4, FEAR and in the 3D Mark vantage benchmark under Windows Vista. The 4850 came in behind the 9800 GTX in Crysis, ET: Quake Wars, Stalker, Ghost Recon and Grid.
Some may consider Nvidia as keeping the lead and even extending it with the release of the 9800 GTX+ GPU for $229 graphics cards.
But first reviews indicate that AMD has a solid product on its hands. The 4850 version will be announced on June 23 and become available on June 25, according to our sources, followed by the 4870 on July 8 and the 4870 X2 in mid-August.
Example reviews:
Tweaktown
Guru3D