Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB Golden Sample

Written by Harry Butler

November 18, 2008 | 08:22

Tags: #1gb #benchmarks #graphics-card #hd-4870 #performance #review #testing

Companies: #gainward

Crysis

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Crysis is seen by many as the poster boy for DirectX 10 and it will make your system cry, quite literally – it’s a monster! It doesn’t come as much of a surprise then, that the graphics are something special – they’re above and beyond anything we’ve ever seen in a PC game.

We tested the game using the 64-bit executable under both DirectX 9.0 and DirectX 10 with the 1.21 patch applied. We used a custom timedemo recorded from the Laws of Nature level which is more representative of gameplay than the built-in benchmark that renders things much faster than you're going to experience in game. We found that around 27-33 fps in our custom timedemo was sufficient enough to obtain a playable frame rate through the game. It's a little different to other games in that the low frame rates still appear to be quite smooth.

In addition to testing under both DirectX 9.0 and DirectX 10 with all quality details set to High, we feel it's about time hardware should be able to handle the game with the in-game settings tuned to Very High. The game has been out for at least a year now, so it's time for hardware manufacturers to catch up with the software.

We forced 8x anisotropic filtering in the driver menu as there is currently no support for it in game and tested at 1,280 x 1,024, using 0x, 2x and 4x anti-aliasing, 1,680 x 1,050 using 0x and 4x anti-aliasing, 1,920 x 1,200 using 0x and 2xAA and 2,560 x 1,600 with 0xAA. By extensively testing using anti-aliasing in very high resolutions in conjunction with Very High quality in-game settings, we'll be pushing even the bleeding edge hardware on test to the limit.

Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB Golden Sample Crysis - DirectX 10 Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB Golden Sample Crysis - DirectX 10

Crysis

1,280 x 1,024 0xAA 8xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 60.7
    • 38.0
    • 53.7
    • 31.0
    • 53.1
    • 32.0
    • 48.1
    • 28.0
    • 41.3
    • 24.0
    • 40.9
    • 24.0
    • 40.6
    • 23.0
    • 39.7
    • 24.0
    • 32.7
    • 18.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

1,280 x 1,024 2xAA 8xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 59.0
    • 38.0
    • 49.9
    • 30.0
    • 49.9
    • 29.0
    • 44.0
    • 26.0
    • 38.3
    • 21.0
    • 38.0
    • 21.0
    • 36.8
    • 20.0
    • 34.1
    • 0.0
    • 29.5
    • 15.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

1,280 x 1,024 4xAA 8xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 55.2
    • 34.0
    • 47.1
    • 28.0
    • 45.9
    • 26.0
    • 41.3
    • 25.0
    • 32.6
    • 20.0
    • 32.5
    • 19.0
    • 32.2
    • 19.0
    • 30.8
    • 18.0
    • 25.2
    • 13.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

1,680 x 1,050 0xAA 8xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 53.6
    • 26.0
    • 44.6
    • 28.0
    • 43.3
    • 28.0
    • 38.3
    • 24.0
    • 33.5
    • 20.0
    • 33.0
    • 20.0
    • 32.8
    • 19.0
    • 31.2
    • 20.0
    • 26.2
    • 15.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

1,680 x 1,050 4xAA 8xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 46.5
    • 29.0
    • 37.6
    • 24.0
    • 37.3
    • 20.0
    • 32.5
    • 21.0
    • 26.8
    • 14.0
    • 26.4
    • 13.0
    • 25.4
    • 14.0
    • 23.4
    • 15.0
    • 20.6
    • 11.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

1,920 x 1,200 0xAA 8xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 49.3
    • 31.0
    • 39.9
    • 25.0
    • 35.3
    • 22.0
    • 31.1
    • 19.0
    • 30.2
    • 18.0
    • 29.5
    • 18.0
    • 28.6
    • 16.0
    • 25.0
    • 16.0
    • 22.6
    • 13.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

1,920 x 1,200 2xAA 8xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 45.4
    • 29.0
    • 36.7
    • 23.0
    • 32.4
    • 21.0
    • 28.1
    • 18.0
    • 27.5
    • 15.0
    • 27.5
    • 15.0
    • 26.4
    • 15.0
    • 20.7
    • 11.0
    • 20.5
    • 11.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

2,560 x 1,600 0xAA 8xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB
  • Gainward Radeon HD 4870 1GB GS
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 31.1
    • 18.0
    • 24.7
    • 13.0
    • 21.7
    • 12.0
    • 19.0
    • 9.0
    • 17.5
    • 9.0
    • 17.4
    • 9.0
    • 17.1
    • 9.0
    • 14.2
    • 6.0
    • 13.5
    • 7.0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

While dropping the detail from very high to high allows the HD 4870 1GB to deliver playable frame rates right up to 1,920 x 1,200, the performance advantage of the Gainward HD 4870 1024MB is still marginal and on average is less than one frame per second.
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