Final Words

And there you have it: 40nm has arrived, and it looks pretty good. The Radeon HD 4770 always outperforms the older 4830 and sometimes gives the 4850 a run for its money.

As for the competition, the 4770 comes out on top in the games we tested. The more expensive GTS 250 leads in Call of Duty World at War, while the 4770 blows the doors off everything in Age of Conan. As for the other benchmarks, they come out pretty close with the 4770 generally ahead. But the clincher is Far Cry 2 performance which shows the Radeon HD 4770 leading the GTS 250 fairly well in a heavy hitting graphics engine.

Our expectations for the hardware were a little higher while our idea of price was also a little lower, but from our perspective, the extra $10 isn't out in left field as this card generally leads a competitive part that costs even more and sometimes pushes up toward the Radeon HD 4850. At the same time, you can spend a little bit less and get some very good performance if you are into the value option.

We still don't like the fact that the AMD decided to name this the 4770 despite the fact that it consistently outperforms the 4830. Unfortunately, we can't do any more about it than we are already doing. So we'll have to make do in the meantime.

NVIDIA should have 40nm parts out this year as well, and both camps have their own way of rolling out new process technology. AMD continues to be a little bit more aggressive on that front, seemingly making the move on the earliest viable hardware whether it's low or high end. NVIDIA looks to play it a little more cautiously. It's all about cost benefit. Certainly it's a benefit to have smaller GPUs as they cost less to make. But early on in the life of a manufacturing process, yields can suffer driving price up. Timing the move well can have its advantages, and NVIDIA is counting on that this time around.

It isn't clear when NVIDIA will have a part in this generation of their architecture that competes in the near $100 market. For now, the best option is clear: the Radeon HD 4770 is the way to go.

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  • SiliconDoc - Sunday, June 7, 2009 - link

    the usual red rooster line I see:
    " It's all about cost benefit. Certainly it's a benefit to have smaller GPUs as they cost less to make. "
    ---
    YES WE KNOW YOU IDIOT RED ROOSTERS - ATI HAS LOST A BILLION A YEAR IN THEIR COST EFFECTIVE TINY GPU DIE SALES.
    THEY LOSE 33% IN DOLLARS OF THEIR SALE PRICE ON EVERY DING DANG VIDEOCARD THEY SELL AS AN AVERAGE.
    That means if you buy a $200 lovely driver corrupted red rooster card, ATI loses $66 for AMD and themselves !
    ---
    WHAT a great advantage they have in that die size !
    ----
    MEANWHILE FOR THOSE BILLION DOLLAR ATI LOSS YEARS, NVIDIA HAS BEEN CRANKING OUT A PROFIT ! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$4
    --
    Oh well, nice BS anyway Derek ! Hope it makes all your fantasies real for you, because that's the only place they are real, in your head.
  • srikar115 - Saturday, May 30, 2009 - link

    on stock its same performer to 4850,cheaper,cooler nore ociable,this will defently hamper the sales of 4850.

    clocks reached as high as 1000/1200 with voltage adjustments...i jus love this card
    http://pcgamersera.com/forum/topic.php?id=16">http://pcgamersera.com/forum/topic.php?id=16
  • PC Reviewer - Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - link

    I believe that the newer 4890's are better performance for the cost...

    its only marginally more yet offers more ram for larger resolutions and more power..

    http://pcreviewer.org/new-radeon-hd-4890-video-car...">http://pcreviewer.org/new-radeon-hd-4890-video-car...
  • Sunsmasher - Saturday, May 2, 2009 - link

    It quite apparent that the manufacturers are TRYING to create confusion for less sophisticated buyers so that they cannot easily
    compare price/performance factors of cards.
    This is especially true of Nvidia. (Can anybody explain why the 8800 magically became the 9800?)
    Obviously an attempt to create a "new" card without really changing anything.
  • PrinceGaz - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link

    [quote]The fact that the AMD hardware is leading here is not unexpected. But we do see that the NVIDIA GTS 250 looks a little bit CPU bound at lower resolutions.[/quote]

    I wouldn't say it is CPU bound as the AMD cards are not at all CPU bound at considerably higher framerates. Rather the nVidia card is for some reason being capped at 60fps, almost probably by its driver (or possibly some setting in it). Most LCD displays are capable of accepting a refresh rate of 75hz (at certain resolutions) as well as 60hz, so you could always try doing that to see if the driver is limiting the framerate to the refresh-rate.
  • rickshaw - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link

    This card look amazing for the price. I am wondering now if this card is any better than the HD 3870? Should I get this card to replace the HD 3870?

    Any comments for the experts?
  • Lummox - Thursday, May 7, 2009 - link

    with two of these cards for $220 = rebate you will smoke anything else at this price including a 280. see toms for review
  • VooDooAddict - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link

    I'm drooling over the power usage.

    Top end i7
    6 dimms
    4770

    under 220w

    I think I found the new Crossfire setup for my Shuttle!
  • Wreckage - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - link

    How come the 4770 does so much better in the Anandtech review than in the Guru3D, HardOCP, Xbit Labs, Tom's Hardware and several other reviews?
  • mmpalmeira - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - link

    I guess it is because of the games they tested with that favors the ATI hardware. Specialy GRID and AoC. The cards performance is very similar, so the games choosen to performe the test will define with card is better.

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