ATI announced the HD 4870 series of cards in June of 2008. The 4870 was a great card at launch as it offered great performance for a good price as compared to the competition, the GeForce GTX 260 which had launched at a much higher price and similar performance. This caused NVIDIA to lower their prices to compete. The vast majority of computer video card sales are not in the $300 price range that the HD 4870 was targeted at.

Most video card purchases are made in the under $200 price range and ATI decided to target this price range with the HD 4850 which was a lower clocked, DDR3 memory 4870 card. Even more sales are made on under $100 video cards and the ATI HD 4670 is poised right at that price point with a MSRP of just $79. Today, I'm reviewing the MSI R4670 2d512/D3 card. While a lot of headlines are generated justifiably so by the HD 4870, the X2 and the GTX 280, let's see what MSI can do with their 4670 card.

Micro Star International is one of the Tier-1 manufacturers of motherboards, graphics cards, and other computer related equipment based in Taiwan. MSI has an extensive line of video cards including parts based upon NVIDIA and ATI chips. MSI offers video cards based upon every ATI or NVIDIA chip available, giving the user the choice of which card to buy. They have been in business almost since the dawn of the modern PC and at one point almost dominated ASUS in terms of name branding and recognition.

NVIDIA launched their GeForce GTS 250 last month as a $129 video card. This is a rebranded 9800GTX+ which is in fact a rebranded 8800GTS 512MB. The reasons for the rebranding include the confusing naming scheme of NVIDIA video cards (where higher numbers do not indicate higher performance), and a need to organize video card names. After all, it would look unwieldy to have a GeForce 10600GT for a mainstream card next year or a GeForce 10200 for the value segment. On the other hand, NVIDIA has been pretty stagnant in their card development over the last year or two with no mainstream version of the GTX280 in sight. It is likely that NVIDIA will forgo the development of mainstream cards until the next generation hits the streets.

NVIDIA today announced that HP's most powerful and expandable workstation-the HP Z800 Workstation-is now configurable with up to two NVIDIA Tesla graphics processing units (GPUs), another key indicator of the demand being seen for GPUs in the high performance computing (HPC) space.



Enterprises that rely on HP workstations to accelerate their work in fields ranging from scientific research and industrial design, to 3D animation and seismic exploration, can now reap the benefits of NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and tackle demanding computational workloads right at the desktop.

NVIDIA today unveiled new breakthrough Quadro Plex solutions targeted at scalable visualization professionals who interact with 3D models and analyze large volumes of data. These cost-effective visual computing platforms are designed to power a wide range of ultra-high resolution and multi-channel collaboration environments - ranging from interpretation desktops to visualization walls to network operations centers.



Quadro Plex-based solutions enable professionals in fields such as energy exploration, architectural design, medical research and consumer packaged goods to seamlessly run any software application across multiple ultra-high resolution displays or projectors, facilitating accurate and timely decision making.

We already know that the DX11 class graphics cards from ATI fall under the family codename 'EVERGREEN' as recently seen on Computex. But it seems that ATI has sub-codenames for each product seperated...

Price to performance, the Radeon HD 4850 could rightfully be considered one of the most popular video cards of all time. It's hard to imagine that ATI would have every succeeded against the green machine at a time when many were expecting the end of AMD/ATI. I imagine that it's only fair, since NVIDIA has been polishing the crown for many years now. But after they enjoyed the sweet thrill of victory with their GeForce GTX 280 launch, ATI came around to deliver an affordable graphics solution to gamers and video editors with their latest Radeon HD 4800 series graphics processor.

MSI takes what ATI started, and clean up a few rough edges. There's no doubting the performance potential of any Radeon HD 4850, but taming the beast within has been another story. All too often the industry produces a product a little too hot to handle, and the RV770 GPU is one fine example. Plagued with high heat output, it takes the daring minds at MSI to calm fire with ice. Benchmark Reviews has already tested the high-performance cooling options dedicated to the Radeon HD 4870: Sapphire has their Toxic and Palit has their Sonic, but it seems that the big names have overlooked the warm-blooded 4850. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the MSI Radeon HD 4850 video card R4850-512M SKU- MS-V803-285.

MSI has held an interest in graphics for several years, but it's been enthusiast and overclocker motherboards that make up their popular product lines. ATI offers some of the most impressive graphics products available, and the new Radeon HD 4850 is no different. Although it still uses GDDR3 clocked at 993 (1986 MHz DDR), unlike the 4870 version that is decked out with GDDR5, the MSI R4850-512M model offers 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) on its 625 MHz 800-core RV770 GPU. Benchmark Reviews plans to test the MSI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card against it's closest competition, and even compares CrossFireX performance in this performance review.

The ATI Radeon HD 4850 GPU brings the power of graphics to gamers, setting a new standard for visual computing. Redefine the way you play and take HD gaming to the extreme with best-in-class performance. The new TeraScale graphics engine delivers an immersive, cinematic gaming experience. Add this GPU to your PC and watch Blu-ray movies and play HD content with incredible visual fidelity. Do it all with break-through efficiency that doesn't compromise performance.

The graphics card market is pretty much a two man slugfest at the moment. ATI and NVIDIA trade blows at irregular intervals in a brutal game of strategy. The GeForce GTX 275 was a punch that NVIDIA held in reserve, just waiting for ATI to release their HD4890 card. When launch day came for ATI, lo and behold, NVIDIA had the GTX 275 up their sleeve, ready for production. Essentially, the GTX 275 combines the GPU of the GTX 285 with the memory architecture of the GTX 260 with performance and pricing that neatly slots between the two.

MSI is an established player in the graphics card market, and their take on the GTX 275 pulls no punches. They put together a unique design, featuring twin PWM fans and a 5-heatpipe cooler, for their N275GTX Twin Frozr OC Edition, and one look should tell you that they are serious about performance. Benchmark Reviews is pleased to offer you a detailed, fact-filled look at one of the products at the heart of the sweet spot for gaming graphics.

 

 

By: Hilbert Hagedoorn | Edited by John A. Johnsen | Published: July 28, 2009

 

So if we look back, say roughly a year .. what were the two products that had the most impact and success? Yeah, I tend to think that was the release of Core i7 and the Radeon 4870 based on the RV770 graphics processor. Last year when ATI introduced their Radeon HD 4870 series product it was clear from day one and onwards that they designed an ASIC which was very powerful, and thanks to gDDR5 memory, a big performance leap at an affordable price was a reality.

Prolonging the success of the 4870... in early April this year ATI launched a respin ASIC called the Radeon HD 4890. As you guys likely know this is labeled as the RV790 ASIC, a slightly tweaked yet faster running version of that original model.

One of the biggest surprises of that RV790 graphics processor was its scalability in terms of clock frequency. Where the Radeon HD 4870 reference was clocked at 750 MHz, the Radeon HD 4890 was from day one clocked at 850 MHz. But it didn't stop there though, no Sir. Merely a week or two after the launch of the 4890 the first rumors, and later on press-releases, surfaced; the AIB, AIC partners of ATI would be releasing overclocked models of the Radeon HD 4890, which was just barely released. 900 MHz is the norm for most of the overclocked products. The really exquisite ones are clocked at 950 MHz and right now there are even cards being released with a 1000 MHz core clock frequency (!).

As such it is the first time ever that we are testing a graphics card with it's graphics core clocked at 1 GHz, and this editor actually finds that to be a milestone in the history of Guru3D.com

So when we look all the way back to that Radeon HD 4870 and compare it to the new faster clocked 4890 models, we surely have to admit, ATI and its partners have done a hell of a job moving forward at a steady and incremental pace. Today we will test and review the all new MSI Radeon HD 4890 Cyclone SOC edition (Super OverClocked), and oh-my-gosh ... for the money this thing is going to be fairly spectacular.

Have a peek at the product and then let's move onward to a nice in-depth review of the MSI Radeon HD 4890 Cyclone SOC.