ATI HD4000 Lineup Tested

In just a few days AMD/ATI will officially launch the new RV870 graphics processor and first graphics accelerators based on it. Numerous reviews and benchmarks will start flowing into the web, and new fan wars will break out in many hardware forums. Before we move on to our reviews of ATI Radeon HD 5870/5850 graphics solutions, we decided to cross all t’s in the still current fourth graphics card series by offering you a brief review and in-depth test session of the most interesting graphics cards from this series. Our today’s goal is fairly simple: we are going to compare the performance gain on transition from a less expensive solution to a more expensive one against their price difference and try to determine the economical justification for paying extra. Therefore, we would like to start with the analysis of the recommended graphics card prices and their marketing positioning.

* PowerColor Radeon HD 4650 512MB
* PowerColor Radeon HD 4670 512 MB
* Sapphire Radeon HD 4730 512 MB
* ATI Radeon HD 4770 512 MB
* Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 512 MB (GV-R485OC-1GH)
* MSI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB (MSI R4870-T2D512)
* Diamond Radeon HD 4890 1024 MB XOC
* MSI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2x1024 MB (MSI R4870X2-T2D2G-OC)