世界上第一块40nm GPU--AMD Radeon HD 4770 512MB 评测

yym

RV740 is all its cracked up to beThe Budget Market Keeps Moving

2008 and 2009 have been very interesting in the world of the GPU - not because we have seen huge increases in available [size=1em]performance (though the GeForce GTX 295 and Radeon HD 4890 are good cards) but because of the dramatic shift to incredibly low priced parts.  It wasn't long ago that top-end GPUs were going to run you $599 or more; now you can find [size=1em]AMD's best single-GPU configuration for $230 or so and the computing power encompassed in it is impressive.

Of course as the various new GPU releases came out at lower and lower prices, the remainder of the market has been compressing down into even lower prices and smaller margins.  We have seen the HD 4870 and HD 4850 drop to $150 or less and now with today's release, there is a new contender in the sub-$100 market.  

AMD Introduces the [size=1em]Radeon HD 4770 GPU

The new AMD Radeon HD 4770 GPU, previously known as the RV740 product, is AMD's updated offering for the $99-109 product segment.  This GPU is significant not only because of its pricing and position, but because it is the first GPU to be manufactured on the 40nm process from either GPU vendor. That allows AMD to make the part cheap and power efficient.

AMD is aware that as the market demands have changed, with a slowing economy and the encroachment of the console into PC gaming's market share, the amount of money that PC gamers are willing to pay for a GPU has changed.  You can see in the graph on the right that by far the majority of GPUs sold are at $100 or less - there is another spike at the $300 price point for the enthusiast gamer crowd that is good to see.  

Obviously AMD is hoping the new Radeon HD 4770 will take over as the dominant product in the $99 segment.  

The Radeon HD 4770 is a dual-slot cooled card that runs at 750 MHz and includes GDDR5 [size=1em]memory support.  Of course, it helps to know WHAT exactly is running at 750 MHz, doesn't it?  The HD 4770 will sport 640 stream [size=1em]processors compared to the 800 stream processors on the HD 4800 series of cards; that is a 20% cut in shader power but the card still can pump out 960 GFLOPs of raw compute power.

AMD including GDDR5 memory on such a low cost product is also an interesting move - obviously GDDR3 would save them even more money but they feel that the extra memory bandwidth is required to keep the 640 shader [size=1em]cores fed efficiently.  

AMD is pitting the new HD 4770 against the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT though it does seem to fit BETWEEN the 9800 GT and GTS 250 (9800 GTX+) in terms of pricing - our testing will reflect that.  Here though AMD is pointing out the raw power advantages the HD 4770 has over the aging 9800 GT; while interesting it really all comes down to how the GPU performs in our coming game tests.

The Radeon HD 4770 512MB

Before we jump into the [size=1em]benchmarks let's take a look at the reference sample that [size=1em]AMD sent us for our article.  

For a $99 part, the Radeon HD 4770 is actually a pretty big card: it's a dual-slot cooler design and is about the same size as the HD 4870.

The layout of the connections is uniform: two dual-link DVI outputs (each of which supports the DVI-to-HDMI adapters) and a single HDTV / dongle connection.

The HD 4770 continues to support not only [size=1em]CrossFire but CrossFire X that allows for as many as FOUR GPUs to be grouped together.  

This $100 graphics card will require a 6-pin PCIe power connection - this seems to be a trend continuing from both AMD and NVIDIA as of late.

Though the cooler on the new 40nm GPU is still big the actually heatsink and fins are modest in size and in weight - the 40nm GPU obviously doesn't need as much cooling power as the 55nm iterations seen in the HD 4800-series.

Taking the top off of the card reveals the RV740 GPU and GDDR5 memory at its heart.

Here you can see the 40nm part next to the ubiquitous quarter; the die shrink does result in a somewhat smaller die.

Card Comparisons and Testing SetupThe new [size=1em]Radeon HD 4770 512MB is supposed to start selling today for $109 with a $10 mail-in rebate and thus the comparison to [size=1em]NVIDIA's lineup includes the GeForce 9800 GT ($99) and the newer GeForce GTS 250 1GB ($229).  Also, just to mix things up I tossed in some results from the Radeon HD 4850 512MB card as you can find of these cards online for just $110 or so.

AMD Radeon HD 4770 512MB


ASUS NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

We are now moving away from Core 2 as our platform of choice and on to the world of Nehalem, the Core i7.  Our system is built around an Intel Core i7-920 2.67 GHz processor on an ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard that sports both the X58 [size=1em]chipset and the NVIDIA nForce 200 chipset with 4 full x16 PCIe 2.0 graphics slots should would test the extreme cases of GPU scaling.  6GB of Corsair DDR3-1600 memory are used as well and a PC Power and Cooling 1200 watt Turbo-Cool power supply keeps everything running 100% stable.  

Test System Setup
CPU	Intel Core i7-920 @ 2.67 GHz
Motherboards	ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution X58 + nForce 200
Memory	Corsair 3 x 2GB DDR3-1600
Hard Drive	Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB
Sound Card	[size=1em]Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
[size=1em]Video Card	AMD Radeon HD 4770 512MB AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB
Video Drivers	NVIDIA: 182.08 AMD: Catalyst Beta
Power Supply	PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 1200w
DirectX Version	DX10 / DX9c
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate [size=1em]64-bit

Our thanks go out to Corsair for the memory for our test bed, to PC Power and Cooling for the 1200w beast of a PSU for the system and to ASUS for the P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard.

• Call of Duty: World at War
• Crysis
• Far Cry 2
• Left 4 Dead
• World in Conflict
• 3DMark Vantage

Call of Duty: World at War

Call of Duty: World at War (DirectX 9)

Call of Duty: World at War is a WWII-based shooter built on the Call of Duty 4 engine with a little flair added.  The game is unique in the genre as it sets the game at the Pacific stage rather than the much more common, and less controversial, European front.  

Call of Duty: World at War settings

For our testing with CoD: WaW we ran through the level of the game shown above while recording in FRAPS to get our frame rate [size=1em]comparisons below.  The game plays almost exactly like CoD 4 (a good thing) so our testing methods were reliable and repeatable.  

[size=1em]Performance in Call of Duty: World at War on the HD 4770 is impressive - it falls just behind the GeForce GTS 250 1GB card but well ahead of NVIDIA's 9800 GT.  It is also surprisingly close to the HD 4850 in terms of performance at these resolutions.



Crysis

Crysis ([size=1em]DirectX 10)

Without a doubt the most breath taking game I have seen yet, Crysis is from the [size=1em]developers of Far Cry, yet another title that was ahead of its time.  This [size=1em]game will bring any system to its knees, but look good doing it.

  

Crysis Test Settings

The HD 4770 again makes a good showing in Crysis here as well beating out the GeForce 9800 GT handily and staying close to the GTS 250 and HD 4850 options.



Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 (DirectX 10)

Far Cry 2 is the spiritual sequel to one of the best selling and longest living games on the PC though this title was developed not by Crytek, but by Ubisoft directly using a completely new engine as well.  The game is set in Africa and you have malaria - what else do you need to know?

Far Cry 2 settings

Far Cry 2 includes a great [size=1em]benchmarking utility that allows us to setup for in-game testing of all varieties and includes both the ability to [size=1em]benchmark based on time (variable frame count) or based on speed (fixed frame count) - we went with the time-based option to simulate real-world gaming and allowing for apples-to-apples comparisons.  

Far Cry 2 continues to beat the tar out of our lower-end graphics cards and in reality the 1600x1200 resolution is the most interesting and relevant.  The HD 4770 finds itself squeezed again by the two competing NVIDIA offerings and slightly slower than the HD 4850.

yym

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead (DirectX 9)

[size=1em]Developed by a new team of Valve's, Left 4 Dead is a single or multi-player game that encompasses the most automatic story for a shooter: zombie apocalypse.  The team aspect of the title, based on Valve's Source engine, really makes this a unique gaming experience that I think all PC gamers should be required to play.

  Left 4 Dead settings

The Valve: Source engine supports in-game demos that can be played back as fast as possible (fixed frame count) or in real-time (variable frame count) to simulate a more real-world experience.  I chose the last stage of the Farm House "movie" and played through the cornfield section to get the majority of the level in the FRAPS run through.  

The HD 4770 is once again in the same position relative to the other GPUs in our testing configuration though in this case the GTS 250 does have more impressive lead.



[size=1em]World in Conflict

World in Conflict (DirectX 10)

An incredibly detailed RTS game, World in Conflict allows you to look at your troops from a bird's eye view as well as zooming to street level to get hands on with the combat.  As you get closer, the game only looks better, as the scaling detail is incredible making this title an easy pick for DX10 benchmarking.

  

World in Conflict Test Settings

For World in Conflict players the HD 4770 is a terrific option and is able to nearly match the HD 4850 and GTS 250 in terms of raw performance and well ahead of the 9800 GT.



3DMark Vantage

Our 3DMark Vantage results at the top are a bit mixed up due to a hardware test bed change made before the real-world games testing, but the feature tests are completely valid.  



Power Consumption and Final Thoughts

Because of those test configuration differences, we should only compare the Radeon HD 4770 512MB and the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB for our power results (though the HD 4850 and GTS 250 can be compared directly as well).  The idle power consumptions on the 9800 GT and HD 4770 are identical though the HD 4770 does have a big advantage in terms of peak power consumption the [size=1em]AMD card is 15% lower.

[size=1em]Performance

The gaming performance of the new AMD Radeon HD 4770 512MB graphics card is impressive.  For a $99 part (after mail-in rebate...) AMD has created a great product and for gamers that are looking to power a system with a 1920x1200 or 1600x1200 display, it should offer more than enough power to get through most titles.  In my testing, the HD 4770 was able to handle World in Conflict, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War and even Crysis at top quality settings at 1600x1200 without issue.  Far Cry 2 was a bit more complicated - we tested the game at a quality level above what the GPU and [size=1em]memory buffer could really handle reliably and I feel that running the game at "High" quality would result in a great, and completely playable, experience.  

Compared to what NVIDIA has to offer, the HD 4770 finds itself sitting between the 9800 GT and GTS 250 cards in terms of performance.  Really though, the HD 4770 completely dominates the 9800 GT and for the price is the easy choice between the two.  The GTS 250 is definitely faster though and so the price difference between the two offerings is what will really make your decision.

Pricing and Availability

Let's recap:

• Radeon HD 4770 512MB - $99 (after rebate)
• Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $129 (one available for $99 as of today!)
• GeForce 9800 GT 512MB - $95 (after rebate)
• GeForce GTS 250 1GB - $119

That is a lot of gaming performance in small window of budget and the decision could get complicated.  For me, the best/worst part of it really is the price on the HD 4850 - probably the best card of the bunch, if you can find it for the same $99 price as the HD 4770, it just makes NO sense to stick with the new card.  With price fluctuations and rebates the truth is by the time you read this it could be very different.  

The Radeon HD 4770 512MB should be available starting this week.

Update: The Radeon HD 4770 is already showing up at Newegg:

• HIS - $109
• Sapphire - $109
• Gigabyte - $109
• PowerColor - $109

Interesting - there are NO $99 parts available as of 12:05am on release night.  Was AMD attempting to confuse the media with the $99 price tag...?


Final Thoughts

The beauty of the Radeon HD 4770 512MB graphics card is that it brings another low price, high performance part to the market that will also potentially make AMD more money as the ramp up to 40nm technology at TSMC increases.  If prices stay stable (the $99 HD 4850 withstanding) then the HD 4770 is the best card you will find under $100.  If you are on a tight budget, you can't go wrong with this offering and users that are comfortable in the 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 resolution with no plans to upgrade in the near future will find the HD 4770 more than capable of keeping up with their systems.

angeldiy

好完整的测试~支持下~

yym

个人 感觉 。。。就看 外形 与 散热器 ，用料。。。。4830 如果与 4770 竞争 的话 。。。。胜算不大。

akcadia

拿GDDR5的来宣传
拿GDDR3的来铺货。
AMD做的好想法

Asuka

图中的4850就看做4830的800SP版本吧

4770还是打不过

xiaoyualex

这个评测似乎属于重量级的，要留名。

lee8062

好长，看一遍累的眼难受

julian110

也就那样了，想都想得到结果，本来就不是什么次时代的东西，主要目的是降低成本罢了。

Rafale

图中的4850就看做4830的800SP版本吧

4770还是打不过
Asuka 发表于 2009-4-28 13:40

是的，ATI的对手也是自己，子弹多了市场部门发懵中……
RV730与RV670……RV740与RV770，NV啥时候拿出个像样的位宽减半版把自己的老东西成功换代一下？

killer1989

怎么可能这样呢？ZOL上不是4770高AA可以秒杀4850么？

k9999

还算说的过去
可各家卖的时候这模样的公版卡似乎从来就没有过，都是缺个mos管版本

bladefeng

测评版的看起来还行，销售版看那个做工啊，难受。

Iota

图中的4850就看做4830的800SP版本吧

4770还是打不过
Asuka 发表于 2009-4-28 13:40

800SP的4830没这么神，它和4850的差距在8%以上

瞎猫

给媒体送测的ES当然要好看一些，RV740功耗又没特别大，少一颗下桥MOS死不了人。。。

yyywwweee

终于有人来正本清源了！！！4770 给我一边待着去，你不值得被讨论