ATI Radeon HD 4890 vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on April 2, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
I'm not really sure why we have NDAs on these products anymore. Before we even got our Radeon HD 4890, before we were even briefed on it, NVIDIA contacted us and told us that if we were working on a review to wait. NVIDIA wanted to send us something special.
Then in the middle of our Radeon HD 4890 briefing what do we see but a reference to a GeForce GTX 275 in the slides. We hadn't even laid hands on the 275, but AMD knew what it was and where it was going to be priced.
If you asked NVIDIA what the Radeon HD 4890 was, you'd probably hear something like "an overclocked 4870". If you asked AMD what the GeForce GTX 275 was, you'd probably get "half of a GTX 295".
The truth of the matter is that neither one of these cards is particularly new, they are both a balance of processors, memory, and clock speeds at a new price point.
As the prices on the cards that already offered a very good value fell, higher end and dual GPU cards remained priced significantly higher. This created a gap in pricing between about $190 and $300. AMD and NVIDIA saw this as an opportunity to release cards that fell within this spectrum, and they are battling intensely over price. Both companies withheld final pricing information until the very last minute. In fact, when I started writing this intro (Wednesday morning) I still had no idea what the prices for these parts would actually be.
Now we know that both the Radeon HD 4890 and the GeForce GTX 275 will be priced at $250. This has historically been a pricing sweet spot, offering a very good balance of performance and cost before we start to see hugely diminishing returns on our investments. What we hope for here is a significant performance bump from the GTX 260 core 216 and Radeon HD 4870 1GB class of performance. We'll wait till we get to the benchmarks to reveal if that's what we actually get and whether we should just stick with what's good enough.
At a high level, here's what we're looking at:
| GTX 285 | GTX 275 | GTX 260 Core 216 | GTS 250 / 9800 GTX+ | |
| Stream Processors | 240 | 240 | 216 | 128 |
| Texture Address / Filtering | 80 / 80 | 80 / 80 | 72/72 | 64 / 64 |
| ROPs | 32 | 28 | 28 | 16 |
| Core Clock | 648MHz | 633MHz | 576MHz | 738MHz |
| Shader Clock | 1476MHz | 1404MHz | 1242MHz | 1836MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1242MHz | 1134MHz | 999MHz | 1100MHz |
| Memory Bus Width | 512-bit | 448-bit | 448-bit | 256-bit |
| Frame Buffer | 1GB | 896MB | 896MB | 512MB |
| Transistor Count | 1.4B | 1.4B | 1.4B | 754M |
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 55nm | TSMC 55nm | TSMC 65nm | TSMC 55nm |
| Price Point | $360 | ~$250 | $205 | $140 |
| ATI Radeon HD 4890 | ATI Radeon HD 4870 | ATI Radeon HD 4850 | |
| Stream Processors | 800 | 800 | 800 |
| Texture Units | 40 | 40 | 40 |
| ROPs | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Core Clock | 850MHz | 750MHz | 625MHz |
| Memory Clock | 975MHz (3900MHz data rate) GDDR5 | 900MHz (3600MHz data rate) GDDR5 | 993MHz (1986MHz data rate) GDDR3 |
| Memory Bus Width | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Frame Buffer | 1GB | 1GB | 512MB |
| Transistor Count | 959M | 956M | 956M |
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 55nm | TSMC 55nm | TSMC 55nm |
| Price Point | ~$250 | ~$200 | $150 |
We suspect that this will be quite an interesting battle and we might have some surprises on our hands. NVIDIA has been talking about their new drivers which will be released to the public early Thursday morning. These new drivers offer some performance improvements across the board as well as some cool new features. Because it's been a while since we talked about it, we will also explore PhysX and CUDA in a bit more depth than we usually do in GPU reviews.
We do want to bring up availability. This will be a hard launch for AMD but not for NVIDIA (though some European retailers should have the GTX 275 on sale this week). As for AMD, we've seen plenty of retail samples from AMD partners and we expect good availability starting today. If this ends up not being the case, we will certainly update the article to reflect that later. NVIDIA won't have availability until the middle of the month (we are hearing April 14th).
NVIDIA hasn't been hitting their launches as hard lately, and we've gotten on them about that in past reviews. This time, we're not going to be as hard on them for it. The fact of the matter is that they've got a competitive part coming out in a time frame that is very near the launch of an AMD part at the same price point. We are very interested in not getting back to the "old days" where we had paper launched parts that only ended up being seen in the pages of hardware review sites, but we certainly understand the need for companies to get their side of the story out there when launches are sufficiently close to one another. And we're certainly not going to fault anyone for that. Not being available for purchase is it's own problem.
From the summer of 2008 to today we've seen one of most heated and exciting battles in the history of the GPU. NVIDIA and AMD have been pushing back and forth with differing features, good baseline performance with strengths in different areas, and incredible pricing battles in the most popular market segments. While AMD and NVIDIA fight with all their strength to win customers, the real beneficiary has consistently been the end user. And we certainly feel this launch is no exception. If you've got $250 to spend on graphics and were wondering whether you should save up for the GTX 285 or save money and grab a sub-$200 part, your worries are over. There is now a card for you. And it is good.
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josh6079 - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
I'm one with the opinion that PhysX is good and will only become better in time. Yet, I more than acknowledge the fact that CUDA is going to hinder its adoption so long as nVidia remains unwilling to decouple the two.There was a big thread concerning this on the Video forum, and some people just can't get through the fact that CUDA is proprietary and OpenCL is not. As long as you have that factor, hardware vendors are going to refrain from supporting their competitors proprietary parallel programming and because of that developers will continue to aim for the biggest market segment.
PhysX set the stage for non-CPU physic calculations, but that is no longer going to be an advantageous trait for them. They'll need to improve PhysX itself, and even then they will have to provide it to all consumers -- be it if they have an ATi or nVidia GPU in their system. They'll have to do this because Havok will be doing this with OpenCL to serve as the parallel programming instead of CUDA, thereby allowing Havok GPU-accelerated physics for all OpenCL-compliant GPUs.
tamalero - Sunday, April 5, 2009 - link
the problem is, by the time the PhysX becomes norm, you will be on your NVidia 480GTX :Pit happened to AMD and their X64 technology, took quite a bit to blast off.
haukionkannel - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Well, if these cards reduce the price of earlier cards it's just a good thing :-)From ATI's part changes are not big, but they make the product better. It's better owerclocker than the predessor, it has better power lines. It's just ok upgrade like Phenom 2 was compared to original Phenom (though 4870 was and still is better GPU than Phenom was as an CPU...)
Nvidias 275 offers good upgrade over the 260, so not so bad if those rumors about shady preview samples turns out to be false. If the preview parts really are beefed up versions... Well Nvidia would be in some trouble, and I really think that they would not be that stubid, would'n they? All in all the improvement from 260 to 275 seems to be bigger than 4870 to 4890, so the competition is getting tighter. So far so good.
In real life both producers are keen on developing their DX11 cards to be ready for DX11 launch, so this may be guite boring year in GPU front untill the next generation comes out...
knutjb - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Both cards performed well and the performance differences are small. I can buy the 4890 today on newegg but not the 275. I know the 4890 is a new chip even if it is just a refined RV770 it's still a NEW part. It falls within in an easily understood hierarchy in the 4800 range. Bottom line I know what I'm getting. The 275 I can't buy today and it appears to be another recycled part with unclear origins. Nvidia's track record with musical labeling is bothersome to me. I want to know what I'm buying without having to spend days figuring out which version is the best bang for the buck. Come on Nvidia this is a problem and you can do better than this. The CUDA and PhysX aren't enough to sway me on their own merits since most of the benefits require me to spend more money, yes they add value, but at what expense?.SiliconDoc - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
nutjob, you're not smart enough to own NVidia. Stick with the card for dummies, the ati.Here's a clue "overclocked 4870 with 1 gig ram not 512, not a 4850 because it has ddr5 not ddr3 - so we call it 4870+ - no wait that would be fair, if we call it 4870 overclocked, uhh... umm.. no we need a better name to make it sound twice as good... let's see 4850, then 4870, so twice as good would be uhh. 4890 ! That's it !
There ya go... So the 4890 is that much better than the 4870, as it is above the 4850, right ? LOL
Maybe they should have called it the 4875, and been HONEST about it like NVidia was > 280 285 ...
No ATI likes to lie, and their dummy fans praise them for it.
Oh well, another red rooster FUD packet blown to pieces.
knutjb - Saturday, April 11, 2009 - link
Dude you missed the whole point, must be the green blurring your vision. Nvidia takes an existing chip and reduces it's capacity or takes one the doesn't meet spec and puts it out as a new product or they take the 8800, then 9800, then the 250, then... that is re-badging. The 4850 and 4830 same same. Grading chip is nothing new but Nvidia keeps rebadging OLD, but good, chips and releases them as if they are NEW which is where my primary complaint about Nvidia gfx cards comes from.4890 might not be an entirely new core but they ADDED to it, rearranged the layout, in the end improving it, they didn't SUBTRACT from it. It is more than a 4870+. It is a very simple concept that apparently you are unable to grasp due to your being such a fanboy. So you don't like ATI, I don't care, I buy whoever has the best bang for the buck that meets my needs not what you think.
ATI looked at the market and decided to hit the midrange and expand down and up from there. They went where most of the money is, in the midrange, not high end gaming. They are hurting and a silly money flag ship doesn't make sense right now. If Nvidia wasn't concerned with the 4890 they wouldn't have released another cut down chip. Put down the pipe and step away from the torch.... Seek help.
SiliconDoc - Thursday, April 23, 2009 - link
So your primary problem is that you think nvidia didn't rework their layout when they changed from G80, to G92, to G92b, and you don't like the fact that they can cover the entire midrange by doing that, because of the NAME they sue when they change the bit width, the shaders, the mem speed etc - BUTWhen aTI does it it's ok because they went for the mid range, you admit the 4850 and 4830 are the same core, but fail to mention the 4870 and fairly include the 4980 as well - because it's OK when ati does it.
Then you ignore all the other winning features of nvidia, and call me names - when I'M THE PERSON TELLING THE TRUTH, AND YOU ARE LYING.
Sorry bubba, doesn't work that way in the real world.
The real horror is ATI doesn't have a core better than the G80/G92/G92b - and the only thing that puts the 4870 and 4890 up to 260/280 levels is the DDR5, which I had to point out to all the little lying spewboys here already.
Now your argument that ATI went for the middle indicates you got that point, and YOU AGREE WITH IT, but just can't bring yourself to say it. Yes, that's the truth as well.
Look at the title of the continuing replies "RE: Another Nvidia knee jerk" - GET A CLUE SON.
lol
Man are you people pathetic. Wow.
Exar3342 - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
These are both basically rebadges; deal with it.knutjb - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link
If 3,000,000 more tranistors is "basically a rebadge" you are lost on how much work goes into designing a chip as opposed to changing the stamper on the chip printing machine. I would speculate ATI/AMD has made some interesting progress on their next gen chip design and applied it to the RV770 it worked so they're selling it now to fill a hole in the market.It sounds like you are trying to deal with Nvida's constant rebaging and have to point the finger and claim ATI/AMD is doing it too. Where did the 275 chip come from? Yes it is a good product but how many names do you want it called?
I have bought just as many Nvidia cards as I have ATI/AMD based on bang for the buck, just calling it like I see it...
SiliconDoc - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
Well, they worked it for overclocking - and apparently did a fine job of that - but it is a rebadging, none the less.It seems the less than one half of one percent "new core" transistors are used as a sort of multi capacitor ring around the outside of the core, for overclocking legs. Not bad, but not a new core. I do wonder as they hinted they "did some rearranging" - if they had to waste some of those on the core works - lengthening or widening or bridging this or that - or connections to the bois for volt modding or what have you.
When eother company moves to a smaller die, a similar effect is had for the cores, some movements and fittings and optimizations always occur, although this site always jumped on the hate and lie bandwagon to screech about "rebranding" - as well as "confusing names" since the cards were not all the same... bit width, memory type, size, shaders, etc.
So I'm sure we would hear about the IMMENSE VERSATILITY of the awesome technology of the ati core (if they did the same thing with their core).
However, they've done a rebranding a ring around the overclock. Nice, but same deal.
Can you tell us how much more epxensive it's going to be to produce since derak and anand decided to "not mention the cost" since they didn't have the green monster to bash about it ?
Oh that's right, it's RUDE to mention the extra cost when the red rooster company is burning through a billion a year they don't have - ahh, the great sales numbers, huh ?