ATI Radeon HD 4670 and HD 4650 launched by AMD
Wednesday 10th September 2008, 05:21:00 PM, written by Rys
AMD have launched a couple more Radeon HD SKUs today, using a new chip called RV730. A relative of RV770, the chip packs the same number of shading ALUs as RV670, in a die about 75% of the size.
Although AMD have increased area efficiency in their RV7 GPUs, there are a couple of minor areas where RV730 doesn't quite match up to RV670, which complicates figuring out how much more efficient it became.
For starters, there are half the ROP units, and therefore a half-width memory bus compared to RV670, the chip that restored Radeon fortunes before RV770 delivered its hammer blow. The design team saw fit to double the number of samplers, though, although like RV770 there's not quite the interpolation rate to feed each of the 32 units a unique texcoord per clock.
Core clock for the best RV730 SKUs is a healthy 750MHz, giving you just shy of half a teraflop of FP32 compute per second, and while the ROP count means it's a little anaemic in terms of pure pixel rates, the resolution target and price mean you're getting good value for money.
For 70 EUR, you're getting the top Radeon HD 4670 SKU. Graphics transistors, and there's 514M of them in RV730, have rarely been so cheap. 4670 pairs the chip with 512MiB of speedy GDDR3, and the product seems set to match the outgoing RV670-powered HD 3850 products in terms of rough performance.
AMD have tweaked things here and there when it comes to making the best use of the chip's internal memory pools, but in general it's just a nicely cut down RV770. Crossfire is supported, you get two 10-bit display pipes, UVD, DisplayPort support and all the other display mod cons you'd expect from a graphics product in the latter half of 2008.
NVIDIA have seen fit to release some new products to swing a counter punch, too. 9500 GT seems like a bit of a weak offering to the consumer in retaliation, and it's likely that NVIDIA will use G92 at the 4670 price point at some point soon. That won't help anyone's margins, but it keeps competition healthy.
Indeed, 9600 GSO is only 20 EUR more costly today, and is powered by that very chip. Not a bad price for what was recently a resolutely high-end piece of silicon, and it's what you'll find in 9800 GTX and friends higher up the stack.
In short, RV730 seems competitive where AMD would like it to be, and while it's not going to set any pixel pushing records, back of a napkin scribblings here at B3D HQ to work out price/perf/area show it doing great. AMD will sell as many as they can convince TSMC to make, in HD 4670 and HD 4650 guise. Beyond3D readers are well advised to not bother saving the 10 bucks for 4650, though. Get 4670 if < $99 is your price range.
Our friends at the Tech Report aren't quite there yet with their analysis, but Damien has something ready in his native tongue, and his graphs and analysis are always worth a read, even if you don't parlez Francais.
RV710 debuts shortly.
Although AMD have increased area efficiency in their RV7 GPUs, there are a couple of minor areas where RV730 doesn't quite match up to RV670, which complicates figuring out how much more efficient it became.
For starters, there are half the ROP units, and therefore a half-width memory bus compared to RV670, the chip that restored Radeon fortunes before RV770 delivered its hammer blow. The design team saw fit to double the number of samplers, though, although like RV770 there's not quite the interpolation rate to feed each of the 32 units a unique texcoord per clock.
Core clock for the best RV730 SKUs is a healthy 750MHz, giving you just shy of half a teraflop of FP32 compute per second, and while the ROP count means it's a little anaemic in terms of pure pixel rates, the resolution target and price mean you're getting good value for money.
For 70 EUR, you're getting the top Radeon HD 4670 SKU. Graphics transistors, and there's 514M of them in RV730, have rarely been so cheap. 4670 pairs the chip with 512MiB of speedy GDDR3, and the product seems set to match the outgoing RV670-powered HD 3850 products in terms of rough performance.
AMD have tweaked things here and there when it comes to making the best use of the chip's internal memory pools, but in general it's just a nicely cut down RV770. Crossfire is supported, you get two 10-bit display pipes, UVD, DisplayPort support and all the other display mod cons you'd expect from a graphics product in the latter half of 2008.
NVIDIA have seen fit to release some new products to swing a counter punch, too. 9500 GT seems like a bit of a weak offering to the consumer in retaliation, and it's likely that NVIDIA will use G92 at the 4670 price point at some point soon. That won't help anyone's margins, but it keeps competition healthy.
Indeed, 9600 GSO is only 20 EUR more costly today, and is powered by that very chip. Not a bad price for what was recently a resolutely high-end piece of silicon, and it's what you'll find in 9800 GTX and friends higher up the stack.
In short, RV730 seems competitive where AMD would like it to be, and while it's not going to set any pixel pushing records, back of a napkin scribblings here at B3D HQ to work out price/perf/area show it doing great. AMD will sell as many as they can convince TSMC to make, in HD 4670 and HD 4650 guise. Beyond3D readers are well advised to not bother saving the 10 bucks for 4650, though. Get 4670 if < $99 is your price range.
Our friends at the Tech Report aren't quite there yet with their analysis, but Damien has something ready in his native tongue, and his graphs and analysis are always worth a read, even if you don't parlez Francais.
RV710 debuts shortly.
Tagging
ati ± rv730, radeon, hd, 4670, 4650, area, efficient
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