ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

Last week we exclusively shared the steps AMD was taking to make an evolutionary leap in Linux support with same-day support for their brand-new Radeon HD 4800 series, Linux drivers shipping on the product CD, some manufacturers showcasing Tux on the product packaging, and their proprietary Linux driver reaching a feature parity with their Windows driver. We had also shared that the Radeon HD 4850 works with open-source xf86-video-ati driver since day one. Now that we have had time to complete testing of the Radeon HD 4850, today we are sharing the first Linux results from this brand-new ATI graphics processor. Before you think the Windows and Linux performance is equal for the Radeon HD 4800 series, this isn't the case, at least not yet.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12534

[Kano]

This is the much better Nvidia 9800 GTX test than the test before as now a much more powerfull cpu was used. I hope all gfx cards will be tested on that plattform now - maybe exept SLI benchmark where you need 780i or 750i. That shows nicely how bad ATI performs when the CPU is not the limiting factor like in many older tests.

[Josko]

Could you test also Wine/Cedega games like Half Life 2 EP2, World of Warcraft or Oblivion?
With both nVidia and ATI, because I think that many linux users are playing in Wine and for me Wine is much more important than native games.

[d2kx]

What do you mean? The HD 3870 was never meant to be the competition to the much more expensive nVidia G92. The HD 4850 is. And as Michael stated and as it can be seen with Windows' reviews, the drivers are not optimized yet for that card.

But yes, the test platform is really nice for comparisons, because most Linux-native games are running fast enough on recent GPU's (> 100 FPS) and only need a faster CPU (only 1-2 CPU's used by most games) to see a difference.

[alexforcefive]

It's a shame about the Catalyst performance in linux, but like the article said it'll only get better.

Luckily for me (sort of), you can't buy the 4870 in britain yet, so I can afford to wait for the better drivers

[Vadi]

Could you test also Wine/Cedega games like Half Life 2 EP2, World of Warcraft or Oblivion?
With both nVidia and ATI, because I think that many linux users are playing in Wine and for me Wine is much more important than native games.

Wine is basically opengl, for the rendering.

[Aradreth]

Luckily for me (sort of), you can't buy the 4870 in britain yet, so I can afford to wait for the better drivers

You haven't looked hard enough. http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduc...odid=GX-100-HT :P

[Josko]

Wine is basically opengl, for the rendering.

I didn't say that it isn't OpenGL, but ATI have/had problems with Wine games especialy Direct3D games(ATI is not supporting full OpenGL specification that are requied for wine to emulate Direct3D), but also OpenGL games like WoW have/had problems (not only crashes but also poor performance) so I want to know if it is working now or not...

[alexforcefive]

You haven't looked hard enough. http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduc...odid=GX-100-HT :P

Gee, thanks a lot!

You've got to love how the 4870 is retailing at $309 (or £155) in america, but £235 in britain.

[miles]

Thanks for the review!

I second the desire to see Phoronix test the cards in wine also, because even though I could live with a performance hit right now if I know it's going to improve soon, I can't afford to keep my old NVIDIA card around if I get the HD 4850 (need to sell it to get enough to buy the 4850). However, knowing that it doesn't work with wine means I'd need to keep the NVIDIA around and keep the 4850 as a secondary fan in the box.

Hopefully you won't find the time for your test of the HD 4870 before AMD improves its support in Linux drivers !