Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire - better than Radeon HD 4870!

We have recently examined Radeon HD 4830 and found out that this relatively cheap video card offers good enough speed performance and sometimes even competes o par with its more expensive counterparts. What is interesting, the recommended price for Radeon HD 4830 ($150) is precisely twice as low as the price recommended for Radeon HD 4870 ($299). Therefore, it is reasonable to assume what happens if we merge two Radeon HD 4830 into the CrossFire? Will the performance of the Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire combination be able to outrun the performance of Radeon HD 4870? We'll find that out today.

But before that let's examine HIS Radeon HD 4830 which is somehow different from the reference Radeon HD 4830.

The box for HIS Radeon HD 4830 is made in the proprietary blue style.

On the reverse side of the box, there is a detailed description of the video card's specifications. Apart from these, there are the minimum system requirements to the computer needed to handle the video card – a PSU of power rating at least 450 W.

The package bundle of HIS Radeon HD 4830 includes the following items:

• power supply adapter for PCI-Express video cards;
• DVI -> D-Sub adapter;
• drivers CD;
• User's manual;
• a sticker for the housing;

You must have already noticed that the CrossFire bridge is missing in the package bundle. This turns out to be just the way it should. Therefore, that should be kept in mind when buying two such video cards for the their subsequent merging into the CrossFire combination.

HIS Radeon HD 4830 is manufactured following the proprietary blue PCB and is equipped with a proprietary cooling system. The new product will take up two expansion slots in the computer housing.

Although the PCB is manufactured by HIS, its design is similar to the reference, except some minor points.

The graphic processor AMD RV770 installed on HIS Radeon HD 4830 does not make any difference from other RV770 chips installed on more powerful video cards. At the same time, as compared to the AMD RV770 chips installed on Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870, its number of streaming processors has been reduced from 800 to 640 , and the number of texture units - from 40 to 32. The nominal GPU frequency on HIS Radeon HD 4830 is precisely equal to the recommended and amounts to 575 MHz.

HIS Radeon HD 4830 is equipped with GDDR-3 video memory chips by Qimonda which offer 1.0 ns access time. This access time meets the nominal effective clock speed 2000 MHz. However, the nominal video memory frequency on HIS Radeon HD 4830 is also equal to the recommended and amounts to 1800 MHz (DDR).

The proprietary cooling system is made up of two parts which cool the graphic processor and chips of the video card's power supply subsystem. Its radiators are made of aluminum and offer a simple and efficient structure.

Tests of the cooling system and overclocking

We'll be testing the cooling system of HIS Radeon HD 4830 with FUR Renderer Benchmark 1.4.0 in the mode of testing the video card for stability at 1920x1200 and 8X FSAA enabled. The video card was warmed up for over ten minutes. We produced the following results:

The graphic processor was heated from 38 C at rest up to 68 C under load. As compared to the formerly tested Radeon HD 4830 equipped with the reference cooling system, the result is very good. That time, the graphic processor was heated up to 91 C, which is 23 C higher than that for the case of the HIS video card. Note that HIS Radeon HD 4830 remained very quiet for the whole period of tests.

In terms of overclocking, HIS Radeon HD 4830 demonstrated the same results as the formerly tested reference Radeon HD 4830 by AMD through getting over 720 MHz for the graphic processor and 2100 MHz for the video memory. As we already stated, the nominal clock speeds of HIS Radeon HD 4830 meet those recommended by AMD and amount to 575 MHz for the GPU and 1800 MHz for the video memory.

The Tests

We'll be testing the video card on a test bench of the following configuration:

Apart from testing the performance of the "pure" combination of Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire, we wanted to check if Radeon HD 4830 would operate in combination with Radeon HD 4850. In future, that may prove useful for owners of Radeon HD 4830 who might decide to buy another video card for the CrossFire combination. Most likely, prices for Radeon HD 4850 will have gone down by then. Our experiment proved successful, so in today's tests we'll be using two CrossFire combinations, the first made up of HIS Radeon HD 4830 and the reference Radeon HD 4830, the second one made up of HIS Radeon HD 4830 and ASUS Radeon HD 4850. Needless to say, we'll compare the results for both the combinations versus those for the single Radeon HD 4870.

Here is the final list of video cards and configurations which will take part in our tests:

• Radeon HD 4830;
• Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire;
• Radeon HD 4870;
• Radeon HD 4850;
• Radeon HD 4830+4850 CrossFire;
• GeForce 9800GTX;

We used the following drivers for the tests of video cards:

• for Radeon HD 4830, Radeon HD 4850 – Catalyst 8.10;
• for Radeon HD 4870 – Catalyst 8.8. As our studied showed, the performance difference between Catalyst 8.10 and Catalyst 8.8 in the kit of tests we were using is insignificant, so that won't affect the correctness of comparison;
• for GeForce 9800GTX – GeForce (ForceWare) 178.24;

We start introduction to the results with 3DMark tests.

At 3DMark 06, the results for the combinations Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire and Radeon HD 4830+4850 CrossFire proved almost equal, which in fact is no wonder. In the latter case, the speed of the CrossFire combination is restricted by the slower HIS Radeon HD 4830. But here it is more important that both these combinations demonstrated much better results than those produced for the single Radeon HD 4870.

At 3DMark Vantage, Performance, the results for the combinations Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire and Radeon HD 4830+4850 CrossFire proved to be the best. Much better than those demonstrated by Radeon HD 4870.

We see a similar pattern in 3DMark Vantage, High.

In the Extreme mode, the winners are again the combinations of Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire and Radeon HD 4830+4850 CrossFire.

At Call of Duty 4, combinations of Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire and Radeon HD 4830+4850 CrossFire demonstrated much better results than those for Radeon HD 4870. Note that GeForce 9800GTX at this game demonstrated better results than those for Radeon HD 4850. Evidently, GeForce 9800GTX beat Radeon HD 4850 due to the new drivers, since with the old drivers, as we could observe earlier, the advantage would be with Radeon HD 4850.

At Need for Speed Pro Street Racing, the winner was Radeon HD 4870. That was due to the not yet fixed malfunctioning of the CrossFire in this game. We note that GeForce 9800GTX took the second place, and Radeon HD 4850 was merely the third.

At Crysis, the winners were combinations of Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire and Radeon HD 4830+4850 CrossFire which showed much better results as compared to Radeon HD 4870. This time, GeForce 9800GTX demonstrated the worst result and yielded to even HIS Radeon HD 4830.

At Call of Juarez, combinations of Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire and Radeon HD 4830+4850 CrossFire again won over Radeon HD 4870.

At Race Driver: GRID, combinations of Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire and Radeon HD 4830+4850 CrossFire demonstrated close results and again surpassed Radeon HD 4870, albeit not that dramatically as before.

Let's sum up the totals of the tests and gather the results into a summary diagram.

This diagram depicts the performance boost for the Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire combination as compared to the single Radeon HD 4830 (except the results for Need for Speed Pro Street Racing). As you can see, the performance boost is at least 50%. Ass regards the results for 3DMark'06, they are most likely restricted by the CPU rather than the video card. The results for 3DMark Vantage, more demanding to the performance of the video system, confirm that. Surprisingly, but contrary to the theory, the results for the combination Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire at Call of Duty surpassed the results for the single Radeon HD 4830 by more than twice. We have not yet found out why that happens. Perhaps, that may be attributed to some traits of the game.

This summary diagram depicts the performance boost for the Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire combination as compared to the single Radeon HD 4830. As you can see, the average performance boost is about 20%. And that is with the similar recommended price of the pair 'Radeon HD 4830 + Radeon HD 4870'!

Final Words

As the tests have revealed, the combination of Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire video cards indeed proved faster (sometimes, even much faster) than the single Radeon HD 4870. Of course, operation of the video cards in the CrossFire mode has not yet been freed of the shortcomings and limitations - take, for instance, the example with the game Need for Speed Pro Street Racing. But we should give credits to programmers at AMD who managed to substantially reduce the number of flaws in the CrossFire implementation for Radeon video cards as compared to what was there merely half a year ago.

Talking about the HIS Radeon HD 4830 reviewed today, we can't help noting the fact that the CrossFire bridge is missing in the bundle, which may hinder merging these two cards into the CrossFire combination. However, this issue is easy enough to solve. Hopefully, HIS will take our wishes seriously and the CrossFire bridge will be added into the package bundle. In all the other respects, HIS Radeon HD 4830 proved itself as a good-quality and reliable product. Of special mention is that due to the alternative cooling system this video card remained cool and quiet for the whole period of tests.

In conclusion, we bring in the approximate prices for video cards that took part in our tests:

*-a forecast price range on the date of appearing on sales