Shootouts

Plugging the Performance Gap - The ATI Radeon HD 4830

By Kenny Yeo - 23 Oct 2008

Conclusion

It's Good, But...

The Radeon HD 4830 was conceived by ATI with the specific purpose of filling up the performance gap between the HD 4850 and the HD 4670, and looking at the results of our pack of HD 4830 cards, it seems to be doing the job well. Despite having 160 less stream processors and significantly lower clock speeds, we were surprised that the HD 4830 managed to put in performances that were only a little behind the 4850.

More importantly, however, how does it compare against the GeForce 9800 GT? It is very close, but if you were an ATI fanboy, you would probably say it is perhaps the equivalent of an overclocked GeForce 9800 GT (our results did show that it bettered the factory-overclocked Zotac card in some tests), whereas if you belong to the green camp, you think, "Yeah, it's about as good as the GeForce 9800 GT". Simply put, there is very little to separate the two cards, but we think it's fair to say that the performance of the 4830 falls quite neatly between that of a reference-clocked GeForce 9800 GT and an overclocked one.

Additionally, let's not forget about the Radeon HD 4830's potent overclocking abilities. In our tests, we managed to push it such that the 3DMark06 scores it achieved were superior, if not on par, to those of a 4850. But before ATI fanboys get carried away, let's us not forget also that the GeForce 9800 GT is capable of overclocking to such levels too. Take a look at our GeForce 9800 GT round-up here , if your memory needs some refreshing.

Coming back to price, while ATI has only said that the new HD 4830 will go for below US$150, PowerColor has helpfully informed us that their Radeon HD 4830 will retail for S$219 (US$146), which makes it about, on average, perhaps US$5 to US$10 more than a typical GeForce 9800 GT. Meanwhile, HIS has quoted us a more tasty US pricing of US$129.99 for its Radeon HD 4830 reviewed here.

All in all, very little separates the 4830 from its intended rival, the GeForce 9800 GT. Performance is nearly identical, as are other aspects, such as temperature, power consumption and even overclocking potential. That said, the HD 4830 is probably not going to win over fans from the green camp and in the end, if you had to pick between the HD 4830 card and GeForce 9800 GT, it's simply a matter of where your loyalty lies.

If we had any gripes about the Radeon HD 4830, it is that it did not fulfill its purpose. In fact, it has probably done its job too well. Allow us to explain. Because of its impressive performance, it continues to leave a rather significant performance gap between the HD 4670 and HD 4850. The threat of NVIDIA's GeForce 9600 GSO and GeForce 9600 GT is yet to be addressed. The GeForce 9600 GSO with its ability to overclock to give GeForce 9600 GT levels of performance is looking particularly strong in that segment. Of course, if the new HD 4830 is priced low enough, all this is moot.

The new Radeon HD 4830 is indeed good, but a little too good we're afraid, as it still outperforms the HD 4670 by a great margin. We reckon ATI needs something to counter the "crippled" GeForce 9600 GSO.

Finally, coming to our analysis of our trio of cards, we would have to say that the cards from PowerColor and Sapphire just about nudged ahead of the HIS one, which was let down by its erratic showing during our benchmarking tests. Anyway, these are early days and we can't wait for overclocked versions to start springing up, which should be anytime soon.

Our Ratings
The PowerColor Radeon HD 4830 512MB GDDR3.
The Sapphire Radeon HD 4830 512MB GDDR3.
The HIS Radeon HD 4830 512MB GDDR3.
The ATI Radeon HD 4830 Graphics Card SKU

 

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