AMD ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 review

Page 3 - Test configuration and benchmarks

For the video card tests we piled up a rig that has enough power to allow using the cards at their full potential. While at the same time it is being available for even the more common users. These are the specifications of the machine we used:

• Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E WiFi
• Processor: Intel C2D E8500 @ 4GHz (8x500)
• Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P
• Memory: A-Data 2x2GB DDR800 @ DDR1000 12-5-5-5
• Hard drive 1: Western Digital Raptor 10 000RPM 36GB
• Hard drive 2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 320GB
• PSU: Raptoxx RT-EBAD1200 1200W
• Monitor: Belinea o.display 4_24" LCD 1920x1200

For the tests we used Windows Vista Ultimate x64 as our OS in order to take advantage of the full 4GB of RAM. Cards were tested with the latest drivers available on the according AMD and NVIDIA websites at the time of the review (not all cards were tested at the same time). The list of cards we tested is as follows:

• Radeon HD 4770 512MB (ATI Catalyst 9.4 WHQL)
• Radeon HD 4850 512MB (ATI Catalyst 9.4 WHQL)
• Radeon HD 4830 512MB (ATI Catalyst 9.4 WHQL)
• GeForce 9800 GT 512MB (NVIDIA ForceWare 181.20 WHQL)

• Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. (DirectX 10 vs DirectX 10.1)
• Stormrise (DirectX 10 vs DirectX 10.1)
• Crysis Warhead (DirectX 10)
• World in Conflict v1.009 (DirectX 10)
• Devil May Cry 4 (DirectX 10)
• FarCry 2 (DirectX 10)
• BattleForge (DirectX 10)
• 3DMark Vantage (DirectX 10)

Tests were ran at the most popular gaming resolutions: 1680x1050, 1920x1200, at different details settings, filtration and anti-aliasing with each test in order to show what exactly is to be expected in certain mode and to reveal the weak and powerful sides of each card. The first two games we tested with, namely - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. and Stormrise allow use of DirectX 10.1 effects, which are not currently supported by NVIDIA cards in this price range. An interesting comparison will be the one in performance with the DirectX 10.1 framework and its visual bonuses against the older DirectX 10.0