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Note: Our initial review was based on a HD 4830 with only 560 shaders, as opposed to the regular 640. This article has been updated with the benchmarks from the retail-version HD 4830, that has the correct amount of shaders. More about this can be read here.
Today we are going to offer you two reviews for the price of one. A sort of celebrity video card death match. NVIDIA's 9800 GT is going to be going up against ATI's HD 4830. Things could get ugly!
The ATI HD 4830 was officially launched mere moments ago. What's it all about? Well, if there is one hole in ATI's video card line-up, it is in the $100 to $150 range. Today's HD 4830 will be selling initially for $129 USD, pitting it squarely up against our second contender -- one we've yet to have the pleasure of reviewing -- the 9800 GT.
MSI was kind of enough to supply us with their rift of the 9800 GT: the N9800GT T2D512, coming to our office with a custom cooler and a shader overclock. While some were disappointed when the first 9800GT's came out because they offered pretty much the same levels of performance as the much-loved 8800GT, the 9800GT did bring a few new features to the table, and most hardware critics agreed that the 9800GT was a good deal to be had for the price.
It doesn't seem all that long ago that ATI revealed the HD 4000 line, but already, it seems that the line-up has been revealed in its entirety. Besides the HD4850X2, which agents of ATI has assured me is due to arrive at some point, it does not seem likely that'll be any significant new models of HD 4000's coming out.
At the heart of each HD 4800 video card is a RV770 GPU. The HD 4830 features the RV770LE. Basically the RV770LE is a laser-neutered version of the same GPU found in the HD 4850 and HD 4870.
One cool thing about the HD 4830 is that there really won't be one standard design -- each board partner will be releasing there own variation. There won't be a wave of reference board design HD 4830's, and then a second wave of overclocked, customized versions -- as is often the case for 'marquee' models, like the HD 4870. There is a good chance each PCB will have a slightly different layout. Expect HD 4830's coming from the following folks at: VisionTek, HIS, Palit, Asus, PowerColor, GeCube, Diamond MM, Sapphire, Micro-star International (MSI), Gigabyte, and Club3D.
On the next page will look at each card on its own, and then see how they stack up to one another.
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All this info comes from deciphering AMD marketing material, as it never mentions 512mb cards at all.
HOWEVER I expect that some good versions of the HD 4830 will come out with superior coolers -- in which case, you'll be able to run a HD 4830 overclocked as to the same speeds of a HD 4850, in which case then, the HD 4830 would be a better deal.
I thought this MSI N9800GT going for like $105 is a pretty darn good deal -- though I think prices are going to shake up pretty soon; like even by next week...