Today we see the introduction of the Radeon HD 4830 which is to be priced at or below $130. This part is poised to split the difference between the 4670 and 4850, and filling in this market segment should finish rounding out AMD's line up of RV7xx based cards for now.
This new model is, like the 4850 and 4870, based on RV770 silicon, but in its tamest form yet. On the 4830, two of the RV770's 10 SIMD units have been disabled, reducing shader power (and likely performance) somewhat. Since those SIMD units are tied to texture management units, the GPU's TMU count has dropped proportionately. The end result: the Radeon HD 4830 has a total of 128 shader execution units—or 640 stream processors, and can filter up to 32 textures per clock.
The 4830 keeps all four of the RV770's render back-ends and associated memory controllers intact, leaving it with an aggregate 256-bit memory interface. The card's GPU core runs at 575MHz, and it comes with 512MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 900MHz (or 1800MT/s).
The Radeon 4830 is probably the least exciting of the 4800 cards being the lowest-end of the 4800 series. That said is still a very solid card and somewhat comparable to a GeForce 8800 or 9800 GT though the two seem to trade off at times. But ATI has lower power consumption and DX 10.1 support which is a bonus. This one isn't quite as clear though as others as a GeForce 9800 GT is a little cheaper than a Radeon 4830. You can pick up a GeForce 9800 GT for $100 after rebate. However, immediately at launch you can get a Radeon 4830 for $120 after rebate.
“The $100-$150 graphics card price band represents the ‘sweet spot’ of the desktop PC graphics market where the consumer gets the most graphics performance per dollar spent,” said Dean McCarron, founder and principal, Mercury Research. “This is where the latest graphics technologies reach the mainstream PC audience, and this is the level that most PC games target.”
The ATI Radeon HD 4830 graphics card delivers outstanding value to gamers. With the launch of this card, even the most intimidating games that were previously unplayable on a graphics card selling for less than $150 can now be enjoyed at playable frame rates, even when using image enhancements such as anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. For those gamers looking to get even more performance out of their gaming rigs, ATI Radeon HD 4830 cards support ATI CrossFireX technology allowing gamers to combine as many as four cards in one PC.
Reviews:
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