Thoughts on the 4870's

I have heard a ton of people saying they are waiting on the 4870’s to be in the chassis before they pull the trigger on the Nagamaki. I have done a lengthy amount of research into the production of these cards. I found there are various rumours surrounding these cards, their performance, release dates etc. I think we all have learned a valuable lesson. Just because something is on a company website, and someone makes a thread saying, "Available NOW!" it doesn't make it true.

First I would like to say even if the Nagamaki didn’t support the 4870’s I think its still a top contender in the best laptop on the market today. In saying that. There have been numerous occasions where manufactures hint to support of next generation GPU’s both Nvidia and ATI and then they do not live up to the expectations and they don’t support them.

Prime example 7950 to 8800 class cards in the Sagers. I am going to opperate under the assumption there is no concrete evidence that the 4870’s will be supported and we might be stuck with the 4850’s x2 or maybe the 4830’s or maybe none at all.

I called Mark and talked to him about this and he agrees that there are no guarantees in this support, but from everything he has read from the ODM they will upgrade. He said that he felt there was enough written literature saying these would upgrade that if it didn't, they could get into a legal jam, and we all know that is the only time anything gets done... when there are repercussions.

Also keep in mind these cards are not even on the release date books yet. So my advice to you is to not hold your breath and don’t wait on these cards to be released unless you are unwilling to buy the notebook without the 4870 cards and if only the 4850’s etc are supported.

So that is going to be the next approach on the ATI mobility radeon 4870’s.

 

I'm still gonna wait for the ATI 4xxx series and or Nvidia GPUs to be available as they may require a modification of the chassis or motherboard. I'm willing to wait out all the politics and beta testing in the meantime.

 

If they're able to replace the GDDR3 chips on the MR 4850 with GDDR5 and get it to work, then all they need is a bump in the core clock and BOOM! a MR 4870.

But yeah, manufacturers are notorious for making certain cards incompatible with older platforms, which force people to buy a new system if they want that card. However, this would go against OCZ's suggestion of the GPUs being upgradeable, as written here.

 

Amen. I'm hating all this "omfg 3870s are old coz we cns get the new 4870 that will be more powerfl than 9800GTX SLI!!!111one" BS or "nahh dont get da whitebook now coz we can den get it with 4870 xfire be4 DEC!!!!". No-one knows any concrete evidence on the new cards (notebookcheck does not count.) and there is no proof they will work in the WB.

Don't hold your breath people, you might get very disappointed.

 

If we were just talking about small-scale rebranders of the OCZ Whitebook I'd be more worried but it's not likely that AMD/ATI would not provide Alienware the option to utilize it's newer 4800 series GPUs after officially recognizing the M17 as the "first" CrossfireX notebook.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~128752,00.html

 

I deleted a half-dozen argumentative posts. The same people are arguing over and over. The next time I see it happen, I'm handing out infractions.

 

Why would you buy something when something better will come out in a few months? It's like buying a 2008 model of a car when a 2009 model can be had for the same price.

 

Because then you would never own a computer lol

 

Exactly. You would wait till something good comes out, then that comes out, but something better would come out, etc.

 

um dudes and dudets ahh the 3000 series was just released at the start of october so um why sould they release the 4000 a month later? we wont see new cards until atleast next year but maybe a bit later

 

4850 just hit the MSI notebooks.. so, we're not far off. And the 3000 series has been out for a hot minute. This is just the first Crossfire.

 

Everyone is always awaiting and presuming for the next best thing. It's normal. As the old saying goes, if you need the laptop now, then buy it now. Because deals will always happen and technology will always advance. No need to feel any buyers remorse with that at all.

 

Just get the WB now, if you need a laptop. I dont see why you need the 4000 series cards just yet, xfire 3870s will be adequate for anything.

 

4xxx series and ATI Stream Technology:

http://ati.amd.com/technology/streamcomputing/stream-consumer.html

 

The MSI have 4850s? that`s the first time I`ve heard it...

 

They only article about the 4xxx series in a notebook was in July. I think they might have over assumed =)

 

NBR had the MSI GT725 as a news item last Friday...it's still on the front page of the site.
Or you can see it on MSI's website: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=135&cat2_no=271&prod_no=1676

 

yea, DDR2 4850.
So much for that...

 

not sure if it's a big deal, and honestly Im still a bit uneducated with the ATI series.. but it lists DDR2 memory for the GPU. Shouldn't it be DDR3?

 

Should be, or not, that`s what it says.
GDDR5 on the 4870 and GDDR3 on the 4850, so it might a typo. I dunno.

 

Yeah I don't know why some ATI cards list DDR2. If you've checked out Cyberpower's OCZ Whitebook they list their 3870s as using DDR2.


Last month ATI demoed an 4000 series mobile GPU at CEATEC in Japan and while it's unkown which 4k it was it was an MXM form factor.

http://tcmagazine.com/comments.php?shownews=22027&catid=2


With ichime's swapping of a 7950 GTX from an AW M9750 with a 3870 from a Whitebook Im going to remain hopeful.

 

i wonder if anyone has tested a single 9 series NVIDIA in this thing..