ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2

Because of the high amount of shaders (2x800) the gaming performance of the Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 is very good and allows the gaming of all DirectX 9 games in high resolutions and details. Even demanding DirectX 10 games of 2008 (i.e., Crysis Warhead and Far Cry 2) can be played with high details. The GPU supports fast GDDR5 graphics RAM, but all laptops as of this writing are built with slower GDDR3 graphics memory (Alienware M17x, Asus).

The 4870 X2 also suffers from micro stuttering most noticeable around 30 fps, similar to all SLI and Crossfire setups. This occurs if both cards are in Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR) Mode since the time delay to display each sequential frame becomes irregular. See our dedicated micro stuttering article here for more information.

The Mobility HD 4870 x2 is based on two RV770 chips and features 2x800 stream processors (2x160 5-dimensional shader cores). These cores do the graphics work of the shader and pixel pipelines of older GPUs. The stream processors are also called ALUs and are grouped in five-way VLIW units. Each of the five instructions of a VLIW bundle has to be independent from the others and the performance therefore depends on the optimization of the driver.

The Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 includes Avivo HD, an onboard soundchip for 7.1 sound output over HDMI or DisplayPort and the 2nd generation UVD (Unified Video Decoder). UVD 2 supports full bitstream decoding of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 streams, dual video stream decoding and Picture-in Picture mode which makes the UVD full BD-Live compliant. To put simply, the Avivo HD technology handles all video tasks and enables the GPU to decode HD videos.

AMD published a power consumption of about 2x65 Watt for the HD 4870 X2. Still, it is unclear if this value represents the chip alone or the whole MXM board including the memory, which we estimate would add about 2x5 Watts.

Compared to the desktop ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, the mobile 4870 X2 features a slower core clock and should therefore perform a bit slower than even the desktop HD 4850 X2.

ManufacturerATI
Mobility Radeon HD 4000 Series

Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 1600@550MHz

Mobility Radeon HD 4870 800@550MHz

CodenameM98-XT
Pipelines1600 - unified
Core Speed *550 MHz
Shader Speed *550 MHz
Memory Speed *888 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR3, GDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory2048 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 10.1, Shader 4.1
Transistors1912 Million
technology55 nm
FeaturesOpenGL 2.0, PCI-E 2.0 x16, Powerplay, DisplayPort support up to 2560x1600, HDMI support up to 1920x1080 (both with 7.1 AC3 Audio), 1x Dual-Link/Single-Link DVI, 1x Single-Link DVI Support (all display ports have to be supported by the laptop manufacturer)
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement09.01.2009
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityrade...
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 14329     avg: 18522.3 (57%)     max: 21688 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 12328     avg: 14495.8 (56%)     max: 17380 Points
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 4219     avg: 6777 (30%)     max: 9335 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 1919     avg: 3546 (33%)     max: 5173 Points
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 8140     avg: 8990.7 (29%)     max: 10436 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 8691     avg: 9843.7 (29%)     max: 11105 Points
...
Radeon HD 4850 -24%
GeForce GTS 450 -13%
Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2
GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1%
Radeon HD 5770 2%
Radeon HD 6790 21%
GeForce GTX 460 768MB 22%
...
GeForce GTX 590 221%
0%
100%
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.2     avg: 7.2 (91%)     max: 7.2 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.2     avg: 7.2 (91%)     max: 7.2 points
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

CoD Modern Warfare 2
CoD Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
med.:
84.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
59.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Risen
Risen (2009)
med.:
60.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
31.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Resident Evil 5 (2009): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Need for Speed Shift
Need for Speed Shift (2009)
med.:
52  fps      Compare
ultra:
25  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Colin McRae: DIRT 2
Colin McRae: DIRT 2 (2009)
med.:
69.7  fps      Compare
ultra:
50.4  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Anno 1404
Anno 1404 (2009)
ultra:
89.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
ArmA 2 (2009): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
Sims 3
Sims 3 (2009)
low:
251.7  fps      Compare
med.:
118.6  fps      Compare
high:
77.4  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
F.E.A.R. 2
F.E.A.R. 2 (2009)
high:
105.3  fps      Compare
ultra:
92.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto
GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto (2008)
low:
48.6  fps      Compare
med.:
32.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Left 4 Dead (2008): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings high. - more...
Far Cry 2
Far Cry 2 (2008)
low:
88.7  fps      Compare
high:
40.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis Warhead (2008): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings low. - more...
Racedriver: GRID
Racedriver: GRID (2008)
low:
84.6  fps      Compare
med.:
56.3  fps      Compare
high:
51.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Trackmania Nations Forever (2008): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (2007)
low:
156.5  fps      Compare
med.:
106.2  fps      Compare
high:
99.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Supreme Commander - FA Bench
Supreme Commander - FA Bench (2007)
med.:
52.5  fps      Compare
high:
51.4  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis - GPU Benchmark
Crysis - GPU Benchmark (2007)
high:
52.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
26.7  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis - CPU Benchmark
Crysis - CPU Benchmark (2007)
high:
52.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
25.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
World in Conflict - Benchmark (2007): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings high. - more...

For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List

Gaming Benchmarks

The Czech website pctuning.cz have already published an extensive review of the  Asus W90 with a Intel C2D T9600 and 6 GB RAM. The following gaming benchmarks stem from their review.

Test Drive Unlimited: 1920x1080, high: 47-72 fps -> fluently playable
Bioshock: 1920x1080, high: 67-207 (avg. 131) fps -> fluently playable
Call of Duty 5: 1920x1080, extra: 29-92 (avg. 53) fps -> fluently playable
Crysis Warhead: 1920x1080, Mainstream: 13-45 (avg. 32) fps -> fluently playable (single stutters)
Far Cry 2: 1920x1080, ultra: 21-55 (avg. 33) fps -> fluently playable
Flatout Ultimate Carnage: 1920x1080, high: 36-48 (avg. 43) fps -> fluently playable
Race Driver Grid: 1920x1080, high: 34-56 (avg. 43) fps -> fluently playable
Stalker Clear Sky: 1920x1080, Maximum: 16-39 (avg. 28) fps -> playable
Unreal Tournament 3: 1920x1080, max: 32-63 (avg. 51) fps -> fluently playable
World in Conflict: 1920x1080, high: 19-103 (avg 30) -> playable

Notebook reviews with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card

Alienware M17x (HD 4870x2) (Intel Core i7 620M, 17.0")
» Review Alienware M17x (i7/HD 4870 X2) Notebook - Review
» Alienware M17x (HD 4870x2) - External Review

Asus W90Vp (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000, 18.4")
» Review Asus W90VP Gaming Notebook - Review
» Asus W90Vp - External Review

» Comparison of GPUs
Detailled list of all laptop GPUs with a short description. Classified and sorted by performance.

» Benchmark List
Sortable and restrainable list of all GPUs with benchmarks (e.g. 3DMarks).

» Notebook Gaming List
Which game can be played with my graphics card.

Class 1
GeForce GTX 590
GeForce GTX 580
Radeon HD 6970
GeForce GTX 570
GeForce GTX 480
GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Radeon HD 6870
GeForce GTX 470
Radeon HD 5850
GeForce GTX 460 768MB
Radeon HD 6790
Radeon HD 5770
GeForce GTX 550 Ti
GeForce GTS 450
Radeon HD 4850
Radeon HD 5670
Class 2
GeForce GT 240
GeForce GT 430
7590M *
Radeon HD 5570
Radeon HD 6550D *
GeForce GT 220
Radeon HD 6450 GDDR5
Class 3
Radeon HD 4350
HD Graphics 2500 *
GeForce G 107M *
Chrome9HD *
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
SGX543MP2 *
Mali-400 MP *
PowerVR SGX540 *
PowerVR SGX535
unknown *

* Approximate position of the graphics adapter

> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > FAQ / Tips / Technics > Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards > AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 (Crossfire)
Author: Klaus Hinum (Update: 2012-01-25)