AMD Catalyst Software Suite 12.1 WHQL

[Johhny B]

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[Chaos]

thanks bro

[andyg]

Thanks Johnny. I put my old HD 4870 back in my third desktop build so will download that now.

Cheers!

[andyg]

Amazing! The 4870 can play Crysis2 on High settings (not the highest) and in 720p with great frame rates - no slow down at all, and rich vibrant colours. It looks really good, and I'm used to using a GTX 580 with a big OC.

Those AMD drivers sure do work wonders on the 2008 - 4 year old ago tech.

On the other hand, if I were to be cynical, I would say it just shows how little games have improved graphically (due to consoles perhaps?) over the past few years. But for the moment I'm too impressed to be cynical.

Thanks again for the reminder Johnny B!!

[andyg]

Originally Posted by REIIIFrankie

If you can do that on 4800 then try red faction guerilla on high settings. I used to have 4870 and it was pretty bad with this game.

I don't have that game, but when the 4870 was my main card, before I tripled my graphics processing power with overclocked GTX 580, I don't remember it being as good as it is now. I can only conclude that the newer drivers are far better than the ones from two years ago - even on their older HW.

The only down side to these older cards is that 1. They don't support DX11; and 2. At idle they still draw alot of power, they only down clock slightly compared to current gen GPUs.

Other than that an HD 4870 is still good enough to play any modern game with reasonable settings. Well worth picking up if on a tight budget (assuming there are any for sale anywhere)

Until the next gen consoles come out I can't see any major leaps in Graphics, so it's probably a wise policy to save money and buy a GPU from one or possibly two generations back. I love my GTX 580 with Gelid cooler, and can't wait to see NV new offerings, but I will certainly skip this years cards. Simply no need for more power at present.