AMD Radeon HD4730 reviewed

A new mainstream card to make up for the low volume of HD 4770 parts.

This is the AMD Radeon HD 4730 card, a RV770 based graphics card with GDDR5. The card is similar the the AMD Radeon HD 4830 but it features GDDR5 chips at 3600MHz in a 128bit bus, versus 1800MHz on a 256bit bus, which equates to the same bandwidth. There's also two significant differences, the TMU number has been cut in half, to only 8, but the clock of the chip has risen from 575MHz to 700MHz.

The performance is very good, although lower than the 4830 but not by more then %10 most of the time.

Far Cry 2 @ 1680x1050

Given the part number chosen and performance of the card - as you'll see below - AMD could've very well kept the same 3200MHz clock without turning it into a bad part; it's most likely that they have stuck with the best price/performance chips while they artificially lowered the AMD HD 4770 memory speed so it wouldn't further threaten the HD 4850. The consumer is the one to win from these good specs, although if you can afford it, the 4850 is a better pick since it can be found for around 98eur, while this Radeon HD 4730 can be bought for 78eur.
The AMD Radeon HD4730 is a very good deal while the HD4770 doesn't reach mass production again and you also get very good coolers with these new cards.

HD4770 review @ HT4u