ATi so far introduced models from HD 4000 series more or less for any budget, but certain categories are still left uncovered and ATi tried to correct that by releasing one more model. The name of this product is Radeon HD 4830 and its job is to fit in between Radeon HD 4670 and HD 4850, which also can be concluded from its mark. Chip that was used for this model restores the LE mark in all its glory, so the RV770LE is slightly “crippled” variant of original RV770. RV770LE has 640 Stream Processors, 32 Texture units and 16 ROPs. We must admit that specifications for this chip are, quite honestly exceptional, keeping in mind expected price range that should cover spectrum from 80 to 120€. Users may think that with such low price and great GPU, Asus made cuts on some other side too so it can keep low manufacturing price and clearer distinction with Radeon HD 4850 model. This is the part where we came to memory bus which maybe should be logical choice, but ATi chose to leave 256-bit bus and use DDR3 memory set at 1800MHz with 1ns time response.

Radeon HD 4830 shares cooling system with Radeon HD 4850 and while cooling functions are better on new model, we still have complaints on noise generated by the fan. The noise becomes too noticeable with RPM of fan higher than 60% of maximum RPM, which can be reached after long periods of playing games. If you decide to overclock this graphics card, our recommendation is the same as for Radeon HD 4850 - it is better to find model with alternative cooling system (Asus Glaciator and similar). Of course, there is always a possibility of mounting custom cooling system. To achieve RPM of fan as low as possible, but also to lower power consumption when maximum performances are not needed, BIOS of this card sets frequencies for GPU from 160Mhz and for memory from 500MHZ and higher. This is praiseworthy move from ATi and proof that this manufacturer takes environment conservation very seriously because this way graphics card has lower power consumption. If you have noticed we haven’t said a word about graphics card bundle and there is a good reason for that. We got this graphics card directly from ATi as press sample. This card supports UVD2 and upscale 1080p but it is expectable that later models will have one HDMI port along with two DVI ports that this referent ATI model has.

Performances and overclock

During all tests performances of Radeon HD 4830 and GeForce 9800GT were neck and neck. From this fact we can conclude that Radeon HD 48330 is well balanced graphics card that gives good performances despite the fact that it has “crippled” GPU. One more thing becomes clear: time when G92 based product was king of the hill and without competition on the market, has passed and younger models are caching up.  Although 9800GT can parry HD 4830 on performance level that is not enough because predicted Radeon HD 4830 price tag is around 120€ while cheaper 9800GT cannot be found for less than 140€. Looks like the situation with HD 4870 and GTX280 is repeating itself. Besides that, overclock potential of Radeon HD 4830 is very high while situation with GeForce 9800GT (and 8800GT) is not that great because if you reach 700MHz for GPU you should consider yourself a very lucky guy. With our ASUS EN9800GT 512MB Matrix we reached 670 MHz despite the fact that this graphics card has exceptional cooling solution.