The HD4800 series was built by ATI with the goal of manufacturing a card that could offer the best performance per watt and per mm2. The GPU on this series, codename RV770, is the evolution of the previous RV670 and proposes a noticeable evolution in the architecture. The result was achieved by introducing a different idea about the Stream Processor’s disposition and an enhancement on the total number of SPs, going from 320 to 800.

Another focus point was the introduction of the new GDDR5 memories, that not only bring a noticeable reduction in the energy requirements (30%) but also offer very high frequencies, especially when compared to the GDDR4/3 models.