RV770-based AMD Radeon HD 4850 gets benchmarked

Judging by the fact that AMD tipped the whole world off to its upcoming RV770-based GPUs earlier this week, we don't suppose it'll be too upset that a 512MB MSI Radeon HD 4850 happened to land a little early in the PC Perspective labs. Design wise, there's nothing too out of the ordinary -- a single-slot cooler design, twin dual-link DVI ports, single 6-pin PCIe power connector and one goofy looking monster that you'll never see again once this thing gets installed. Care to see how it fared when facing the pressures of modern day gaming? You know where to look.

[OneLove @ Jun 19th 2008 10:55AM]

I lost interest waiting for the page to load.

[Ken @ Jun 19th 2008 11:24AM]

Too bad, it shows the 4850 is a potent card with excellent average FPS performance. The price is going to be very attractive considering this is going to be a mid-range card. Single slot cooling and 9800GTX performance. I'll take 4 thank you very much.

[OneLove @ Jun 19th 2008 11:36AM]

Nvidia FTW!

[Ryan @ Jun 19th 2008 1:39PM]

Should be fixed now...

[OneLove @ Jun 19th 2008 3:16PM]

thanks.

[Ry @ Jun 19th 2008 11:24AM]

that monster makes this thing look cheap.

[Ken @ Jun 19th 2008 11:27AM]

Surely CGI boobies would make this perform better and add to the value considerably.

[Decoy @ Jun 19th 2008 3:47PM]

What with all those monsters / anime chick splurted all over grapics card boxs (and the cards themselves). Nothing is packaged like a video card:

Shiny silver box
Embossed lettering
Anime Robot Chick with Sword and Tube leading out of her nostrils and about one million spikes on her armor
String of numbers and letters which turns out to be the 'name' of the card.

[brownsunz @ Jun 19th 2008 11:28AM]

i LOST INTEREST WAITING FOR THE SECOND PAGE TO LOAD ... wow ..

-sun

[Starnerf @ Jun 19th 2008 11:31AM]

The heat is a little disconcerting. I wonder how much better it would perform with a dual-slot cooler?

[Doz @ Jun 19th 2008 1:30PM]

Performance prob won't change much, but it should help a bit with heat/fan noise which I guess could help overclocking. There were more than a few companies with double slot 3850s so I think I'll wait till I see one of them pick up this new card to make a decision.

[Trae @ Jun 19th 2008 11:35AM]

Yes, but does it play C...nevermind.

[Low Ranked @ Jun 19th 2008 11:52AM]

Yes, it will play Contra.

[MeatPop @ Jun 19th 2008 12:08PM]

I don't know, Chess is pretty taxing on my computer.

[MeatPop @ Jun 19th 2008 12:09PM]

I don't know, Chess is pretty taxing on my video card.

[Logan @ Jun 19th 2008 11:36AM]

Ohh ATI and their red PCBs.

Hopefully, the 4870 will have a dual-slot cooler. Even though I'll watercool it eventually.

[marlboro @ Jun 19th 2008 11:37AM]

already have water cooling setup it wont be an issue for me


but the last few video cards i bought either nvidia or ati have ad heat problems that' y i got the water cooling any how plus i like the lack of fan noise

[jeeves @ Jun 19th 2008 2:31PM]

Uhhh, actually, in real game performance (not the synthetic benchmarks) it was

Overclocked 8800 GT < 9800 GTX < 4850 < 260 < 280

with prices of
$180, $300, $200, $400, and $650

I'd say out of these, i'm getting a 4850 (wait for dual slot though, lower temps and increase overclock). The 8800 gt might seem like a better deal, but remember we're comparing the overclocked 8800 gt to a stock 4850

[Maurik @ Jun 19th 2008 11:48AM]

So it's pretty much decided.

A little basic comparison...

HD 4850 < 9800GTX < GTX 260 < GTX 280

Lets see how the hd4970 fares. Hopefully better.

[Justin @ Jun 19th 2008 12:38PM]

Yeah Maurik, I'd say your comparison is about right.

$200 < $269 < $400 < $659

As for the 4870, well, seeing as the 4850 gives me essentially 9800 GTX performance at a $70 discount, I'd say as long as the 4870 comes out with similar performance/cost gains, I'm all for it.

[ben @ Jun 19th 2008 12:13PM]

Wowee--A card that's at the same level as a 9 month old $200 card. Where do I line up?

[Justin @ Jun 19th 2008 12:40PM]

The cheapest 9800 GTX is $269. nVidia's UMAP pricing architecture will do well to see that the price is around that number everywhere, too.

So, the 4850 performs on par with a card that costs $70 more? And we, the consumers, are complaining about ATi's low-end next gen card doing this why?

[Ken @ Jun 19th 2008 1:06PM]

It looks like the 2xxx series left a bad taste in everyones mouths. I took the risk and went 3xxx and I'm quite happy with ATI again. It looks like they've gotten the kinks out of the whole merger thing.

[mrmister @ Jun 19th 2008 2:02PM]

It seems like the 8800 GT is still the best buy out of all of 'em...

[Wwhat @ Jun 19th 2008 2:53PM]

Unfortunately I have an ATI card and they just released new drivers and I tried them, so much for PR then, what good is a card if they can't make drivers that work/install properly really? So now I veer towards nvidia again.

[DRM @ Jun 19th 2008 3:49PM]

The Smell Of Nvidia Fanboyism Is strong Here...

[Musouka @ Jun 19th 2008 4:35PM]

Two of these in Crossfire can almost match GTX 280's performance and only cost you $400 (you can find them for less) compared to $650 for the latter. The GDRR5 version would scale better in Crossfire and might match the GTX 280 for far less money.

Now, imagine what two 4870 ($299) can do: 1GB GDDR5 FTW.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ati-radeon-hd-4850-review-force-3d--powercolor/

[VampireHunter Z @ Jun 19th 2008 4:54PM]

I'm probably not the most qualified person to speak about video cards since I've never owned a top end card. However I do like to read about them and watch videos of what they can do.

From everything I've read I'm always under the impression that Nvidia cards are the "American" muscle of videocards. They are huge, consume a lot of power and are just not elegant. ATI on the other hand is more efficient and elegant in the way it handles things. I could be wrong but that's always the idea I get.

[d840 @ Jun 20th 2008 4:38PM]

I believe you're mistaken. Your description sounds more like Intel and AMD.

Intel throws massive amounts of research into things like 45nm proceses while AMD tries making "true" quad cores, gets them to market 9 months later, then gets their ass kicked. Sure, their solution was more elegant, but unless they stack 2 "true quadcores" on top of each other (intel syle) to make an octo-core processor, they will continue to get their asses handed to them.

PS: Nvidia FTW!

[hello @ Jun 19th 2008 4:58PM]

it smells good.

[jimmyz @ Jun 19th 2008 9:19PM]

I did a review of the 4850 from VisionTek it is a very sweet card, look here for the review. and check out the cards @ FXvideocards.com


review: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=191096

FXvideocards.com. http://fxvideocards.com/VisionTek-Radeon-HD-4850-p-16381.html

[Schfelzerberg @ Jun 20th 2008 12:03AM]

Good to see ATI back in the game. They should come up with like an HD 4950 or something like that to compete with the GTX 260 and 280. Dang... I already spent my cash on an 8800 GT. But still, I think I'm already asking too much for this price. $200 cards have never been so good.

[nectons @ Jun 20th 2008 8:21PM]

hey.. the numbers ar tottaly fake or crap! I mean if ati makes a card worst than my 3870 512 ddr4 card that goes faster than (with these numbers) 4870 they are idiots.. so.. i cant believe these numbers..

[badb0y @ Jun 23rd 2008 12:02PM]

The Ati 4850 is way better then what Nvidia offers for a similar price, their top end 280 GPU costs about 650$ which is pretty ridiculous when 2 4850s paired can beat it out in most games and costs 400$~. Don't buy this card just yet, the Ati 4870 looks promising and might equal the performance of the 280 for nearly half the price ($299~).