Hardware First Look: Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...-4850-x2-2gb/1

The Radeon HD 4850 X2 has been strangely absent from AMD's line up ever since it was announced at the same time as the 4870 X2. Sapphire has come to market with a custom Radeon HD 4850 X2 and we take it for a quick test drive.

[[USRF]Obiwan]

In terms of pricing, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 is expected to retail at around £300, including VAT, which puts it in roughly the same price bracket as Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 280 – it competes well with Nvidia’s flagship in scenarios where the drivers work and is often faster. What’s more, it’s not that much slower than the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in many scenarios – only when the resolution increases to 2,560 x 1,600 will you see a more distinct performance difference. This is good

Do not forget the power usage, the GTX has a advantage here to.

[Tim S]

Yep, there's a lot we haven't covered here due to the situation explained on the first page, which is why we haven't given it a score or made any sweeping conclusions about the product yet.

[xaser04]

£300 estimated? Are they having a laugh?

I would have thought £250 would be a better price given the direct comparison to two HD4850's (ie two would cost roughly £250).

Performance does look good though (as long as the drivers cooperate)

[Tim S]

Originally Posted by xaser04

£300 estimated? Are they having a laugh?

I would have thought £250 would be a better price given the direct comparison to two HD4850's (ie two would cost roughly £250).

Performance does look good though (as long as the drivers cooperate)

It's got 2x1GB of memory, not 2x512MB... 4850 1GB cards are about £150 inc. VAT (edit one here for £147: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...1137&InMerch=1), which means it's not actually too bad. Look at the Far Cry 2 numbers (4870 1GB vs 512MB) to see why you need more than 512MB of graphics memory moving forwards.

[bubsterboo]

About Nvidia SLI with multiple displays.

You can actually only drive displays connected to the primary GPU. So with the 9800gx2 you have to use the DVI + HDMI. For a Dual video card set up, you can only utilise the Two ports on the primary card.

Tried it myself on my 9800gx2.

[Tim S]

Good to know, thanks. I haven't tested the rel 180 drivers on the GX2, but with SLI disabled, you can connect three monitors and all three work. At least... that was possible at launch.

[EnglishLion]

Originally Posted by Tim S

It's got 2x1GB of memory, not 2x512MB... 4850 1GB cards are about £150 inc. VAT (edit one here for £147: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...1137&InMerch=1), which means it's not actually too bad. Look at the Far Cry 2 numbers (4870 1GB vs 512MB) to see why you need more than 512MB of graphics memory moving forwards.

I got my Gigabyte 4850 with a 700MHz pre-overclocked core from Scan for £131 but unfortunately they are now out of stock and the price has gone up too

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...DL+DVI-I,+HDCP

But when comparing to an X2 you also need to consider that you don't have to invest all in one go if you choose 2x 4850 over a single X2.

[Tim S]

Originally Posted by EnglishLion

I got my Gigabyte 4850 with a 700MHz pre-overclocked core from Scan for £131 but unfortunately they are now out of stock and the price has gone up too

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...DL+DVI-I,+HDCP

But when comparing to an X2 you also need to consider that you don't have to invest all in one go if you choose 2x 4850 over a single X2.

Prices are increasing because of the exchange rate changes and weak pound.

[Denis_iii]

rather get one gtx280 myself

[Tim S]

Originally Posted by Denis_iii

rather get one gtx280 myself

I probably would too but it's not responsible for us to make a sweeping statement like that about a product before we've tested it properly. If the 4850 X2 can get close to the 4870 X2 in more of the new games we're currently testing, then it could be a good option IMO.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Originally Posted by EnglishLion

I got my Gigabyte 4850 with a 700MHz pre-overclocked core from Scan for £131 but unfortunately they are now out of stock and the price has gone up too

Aye, I picked up the same Gigabyte 4850 from Scan not long ago for £131. I was amazed how cheap it was.

Actually, I just ordered a 4870X2 from Amazon for £301, but it's not currently in stock. At that price, I thought, "Well, if I spot one somewhere else in the meantime for less, I can always cancel..." but the chance of anywhere else being cheaper is slim. It'll about 6-8 weeks for stock (so an e-mail they sent me said) but to be honest, I'm quite busy right now so can wait without issue. Thinking of cancelling it and ordering a Canon 40D body only, right now. I'd probably get more out of a 40D overall.

[legoman666]

I have 2 HD4850's and 4 monitors under windows xp. The last time I enabled crossfire and tried using 4 monitors it didn't work. Only the 2 screens attached to the primary card were enabled. Has this changed recently? Can I use all 4 monitors with crossfire enabled?

[glaeken]

It's interesting how the 1GB 4870 has double the performance of the 512MB 4870 in FarCry 2, but we don't see this in Crysis. I would think that Crysis would thrash the memory more so than FarCry 2.

[Tim S]

Originally Posted by glaeken

It's interesting how the 1GB 4870 has double the performance of the 512MB 4870 in FarCry 2, but we don't see this in Crysis. I would think that Crysis would thrash the memory more so than FarCry 2.

yeah, we were bumping right into memory bottlenecks with AA enabled.

[Pyr0]

interesting to see the 4870X2 minimum framerate increase from 31 to 39 when 2xAA was applied in the Crysis 1920x1200 benchmarks

[Tim S]

Originally Posted by Pyr0

interesting to see the 4870X2 minimum framerate increase from 31 to 39 when 2xAA was applied in the Crysis 1920x1200 benchmarks

Crap, that's a typo - my apologies. It should now read the correct value, 29 fps.

[docodine]

It seems like ATI is pricing this based on the performance, not just on what it actually is.. 300 pounds is about $475, which is more than the price of THREE 4850 cards. Doesn't make much sense to me, unless if people are completely scared of Crossfire.

[stoff3r]

I hope they don't spend too much money in R&D for cards like this that doesn't push any limits.

And they say only noobs look at gpu-ram when they buy a new gfx-card... heck i have bought cards with too little ram twice!! First time was the 8800gts 320, praised to the skies, sucked like hell and no games actually played well in 1680x1050. Then i bought a HD4870 512mb, praised to the skies yet again. "512mb ram?? the competition has 800+ " I say to myself. But the fool that I am went out and bought one. Well here I am looking for a new buy 2 months after the last one... yay!

512mb ram gfx card = 19" monitor
1GB gfx= 22" monitor.

[naokaji]

Originally Posted by docodine

It seems like ATI is pricing this based on the performance, not just on what it actually is.. 300 pounds is about $475, which is more than the price of THREE 4850 cards. Doesn't make much sense to me, unless if people are completely scared of Crossfire.

wrong, you are comparing uk and us pricing, 300£ is the price of two 4850's, in the us the 4850x2 would not cost 475$ but far less.

A 4850x2? there have been rumors about such cards for a long time, it would kinda make sense as the gap between 4870 and 4870x2 is pretty big, but I doubt any 4850x2 cards will ever actually make it to retail, it's just too late now and the next gen of cards too close.