A number of people have suggested that if I purchase a 4850 graphics card that I should make sure I don't use the stock cooler. Can somebody please clarify for me which is the stock cooler? 1) The one shown on Bit-tech.net? 2) How about this one on Newegg? 3) How about the Toxic as shown on Newegg? On a side note, Newegg sold out of all their Sapphire cards this past week. I think Tigerdirect did as well. Does anybody know if this is related to a problem at Sapphire? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Phil
The stock cooler is the one in the article we published today... steer clear if you don't want to play around with fan speeds in a BIOS editing tool or RivaTuner. The card idles around 80 degC, loads at 86 degC - even when it's been sat overnight idling, you're likely to burn yourself if you're pulling the card out.
1) Reference card, single slot. 2) Is a new physically shorter card made by Sapphire and the cooling is different. Supposed to be good. Dual slot 3) Zalman cooler, very good cooling ability, can be very silent, dual slot. Toxic edition so its prob clocked higher.
If you don't want to get your hands dirty there are a number of non-reference 4850 cards (i.e. non-stock cooling): http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=247&grp=3 http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=8&l3=725&l4=0&model=2314&modelmenu=1 http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_accessory.asp?ProductID=2354 I think all these are overclocked, at the moment the Sapphire seems to be getting the nod over the others but I haven't seen any reviews for the Asus yet. I think Asus and PowerColor offer both 512MB and 1G versions and Sapphire offer a non-overclocked 1G with a different cooling solution. I'm not sure if 1G is going to make much difference to the performance unless you are doing heavy CAD stuff, but I'm probably wrong on that.
Forgot to mention that the Toxic card seems to be in short supply in the UK as well so there may be some issue at Sapphire.
Most people seem to highlight Sapphire as the manufacturer of choice. Is there a big quality gap between the various suppliers? What are other good suppliers? Phil
All the cards are the same, as their made by ATi. Just depends what sticker its got on it. Sapphire obviously are the only ones with a unique card and cooler. Powercolour are ones to look out for also, uprated 3rd party cooler and sometimes OC'd out of the box.
HiS do a dual slot one with thier own cooling. Generally they do a really good job with thier cooling and cards...
Toxic series is pretty good, yea watch out make sure you dont get burned from removing the card. i did twice already, lol.
This card looks good to me and is actually priced less than the Sapphire one. I think the cooler is Zerotherm. Can anybody confirm that? Phil
Yep thats the Powercolour i was talking about, Ive got the 3850 version of the card. Its a nice card with generous overclocks but the cooler is dual slot and has NO speed detection. So it runs at 100% all the time, being a 70mm fan its not very silent, quite the opposite. But there are ways of getting round it.
I have mine on a stock cooler. Was idling around 80 degrees with a 40% fan speed. When i bought a new case it had a 250mm Fan on the side which is silent and keeps my card at 52 degrees now with the 4850 at 40% Fan speed. So i supose it depends on your cases airflow
Whats wrong with the stock cooler? are you planning on overclocking the card? If not then the stock cooler is fine. No it doesn't vent outside the case, so your case should have good airflow, but thats not exactly new news from the last 5 years. Yes the card is hot, but it still runs fine. I haven't had a problem with mine, even when the ambiant temp was over 30C. Of course if you do want to overclock the card, then by all means get an aftermarket cooler for the card as it will let you go farther. Of course you could always get the 4870 which comes with gddr5 ram instead of gddr3.
I think you'd be fine with any of those. I think that if I had to buy another 4850, I'd buy the Toxic.
I modded the fan plug with a 5v resistor cable. that converts it to a normal 3pin fan plug. works surprising well. And can be put back to stock with ease.
PowerColor HD4850 PCS - TechPowerUP review So this seems the most quiest card on the market, even with overclock out of the box! The Sapphire cards usualy go more noisy..
I'm waiting on delivery of the 4870 PCS+ after RMA'ing two Sapphire 4870's (they BSoD'd on me with some weird message about being unable to address higher memory address blah, blah), I'll let you know what I think once it gets here. I've looked at a few reviews and the PCS+ does get a good write up but some do mention clicking fans (!) and some even mention the need to upgrade the card bios. Kinda makes me wonder about what I've let myself in for, find out soon enough.
I ordered a 4850 PCS+. When it arrived the fan was not placed centrally inside the heatsink surrounding it so the fan blades were catching on the ribs of the heatsink. It went back and I am waiting for a replacement. I thought the heatsink was the problem but Scan tell me it was the fan and they were able to click in back into place, you might want to check for that when yours arrives before you install it. I'm still getting a new one though as it BSoD'd when they put it on the test rig...
