I'm getting fed up with the lousy performance of my 2600XT (not that it's a bad card, but it only has 256 MB or RAM - not enough for smooth running at 1680*1050). So, I've been looking at Sapphire's 4850 cards. Judging from the reviews, it seems like a very good card price/performance-wise. But now I don't know if I should get the regular, or the Toxic version? I know that the Toxic version is a bit overclocked, and has the zalman cooler. It also seems to run quite cooler than the regular vesion, but the fan is said to be much louder than ATI's reference one. Can anyone confirm it's too loud? Is the Toxic worth the price difference over the normal one? Or does it seem like paying too much money just for a louder, cooler, and bit faster one?
The Toxic should be quiter due to the zalman cooler, usually you can do a small 5v mod to the card to quiet things down further, if you want a OC'd 4850 look at Powercolour's 4850 Extreme card(theres a review on Bit-tech) seems to do the job right.
Palit's 4850 Play looks like a good card as well (I'm looking into get one, but I'm only after it for HD movies)
standard 4850 from whichever (reputable) company will easily clock to the toxic speeds. with the right settings to fan control its even doable with the stock coolers. currently able to pass tests without artifacts at 695mhz core / 2200mhz memory with stock cooler approximate temps are 60c idle, 80c-ish at load with adjusted automatic fan control. as for the zalman heatsink its a standard aftermarket part, so you could always buy a cheaper 4850 and add the zalman later if you wished. as with all zalman heatsink / fans they are fairly quiet even when running at higher speeds.
I got the Powercolor and am very pleased with it, quiet! The Toxic was quite hard to get hold of for a while in the UK but that might have changed now.
Well, I'm not in UK (croatia), so the Toxic is quite easy to find. On the other hand, finding a powercolor or palit card is a pain...
