# Sapphire HD 4850 Toxic 512 MB



## W1zzard (Aug 4, 2008)

Sapphire's new HD 4850 Toxic graphics card comes with a preinstalled Zalman VF-900 GPU cooler that greatly reduces the operating temperature of the card. Also the operating frequencies have been bumped quite a bit, with some additional overclocking potential left in the card.

*Show full review*


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## ShadowFold (Aug 5, 2008)

Good to see some 4850's coming out with aftermarket coolers... They need them.







Where can I get one of those adapters? I can't find any on newegg!


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## Sasqui (Aug 5, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> Good to see some 4850's coming out with aftermarket coolers... They need them.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



http://2cooltek.com/3-pin-fan-extension-cable-rc30331.html

(I think that's the right one)


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## ShadowFold (Aug 5, 2008)

Thats an exstension cable. The fan plug in is 4pin and looks weird.


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## Sasqui (Aug 5, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> Thats an exstension cable. The fan plug in is 4pin and looks weird.



Weird, yes.   They are only using three of the pins.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-012074.htm

"Note: when using a 3-pin power connector with a 4-pin fan header, the fan will always be on; there is no fan control."


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## ShadowFold (Aug 5, 2008)

Think taking the plastic cover off would let me plug the fan into the board?


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## Sasqui (Aug 5, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> Think taking the plastic cover off would let me plug the fan into the board?



Best bet is probably modfying the plug from the fan so it will fit, you'll probably have to shave off some tabs...  (don't ruin the board).  Got to make sure you're connecting to the right pins and also that it's secure!  Nothing worse than the smell of burning electronics.


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## newtekie1 (Aug 5, 2008)

Wow, for his price a 9800GTX or 9800GTX+ is definitely the better way to go.  Sapphire kind of priced themselves out of the market on this card.


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## ShadowFold (Aug 5, 2008)

Its WELL worth the extra considering you can OC it so it destroys the 9800GTX. My VF900 cools my card at 650mhz very well. I don't want to volt mod so I cant really go much higher but people that do can take this card pretty high.

Side note: Anyone think I can flash my stock PCB 4850 to this BIOS? I like the 675mhz clock cause my card doesn't get that high. I'm thinking its got higher than stock volts.


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## caldran (Aug 5, 2008)

it would be better if benchies (like 3dmark06 performance) for overclocked hardware was shown..


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## newtekie1 (Aug 5, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> Its WELL worth the extra considering you can OC it so it destroys the 9800GTX. My VF900 cools my card at 650mhz very well. I don't want to volt mod so I cant really go much higher but people that do can take this card pretty high.
> 
> Side note: Anyone think I can flash my stock PCB 4850 to this BIOS? I like the 675mhz clock cause my card doesn't get that high. I'm thinking its got higher than stock volts.



Destroys the 9800GTX?  Maybe a stock 9800GTX, but the 9800GTX can overclock to pretty amazing speeds also, and we have yet to see what the 9800GTX+ can really do.

$210 for this HD4850 isn't worth it when you have the 9800GTX going for $185, $25 less.  The 9800GTX and HD4850 are pretty much neck and neck at stock speeds(within 2% of eachother).  Then you have the 9800GTX still overclocking better than this HD4850.  W1z only managed 21% over stock speeds with this card, while his last 9800GTX got to 26% over stock speeds.  Just by that alone, one can infere that the 9800GTX should stay pretty much tied with this HD4850 when both are overclocked to the max(without volt mods).  If you overclock both cards, they should still be within ~5% of eachother, which is essentially unoticeable in the real world.

Then you have the 9800GTX+, which should overclock even better than the 9800GTX, and it is still cheaper than this HD4850.

And hell, the HD4850 and Zalman Cooler would still be cheaper than this HD4850.  You can get a HD4850 for $165, and a Zalman VF-900 for $38 and save yourself $7 over this card.  What I don't understand, is why Sapphire is charging more than the combination of the card and cooler bought seperately when it should actualy cost them less since they don't have to manufacture the stock cooler.


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## Wile E (Aug 5, 2008)

Hmmm, it was interesting to see a comparison of both architectures at the same clock speeds (9800 vanilla vs 4850Toxic that is)


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## WarEagleAU (Aug 5, 2008)

awesome card, non awesome price. Awesome review as always W1zz. I can get the 4850, put my 900 on it and oc it to these speeds for the price of the 4850 itself. Throw some water cooling on there and lets see how it goes.


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## Scrizz (Aug 6, 2008)

800+ on the core would be nice


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## rodneyhchef (Aug 27, 2008)

Nice card. May get myself one of these. Would like to see how it benches against a stock 4870 at those overclocked speeds!


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