MSI R4850 Radeon HD 4850 512 MB

[W1zzard]

After some confusion, AMD has lifted the NDA for their brand-new Radeon HD 4850 Series today. The RV770 on these boards comes with 800 shaders and boasts 956 million transistors. Together with a new AA architecture the card takes the $200 segment in a storm offering leading performance/dollar and performance/watt.

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[oli_ramsay]

Great review

 

[W1zzard]

read the first sentence on the first page. the benchmark scores arent done yet. poor benchy pc is running as fast as it can

 

[DaMulta]

read the first sentence on the first page. the benchmark scores arent done yet. poor benchy pc is running as fast as it can

It needs a 5Ghz Quad update

 

[candle_86]

hmm ill help off load some work, if ya would mail it ill save ya time and bench one myself

 

[newtekie1]

Since you have two of these are we going to see Crossfire numbers too? Please please please!!!

 

[WhoCares]

W1zzard Catalyst 8.6 Final is used for HD4850's testing ?

 

[W1zzard]

no i was joking when i wrote "8.6" in the test setup box

 

[H82LUZ73]

W1zzard Catalyst 8.6 Final is used for HD4850's testing ?

ATI: Catalyst 8.5, 4850 8.6

SHOOT HE POSTED BEFORE I DID ...OH WELL AT LEAST WE KNOW NOW.

ps cap locked sorry not mad.......

 

[newtekie1]

no i was joking when i wrote "8.6" in the test setup box

I think he was asking if you used the Beta or the Final version more so than what version number.

 

[W1zzard]

there is no 8.6 beta. people mistakenly call it that. there is either 8.6 or something that uses a build number only. to answer the question, i used 8.6 "final" downloaded from ati.com this morning. catalyst 8.6 is also the driver recommended by amd for all 4850 testing

 

[newtekie1]

there is no 8.6 beta. people mistakenly call it that. there is either 8.6 or something that uses a build number only. to answer the question, i used 8.6 "final" downloaded from ati.com this morning. catalyst 8.6 is also the driver recommended by amd for all 4850 testing

Thanks for clearing that up. Now, what about Crossfire benches.

 

[tkpenalty]

Thanks for clearing that up. Now, what about Crossfire benches.

I was just about to ask that too

I'd rip that stock cooler off and put an AcceleroS1 + two sets of RAMsinks (one for the ram itself, a few sinks for the MOSFETs), as well as turbo modules. Naturally I'd expect powercolor to make that.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Awesome review W1zz and that card speaks volumes. Im with Newtekie1 on this in asking that hopefully you would do a couple of XFIRE tests for us

 

[W1zzard]

quake 4 scores in this review are correct, i benched 3 times to verify

 

[newtekie1]

I also wonder if temps are affecting the overclock numbers. I know binning probably has something to do with it, but 90C doesn't help either I would think.

Personally 90C is too hot for me, even with a quiet fan. I would rather see 80C and a slightly louder fan. I can live with 80C. Though I guess with all the software methods to control the fan speed, it is really up to the user these days to decide if they want hot and quiet or loud and cool.

 

[HTC]

I was just about to ask that too

I'd rip that stock cooler off and put an AcceleroS1 + two sets of RAMsinks (one for the ram itself, a few sinks for the MOSFETs), as well as turbo modules. Naturally I'd expect powercolor to make that.

That VGA cooler is compatible with the 48x0 cards? Really? That's GREAT!!!!!

Awesome review W1zz and that card speaks volumes. Im with Newtekie1 on this in asking that hopefully you would do a couple of XFIRE tests for us

If possible, that would be AWESOME!

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Doesnt seem to be all that much better than my 8800GT then. If anything, it just gets about 20 more FPS which isnt even noticeable when you get 40+ FPS anyway.

 

[cdawall]

I also wonder if temps are affecting the overclock numbers. I know binning probably has something to do with it, but 90C doesn't help either I would think.

Personally 90C is too hot for me, even with a quiet fan. I would rather see 80C and a slightly louder fan. I can live with 80C. Though I guess with all the software methods to control the fan speed, it is really up to the user these days to decide if they want hot and quiet or loud and cool.

if its anything like the cooler on mine crank it up to ~80% and the card runs alot cooler stock fan numbers suck and i hit about 90C before i decided to lock it in 3D mode to a much higher fan speed, but w1z can't do that until rivatuner supports the 4xxx series

 

[HTC]

Doesnt seem to be all that much better than my 8800GT then. If anything, it just gets about 20 more FPS which isnt even noticeable when you get 40+ FPS anyway.

That would depend on the resolution and the detail level.

Look @ this (post #39).

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

I game at 1680x1050 so I went by the 1600x1200 ones. Your post and the one a few post above yours, the benchmarks are ~20 FPS more than what my GT gets.

 

[W1zzard]

if its anything like the cooler on mine crank it up to ~80% and the card runs alot cooler stock fan numbers suck and i hit about 90C before i decided to lock it in 3D mode to a much higher fan speed, but w1z can't do that until rivatuner supports the 4xxx series

oh i can change fan speeds, but nobody else can. so it's not useful for this review

 

[Caze]

W1zzard, did Catalyst 8.6 work for you right out of the box? When I'm trying to use them with my Asus EAH4850, 3dMark + games thinks it a X1800 series card (with the performance of HD4850). Vista and CCC reports it correctly though.

 

[W1zzard]

no problems i noticed

 

[Caze]

Hmm, strange. I wonder what makes them think it's a X1800 series card? I did have a X1800XT before but I uninstalled the drivers and ran Driver Cleaner before upgrading. The drivers that came with card work normally.