Introduction

Today Sapphire finally released their HD 4850 X2 card. The original product had been announced since August by AMD. Both the HD 4850 X2 and HD 4870 X2 were announced at the same time but partners were very slow to adapt the product into their lineup.

Sapphire as one of the biggest AMD add in board partners is the first to actually deliver a HD 4850 X2. Actually based on the information we got so far, Sapphire is the only board partner who will have a HD 4850 X2. The card is based on the same dual GPU principle as the HD 4870 X2 but comes with GDDR3 instead of GDDR5. Sapphire has chosen to use their own cooler design with two independent fans over the AMD reference cooler.

With a price point of $419, the Sapphire HD 4850 X2 is a direct competitor of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280.