AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB Video Card Preview

[Apoptosis]

AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB Video Card Preview - Sapphire

The scheduled release for ATI's upcoming RV770 parts, the Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870, was scheduled for next week, but it seems that it got bumped up to today. Some European e-tailer has started to sell cards and AMD/ATI had no choice other than to remove our gag order on the video cards we already have. Read on to check out our preview!



Article Title: AMD Radeon HD 4850 512MB Video Card Preview
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/730/1/

[geokilla]

Spelling error at the bottom of page 3. Should be "we" and not "what".

The marketing slides look pretty interesting. It seems that AMD/ATI admits their products weren't as successful as the 9700 Pro which was released back in 2001. If the performance of the 4850 are as good as the brags AMD made in the marketing slides, I can't wait to see how the 4850 will match up against the 8800GT and 9800GTX (+).

Can you do your review in Vista 32 bit? I don't think there are that many 64 bit users out there, and I thought there were like minor compatibility with 64 bit programs. But anyways, good luck on getting the drivers to work.

[gwolfman]

Be sure to update us once you get the drivers working!

[Apoptosis]

Got some drivers to finally install just before 11am...

Running benchmarks now!

[DMB2000uk]

That sucks for all you reviewers, good luck on the massive crash benchmarking session you now have to endure.

Can't wait to see the performance ^_^

Dan

[LuxZg]

I have to admit (like it ain't obvious ) that i've joined just to post this comment/question..

I'm excited with numbers I see popping around for 4850 on other sites, and even more by the fact it's available for sale quite cheaply at this very moment. So I can't wait for more numbers from you! Especialy since a comparision between it and 9800GTX+ should be a real nice TIE in my opinion, but I do have to ask one thing before I'm certain...

I've read just now that Physx will be supported in driver 177.39, and that could be the only "secret" explanation why nVidia believes 9800GTX+ will be beating 4850 easily (and pricing GTX+ 30$ over 4850's 200$ price tag). So could you just confirm or deny that you have 177.39 to test GTX+ with it as well? That would be a nice surprise

Keep up with real good reviews!

[Apoptosis]

I've read just now that Physx will be supported in driver 177.39, and that could be the only "secret" explanation why nVidia believes 9800GTX+ will be beating 4850 easily (and pricing GTX+ 30$ over 4850's 200$ price tag). So could you just confirm or deny that you have 177.39 to test GTX+ with it as well? That would be a nice surprise

Keep up with real good reviews!

That is confirmed and it's been running benchmarks since yesterday, I'm rushing to get something out this afternoon. One card is done and the other is running... I tested on 11 different benchmarks and games.

[martini161]

i hate being a first adopter. when i got my 8800gt back in december of 07, i paid 300 bucks for it! now all this stuff comes around, and its cheaper and faster!

[DMB2000uk]

Tech lust alert!!

Are you finding that the 8800GT can't play games you want to anymore?
Would what you had before have lasted you these 6 months?

The 8800GT is still a great card, so stop convincing yourself that you could have put off upgrading for half a year to get a better deal

Dan

[martini161]

man, you right it just doesnt seem like its already been half a year already! can you say upgrade time?

[obvious]

Got some drivers to finally install just before 11am...

Running benchmarks now!

Which 64bit drivers? Official 8.6?

Thanks.

[Apoptosis]

Driver Version 7.14.10.0589 for Vista 64-bit - this is still an internal driver.

[obvious]

Thanks. For the record, the currently available 8.6 vista64 drivers are version 7.14.10.0590

[LuxZg]

I've read just now that Physx will be supported in driver 177.39, and that could be the only "secret" explanation why nVidia believes 9800GTX+ will be beating 4850 easily (and pricing GTX+ 30$ over 4850's 200$ price tag). So could you just confirm or deny that you have 177.39 to test GTX+ with it as well? That would be a nice surprise

That is confirmed and it's been running benchmarks since yesterday, I'm rushing to get something out this afternoon. One card is done and the other is running... I tested on 11 different benchmarks and games.

I've just read it! nice increase with Physx on 3DMark, but i'd rather see a real game Also, what does this mean? "Today you can test two applications to show off PhysX: 3DMark Vantage and Unreal Tournament 3."? I thought Physx is in 140 games.. ?! Is this nVidia's marketing "ban", or will it have to be "profiled" in drivers for every game (like SLI)? :/

I'm looking forward to seeing some real-game benchmarks with Physx, and comparision in fps vs same setup but without extra Physx driver.

but i'm thankfull for this as well, have some sleep, and we'll get to it later ;)

[Apoptosis]

yup, and I don't even own UT3 or half the titles with physx... I have GRAW, but who plays that game anymore... None of the 140 titles are big to be honest.

[LuxZg]

yup, and I don't even own UT3 or half the titles with physx... I have GRAW, but who plays that game anymore... None of the 140 titles are big to be honest.

Sooo...besides bragging rights in 3dmark Vantage, no real advantages in near future :/ I sure hope ATI pushes development of Havok driver a bit..

Tnx man