jmke

* The Radeon HD 4850 is an absolute monster in Call of Duty 4, matching the performance of the dual-GPU 3870 X2. That puts the 4850 comfortably ahead of the GeForce 9800 GTX with each resolution we tested. Heck, the Radeon even manages to hang with the GeForce GTX 260 until we hit a display resolution of 2560x1600.<br>
* In Episode Two, the Radeon HD 4850 maintains its lead over the GeForce 9800 GTX. Note the huge jump in performance over AMD's last mid-range offering, the Radeon HD 3870.<br>
* Quake Wars allows the 4850 to extend its lead over the GeForce 9800 GTX. The Radeon delivers an impressive 50 frames per second at 2560x1600—twice that of the 9800. More impressive, however, is the fact that the 4850 is nearly within striking distance of the GeForce GTX 260, which is double the cost.<br>
* Crysis gives us our first look at AMD's newest CrossFire couplet, whose performance flirts with that of the GeForce GTX 280. Running only a single card, the Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce 9800 GTX look evenly matched. The latter is quicker with Crysis' high-quality detail setting, while the former takes the lead if you crank the eye candy all the way up.<br>
* The Radeon HD 4850 slots in between the GeForce GTX 280 and 260 in Assassin's Creed, putting it well ahead of the 9800 GTX. Note that the Radeon has the same median low frame rate as Nvidia's latest high-end behemoth.<br>
* GRID finds the 4850 between Nvidia's GeForce 200 series cards yet again. Its minimum frame rate may be a little lower than that of the GTX 260, but the Radeon still has a healthy cushion over the GeForce 9800 GTX.


http://techreport.com/articles.x/14967/4

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jmke

as it stands, 4850 wipes the floor with the 9800GTX, beating it in most of the games, coming close to the GTX 260 in some; and best of all: cheaper than the 9800GTX, almost on par, price wise, with the 8800 GT 512Mb! In EU at least the HD 4850 can be had for ~€150!

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Kougar

Will be interesting once ALL the cards come on the table. 4870 and 4870 with GDDR5...

GTX 280 will be in trouble when R700 launches... R700= 4870 X2. I suspect R700 is going to smoke GTX 280, and do so at a cheaper price even.

Xploited Titan

Not sure they gonna smoke the GT280 as easily as you make it appear.

Don't forget drivers got a big influence as well in performance and quality.

And when you see AMD still isn't able to give AA support in DX10 games, it makes me wonder how they gonna hope to beat nVidia for now.

Now, on another note, seems AMD has been able to contain power consumption much better than nVidia. This might be appreciated alot by HTPC owners who still want to be able to play high-end games on their tele.

jmke

single GPU will perform in all games; multi-GPU heavily relies on SLI/CF scaling, without it your "fast" card becomes only half as speedy

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Massman

So where do I begin with this card? I am left speechless because the HD4850 blew past my expectations! Now, don't get me wrong - I had high hopes for the HD4800 series cards, and strongly wanted them to give Nvidia a run for their money so that the competition stays high, which benefits consumers. However, this review opened my eyes to a new love of ATI products. Being a reviewer, you have to go into a product with an open mind and unbiased opinion, which is what I did - and I was impressed. The HD4850 pushed passed many mainstream cards that are used today, and even kicked on the heels of Nvidia's newest beast, the GTX 280. Ok, so you say it caught up, but didn't take it over - but with a price tag of $199, versus the GTX 280's very high price of $649.99, this is a no-brainier. I mean, you can get three of these cards for the cost of just one GTX 280 and CrossFire them.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...rcolor_hd4850/

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jmke

http://amdzone.com/index.php/reviews...radeon-hd-4850



Our first impression of this card in the limited time we had is that it is amazing ATI put so much power into a single slot card. It does appear to run very hot, at around 155 degrees Fahrenheit by our initial tests but it is a single slot card and we can say the fastest single slot card on the market. A bigger heatsink/fan could have helped but it seems to be quite a powerful package for an amazing price.

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Xploited Titan

Just a little note: GTX 2xx series has built-in Physics, even though the 98xx series can do it as well, but less proficiently. I'm wondering if AMD can do that as well.

They got alot less transistors on their 48xx series, so I guess they will be drowned when you do high res gaming full options + physics.

Of course, the physics shown by Ageia didn't thrill me at all, but I think that once CUDA has settled in, we'll have even nicer gaming experiences.

I'm not trying to be a nVidia fanboy, but I am reserved towards the 48xx-hype.

jmke

Havok = CPU based = everybody has one = win
Physics = HW based = not everybody has it = used for *bling*

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Xploited Titan

Just means you'll have no or less performance loss with Physics than with Havok for the same result. Or did I miss something?