Sapphire's Non-reference 4850

unr3al

Senior member
Jun 10, 2008
214
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www.link-up.co.za
Great card, but is it worth the price premium? I would simply buy a PowerColor or another brand which offers good value, strip off the stock cooler and install a Zalman or something myself. The test results seem a bit erratic though, with the Toxic getting a lower minimum fps at times than the stock card??

One big problem I also have with this review: people with 24"-30" monitors could most likely afford to simply buy an HD4870. I was pretty turned off when I saw that the only resolutions used were 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 and would have been happy if they included a lower res, like 1440x900. Especially considering the relatively poor results Crysis gave.

I am a little surprised though, at the mediocre overclocking results they achieved. OverDrive's fault, perhaps? If Sapphire had it clocked to 690MHz to begin with, I would have been impressed. And then it should have been able to clock to 700MHz or more after that. Maybe the difference between the two cards would have been more apparent if that was the case.

I have to add though, that the cooler's performance is wonderful, compared to the stock HSF.
 

Chinoman

Senior member
Jan 17, 2005
336
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I agree with your statement about the resolutions they used while testing.
It was hard to tell which was better than the other because of the overall mediocre fps put out by the cards.

I'm sure the price of the actual product will go down to sub-$200 in no time. That's the only way Sapphire can hope to compete with the other brands which offer rebates that shave the price down to the $150 marker.

I do think they rushed this product a little bit, though. It doesn't perform consistently better than the stock 4850 which is sort of frightening. Maybe we'll have to wait and see what the other manufacturers can come up with in terms of better cooling for the 4850.
 

QuadDamage2k

Member
Dec 23, 2007
123
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0
I plan to only run 1440x900 on my wide screen 19 inch and i think the 4850 is a good fit for a good price, but i think with the low cost of the 4850 right now, it's cheaper to buy an aftermarket cooler and overclock the card yourself for the same price.

You can always go cross fire down the road

and for around 140 bucks, it's not a bad idea :)
 

robcy

Senior member
Jun 8, 2003
503
0
0
I have the same setup, but home made. I got a HIS HD4850, and the same Zalman cooler. I also purchased another set of the blue memory sinks for the power relays at the other end of the card. This works great, and the temps are down around 40 allover. I set the GPU at 700 (max), and the memory at 1150, and played for a while without an issue. Its back to stock since I only play at 1440x900, and really dont need the overclock.

Dont know about the cost since I purchased the card when it first came out at 200, plus another 60 for the cooling, and shipping, but I still love this card.
 

firewolfsm

Golden Member
Oct 16, 2005
1,848
29
91
This means that even the VF700 is a good upgrade for the stock cooler. I've had this same cooler for three years, used it on three graphics cards. I definitely got my value off those $30.