OC3D Review: Sapphire 4850x2 2GB PCIe Graphics Card

[w3bbo]

Two fans, two cores, two gigabytes of GDDR3. Will this be double trouble for Nvidia? Find out as we test ATI's latest GPU...



Read the full review HERE.

[zak4994]

Awesome card.

You should have also compared it to a Radeon HD 4870x2 to see the difference between the reds.

At 1600x1200, the GTX280 had double the frames of the 4850x2 in Crysis.

More driver problems?

[SwaleSmith]

Very intresting, can't beleive I'm saying this but the high end ATI cards especialy the 4870x2 are getting more and more tempting and with this card I guess once the drivers are ironed out its likely to be good.

The GTX295 so far hasn't impressed me much, I'd like to have seen a single card solution as in a sucessor to the GTX280 however it's somewhat unfair to jump to conclusions just yet.

So I we will wait and see but judging by the previous 9800 GX2 wich I owned but wasn't overly impressed by, I don't like the layout idea of two cards linked with an internal SLI connector....I'm sure you will be able to give us the low down on that soon enough though any dates on a review webbo???

Good Review

[w3bbo]

Due to it being the xmas period we won't have any GTX295's to report on just yet but as the impending release date is expected to be mid/late January I would expect to read a review around that time .

[SwaleSmith]

will keep an eye out

[monkey7]

Meh... Noisy, bad driver support (worse than ATi itself... WOW) and about equal performance to the gtx280. Not to mention the fact that 2 cores on one card are harder to custom cool with air.

I was once hoping to go 4850x2, but now the only option I would remotely consider is another 4850 or a gtx260 216.

EDIT: good review though ^^

[SwaleSmith]

Gotta say I have though many times about the 4870X2 but in my case I feel i'm better running my 2x GTX280's a little longer will see what happens over the first quarter of 2009 could be an intresting year for the GPU

[w3bbo]

I've got 2 x 280's (third on the way) and there is nothing I can't play at max res with all the goodies turned on.

[fruityness]

The price is the bad thing for this card. Ebuyers current pricing;

Sapphire HD 4850 X2 2GB GDDR3 Quad DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card = £336

Sapphire HD 4870X2 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card = £379

For me it would be hard to buy the 4850x2 knowing that for £40 odd extra I could have the 4970x2. I mean, who would?

[monkey7]

People who need quad screen, but they would probably go for the good ol' 2x 4850 if they wanted real performance or with some strange quadro card supporting 16 monitors or so.

And indeed, every enthusiast which looks around himself will probably buy the '70x2