I call this card, the little brother of HD4870 GS which I reviewed earlier this week. I must say that this is probably my favorite Gainward graphic card so far.
The Appearance
Unlike the customized cooler for the HD4870 GS, the one on the HD4850 GS is transparent! Ok well, semi-transparent. As you can see from some of the pictures, light actually goes through it.
And I like the unique diamond-feel of the heatsink cover. It’s not the usual sleek-black but it gives an interesting shine to it, and it even comes with a Silver G logo on it. 😀 Nice! Beats the crap out of the HD4870 GS’ heatsink cover when it comes to appearance.
Card Details & Bundle
Here’s a summarized detail of the card.
| Model | Gainward ATi Radeon HD4850 512MB DDR3 Golden Sample |
| GPU | HD4850 |
| GPU Code Name | RV770 |
| Memory Type | DDR3 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 256-bit |
| Memory Capacity | 512MB |
| Core Clock | 700Mhz |
| Memory Clock | 1100Mhz (2.2Ghz DDR) |
More details at the official product page.
Test Setup
The computer setup used for this review.
| Processor | Intel Coreâ„¢2 Duo E7200 @ 3.62Ghz |
| RAM | 2x 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Edition |
| Motherboard | Albatron PXP35 |
| Cooler | Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer Heatsink |
| Monitor | 20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Basic 32bit |
| Driver Version | ATi Catalyst 8.9 |
The Performance
In the test results, I’ve decided to place the HD4870 Golden Sample and 9800GT / 9800GT Golden Samplefor comparison.
F.E.A.R.
Graphic Detail : Maximum at 1680×1050, 4xAA
| Card | Average |
| HD4850 GS | 88 |
| HD4870 GS (Turbo) | 109 |
| 9800GT 1024MB Golden Sample | 71 |
| 9800GT 512MB | 66 |
World In Conflict
Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050, 4xAA
| Card | Average |
| HD4850 GS | 28 |
| HD4870 GS (Turbo) | 33 |
| 9800GT 1024MB Golden Sample | 23 |
| 9800GT 512MB | 20 |
Company Of Heroes : Opposing Fronts
Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050, 4xAA
| Card | Average |
| HD4850 GS | 47.8 |
| HD4870 GS (Turbo) | 51.4 |
| 9800GT 1024MB Golden Sample | 34.1 |
| 9800GT 512MB | 31.2 |
Lost Planet : Extreme Condition
Graphic Detail : Maximum at 1680 x 946, 4xAA.
| Card | Snow (Average) | Cave (Average) |
| HD4850 GS | 45.0 | 57.7 |
| HD4870 GS (Turbo) | 56.8 | 64.4 |
| 9800GT 1024MB Golden Sample | 37.7 | 53.0 |
| 9800GT 512MB | 35.6 | 49.4 |
Crysis
Graphic Detail : Maximum (Very High) @ 1680×1050, 4xAA
| Card | Average |
| HD4850 GS | 14.52 |
| HD4870 GS (Turbo) | 18.10 |
| 9800GT 1024MB Golden Sample | 11.02 |
| 9800GT 512MB | 7.94 |
Another value-for-money graphic card. It’s retailing at around RM 600 but packs quite a punch. The card is priced around 2/3 of the HD4870 GS but by the looks of it, gives more than 2/3 the HD4870 GS’ performance. 9800GT cards on the other hand usually cost around the HD4850 GS but they’re around 2/3 the performance as well.
Operating Temperature
The card idles around 42°C on idle and around 60°C on load. Readings were taken when ambient temperature was around 25°C. As you can see, the temperature is WAY better than the HD4850 running on reference cooler. So with the HD4850 GS, you get a faster version of HD4850 and runs more silent and cooler.
Conclusion
I love this card a lot. I had both the HD4850 GS and HD4870 GS with me, the HD4850 GS was on my rig most of the time instead of the HD4870 GS. Noise was a critical factor for me, so it was great to have ExperTool around for fan control.
Just to add, this card could run Stalker : Clear Sky at full details (with 2 notch AA) at 1680×1050 and maintained above 40 frames per second for most of the time.
All in all – It’s a great card paired with a great cooler. 🙂
I was hoping you’ll include the benchmark for HD 4850 and show us, or me what’s the GS is worth.
I thought of down-clocking the HD4850 as well but the lowest it could go (based on ATI CCC and ExperTool) was still higher than HD4850 by a little.
700Mhz / 1100Mhz vs 625Mhz / 993Mhz , that’s actually very little difference. based on my educated guess, I’d say anywhere it’ll be hovering between 1 to 3 frames difference with the tests setup that I used.
* Mhz boost often looks nice but translate it to reality and it’s actually very little. *
why would you want to downclock it?
nice review boss. so fast so many reviews out. (: gj.
next week 4830? (:
will there be any reviews for 512 vs 1g 4850s coming up?
fatty, are u the perlis fatty? if u are, are u just trying to prove to me that its not worth to get a 4850gs over a 4850? heheh, at least it’s got better cooling!
Very Nice Review Indeed! LYN Authorized Reseller for Gainward here. Good Luck goldfries! ^^ Peace!