![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Sunday , March 08, 2009
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB
Today, we have Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 X2 on the test bench. With 512MB of memory available to each GPU, will this video card's performance suffer, or can the considerable amount of shader power make up for it? We'll find the answer to that question and more with the help of six of today's hottest games!
Introduction
Sapphire Technology is a well-known company, and is recognized as one of the largest distributors of video cards featuring AMD's ATI Radeon GPUs. Since ATI began funneling graphics processors to AiBs in 2001, Sapphire has been at the head of the red-team pack. In addition to video cards, Sapphire also offers a series of AMD-based motherboards and multimedia products such as TV tuners and Digital Photo frames.
Today, however, we're going to talk about one of their video cards: the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB.
AMD Radeon HD 4850 X2
AMD launched the Radeon HD 4850 (RV770) GPU late June of 2008. At that time, it was only available in single-GPU format on Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4850 series video cards. The only electronic difference between the Radeon HD 4870 and the Radeon HD 4850 is that the 4870 comes equipped with GDDR5 memory at 3.6GHz, and the 4850 comes with GDDR3 memory at 1.986GHz.
Eventually, AMD's dual-GPU products based hit the shelves, giving us the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and the Radeon HD 4850 X2. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 comes with 2GB (1GB per GPU) of GDDR5 at 3.6GHz, and the Radeon HD 4850 X2 comes with 1GB (512MB per GPU) or 2GB (1GB per GPU) of GDDR3 at 1.986 GHz. Both the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and the Radeon HD 4850 X2 are also powered by the same set of GPUs: a pair of ATI RV770s. The RV770 silicon packs 956 million transistors, featuring 800 streaming processors, 40 texture units, and 16 raster operators. That gives the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and 4850 X2 a total of 1,600 streaming processors, 80 texture units, and 32 raster operators each. AMD's recommended clock rate for the Radeon HD 4850 is 625MHz, with the attached GDDR3 memory clocked at 1.986GHz. For the sake of comparison the Radeon HD 4870 is clocked at 750 MHz, and its attached GDDR5 memory at 3.6GHz. Obviously, this means that there is a tremendous difference in memory bandwidth between the Radeon HD 4850 and the Radeon HD 4870.
Price Drop Statement
We need to make this statement up front in this evaluation. When we began this evaluation of the Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB the current price drops on 4870 1GB and GTX 260 had not taken place. Our goal with this evaluation was to start by evaluating the HD 4850 X2 and make comparisons based on price first. At the time we started this evaluation the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 was price competitive with a Radeon HD 4870 1GB and GeForce GTX 260 (216 core) video card. However, as of March 3rd we posted news that there have been price drops. Since then we have also seen GTX 260 prices fall quite a bit. This came rather sudden upon us and near the end of our evaluation process.
What that means is that there is now a larger price difference between the Radeon HD 4850 X2, Radeon HD 4870 1GB and GTX 260 then when we started. However, what you are going to find is that this evaluation is still very relevant. It means the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 has a lot to prove, which we think you are going to find it does not prove well in comparison to these now cheaper video cards. Having this video card compared to the Radeon HD 4870 1GB video card is still a very interesting and worthy comparison regardless of price anyway. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB video card has 512MB of RAM per GPU, while the 4870 1GB has 1GB of RAM for its GPU. That alone will make this evaluation interesting to see the results of.
We also want you to be rest assured this is only the initial evaluation of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2, we actually have more evaluation comparisons planned for the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 as there are a lot of things we can compare and test it with. There are several configurations such as Tri-CrossFire we will dive into in the future with this video card. We also want to compare it to the 2GB 4850 X2. Future evaluation of this video card will focus on a "performance" comparisons. You will find the information in this evaluation very informative and relevant, and future evaluations of this video card will also prove equally interesting.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB
Let's clear the air about this right from the start: this is NOT a true 1GB video card. Yes, there is 1GB of GDDR3 to be found on the PCB if you add it all up, but each GPU only has access to a pool of 512MB per GPU. This is a "CrossFire-on-a-card" product, just like the Radeon HD 4870 X2, and similar to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 dual-GPU "SLI-on-a-card" product. As such, each GPU has 512MB of memory to work with, and each set of memory must contain the same data. Unfortunately, the branding may be misleading to the regular public about the amount of accessible memory on this video card as it is branded as a "Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB", just as every AiB partner refers to Radeon HD 4870 X2 video cards as 2GB units. Sapphire does offer what they refer to as a 2GB version, which has 1GB of memory per GPU. We are going to evaluate the 512MB per GPU version of this card first.
The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 comes out of the box configured with AMD's default reference clock rates for the GPU and the memory: 625 MHz on the GPU, and 1.986GHz on the memory for each GPU.
The outer box that the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 arrived in prominently features a scantily-clad woman with two Japanese swords and some highly reflective blue ink. There are badges extolling many of the video card's features, as well as a few stickers describing the software bundle. One side of the box has all of the barcodes and model information. On the back of the box is found the usual marketing materials: bulleted lists of features, a showcase of editorial awards, and some more detailed information about some of the features advertised on the front of the box.
The software bundled with this video card includes CyberLink's PowerDVD software (v7), CyberLink's DVD Suite (v5), and FutureMark's 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition. Also included is a driver installation disc and Ruby ROM disc, which contains some game demos (Call of Juarez, John Woo's Stranglehold), some AMD wallpapers, EarthSim, and GameShadow (a free gaming media download helper application.)
The included accessories are a DVI to HDMI adaptor, a DVI to VGA adaptor, a component video HDTV output cable, a CrossFire bridge, a composite video output adaptor, a dual-Molex to single-8pin auxiliary power adaptor, and a Molex to 6pin auxiliary adaptor. There is also a user's manual, which includes an installation guide.
This video card is big. It is a dual-slot video card, and is 11" long, and 4.5" tall. That makes it 0.5" longer than a Radeon HD 4870 X2 and the GeForce GTX 200 series of video cards. Prominently featured on the front face of the video card is a large, brushed black aluminum heat-sink shroud with two 70mm cooling fans. Note that the hot air is not exhausted out of the case by the video card's cooling device. There is no built-in external vent for hot air. Thus, all of the hot air produced by this video card will remain in your case until your case fans exhaust it.
During normal operation, the fans on this video card are deadly quiet. However, when GPU temperature ramps up, so does the speed of the fans and the noise produced. The good thing is, the sound is low-pitched, and lacks the whine normally associated with AMD's reference cooling devices. You will hear the fans, but it is not an annoying sound. Underneath the cooling shroud is a large aluminum heat-sink. There are plenty of gaps which allow hot air to escape, so this video card should run cool.
On the back of the video card is found the usual assortment of surface-mount technology devices, stickers, and heat-sink retention screws. There is also a large black heat-sink on the rearward edge of the board, which passively cools the power regulation devices.
This video card features four (4) dual-link DVI ports and a single HDTV output jack. This is a nice thing to see. Many people use more than two monitors, so they have multiple video cards installed just to support the extra desktop space that they need. A single video card with four DVI ports is a welcome sight.
And finally, just like its big brother, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 requires a single 6pin auxiliary power connector and a single 8pin auxiliary power connector for operation.
The Competition
This video card is currently in stock at Newegg, and is selling for $259.99 USD. We will be comparing against the 1GB AMD Radeon HD 4870 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216 core). Future evaluations using this video card will show even more interesting comparisons.