PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 with 2 GB memory review Guru3D

[Guru3D News]

The graphics card we will test today is based on the immensely popular Radeon HD 4850. Probably the best value card one can buy. These cards at default come with 512 MB gDDR3 memory. Now I can see a...

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[Mochen]

Very good read. Excellent review!

2Gb on this type of card is just crazy though, it actually has a negative impact on performance!

[Musouka]

I would have preferred 1GB of GDDR5 memory instead, but great review.

[Lyla]

A little tired of the constant 4850 reviews, or comparisons with stock cooler is rubbish look at 86 degree default temperature, etc etc. When it is actually an ok cooler and it is easily "fixed" with a software profile or bios update, where the stock cooler easily matches the level of cooling provided by for example this products. I do feel it should be at least mentioned in the 4850/70 reviews, that the high default temperatures are just because the bios is setting the fan speed to 0% all the way up to 65+ degrees. Rather than treating it as a pacticularly "hot" chip, or "bad" stock coolerr. It is a flaw in the bios that is all.

[cowie]

flawed bios? how dare you!
the 4850 is the second coming of our lord how dare you put it down(sic)

[Stukov]

Originally Posted by Musouka

I would have preferred 1GB of GDDR5 memory instead, but great review.

The 4850 = GDDR3 only
4870 = GDDR5 only

Per AMD requirements. You can't and won't see a GDDR5 version of the 4850, unless AMD goes out of their way to change their policy (don't see why they would GDDR5 is already in short supply for the 4870s).

About the review, Hilbert I REALLY like your magnify feature of that picture, its nifty and I wish every review of every site that had a picture of the card had that simple thing. Much faster than loading up a seperate window with a high resolution picture.

About the card, meh, I was expecting better results from the high end 2560 benchmarks like in Grid, so this product is rather lack-luster. A 1GB card with faster memory would have been best. The cooler is a good single slot cooler though.

[Cybermancer]

As was already said: the 2GB are just overkill, imo, and don't help - except by increasing the price for this version.

Originally Posted by Stukov

A 1GB card with faster memory would have been best.

+1

[Joey]

It would be interesting to see how much RAM would be left out of 4GB on 32bit Vista if you had one of these installed...

[proFits]

I would have prefered 1 GB of ddr5 on the 4870

Would've purchased it

Right now I'm just waiting for this big competition to be over to buy one

Worse case scenario I keep my 8800 GT

[kapu]

Fail, i knewed, framebuffer limitatin doesnt exist on current games.

[kylzer]

uhmm......2gb on a gtx basicly

[Matt151b]

I know Crysis is not the end-all of games, but it would have been nice if the review tried to max out the 2G VRAM. Running crysis in medium is something I can do on my 8800 GTS 320 MB without much problem. Increasing textures to high or very high and maybe trying AA to see if there was a point when the 512MB was too little would have been interesting.

[vbetts]

Originally Posted by Musouka

I would have preferred 1GB of GDDR5 memory instead, but great review.

Same here. Not having the GDDR5 memory, really holds it back.

[kapu]

Originally Posted by vbetts

Same here. Not having the GDDR5 memory, really holds it back.

The point of HD4870 is GDDR5
IF HD4850 woudl have GDDR5 it would be HD4870 ...

[Skiddywinks]

Originally Posted by Stukov

The 4850 = GDDR3 only
4870 = GDDR5 only

Per AMD requirements. You can't and won't see a GDDR5 version of the 4850, unless AMD goes out of their way to change their policy (don't see why they would GDDR5 is already in short supply for the 4870s).

About the review, Hilbert I REALLY like your magnify feature of that picture, its nifty and I wish every review of every site that had a picture of the card had that simple thing. Much faster than loading up a seperate window with a high resolution picture.

About the card, meh, I was expecting better results from the high end 2560 benchmarks like in Grid, so this product is rather lack-luster. A 1GB card with faster memory would have been best. The cooler is a good single slot cooler though.

My only problem with that magnifying deature is that the magnification is loacted in such a way that I can not fit the full original image and the magnificaiton both in the same screen. Which means if I want to view the full magnification, I can not scroll over the top of the picture because it is cut off to fit the magnification.

Otherwise, great review as always.

Middle of page 3: Missing an "o" in "turn-off".
Second to last paragraph on page 5: You typoed "teh" instead of "the". If it was on purpose, I can forgive :p

[knowom]

It would have been interesting to have tested it with less traditional niche game situations such as running two instances of a graphic intensive mmorpg such as EverQuest 2 or Age of Conan at the same time with eye candy cranked up and high resolution. In EQ2 for example I can easily use over 2GB worth of page file running two instances of it at the same time at 1280 x 1024 resolution even with a little bit of the eye candy turned down or off. I can't imagine how much more page file it would use at higher resolutions and more eye candy on. Another area of interest for some might be work station applications like 3DStudio Max or Maya as well as like substantially big photo shop projects it might provide some benefits yet beyond the usual scope of things. Another thing I would've mentioned is cuda, but ati doesn't seem have that all tho I believe they have some kind of similar project perhaps folding@home could make use of the extra vram that could be another area to test.

[Stukov]

Originally Posted by Skiddywinks

My only problem with that magnifying deature is that the magnification is loacted in such a way that I can not fit the full original image and the magnificaiton both in the same screen. Which means if I want to view the full magnification, I can not scroll over the top of the picture because it is cut off to fit the magnification.

Otherwise, great review as always.

Middle of page 3: Missing an "o" in "turn-off".
Second to last paragraph on page 5: You typoed "teh" instead of "the". If it was on purpose, I can forgive :p

you could in theory put the magnified image over the spot you are magnifying.

[Stukov]

Has slower memory than 512MB version

Guru 3D has gotten their hands on a yet unannounced Radeon HD 4850 card from PowerColor with no less than 2GB of GDDR3 memory and PCS cooling. It appears as if the card is still using the reference design, but it's a bit hard to tell, although due to the ZeroTherm cooler, PowerColor have added heatsinks to the memory and power regulation circuitry.

The downside of this card is that although it has loads of memory, it's clocked 200MHz slower than on the 512MB cards, as the 512MB cards have the memory clocked at 2GHz while the PowerColor 2GB version is only clocked at 1.8GHz. The GPU is clocked at 625MHz, which is the same on the 512MB cards.

The end result of this is that the 512MB card outperforms the 2GB card in just about every single test, which once again goes to show that more memory isn't always better. The differences are quite small, on average between 3-5 fps, sometimes less, but even at very high resolutions, the extra memory just doesn't seem to add any performance benefit to the card. Out of all the games tested, the 2GB card only comes out on top at 2,560x1,600 in Race Driver - Grid.

At a $50 (€32) price premium, this isn't a particularly bad deal, but it seems a little bit pointless. Hopefully the retail cards will ship with faster memory, but we very much doubt it.

You can find the revview here

Fudzilla mentioning Guru3d's article.

[Arbie]

==> I have the same question as another poster: with a 2GB graphics card, what RAM is left for Windows & other apps? Does it really take a full 2GB bite out what you have?

Also, I'd like to see system power draw with NO graphics board, then with the board at idle and full load. I'm very concerned with idle power, and it's hard to compare different reviews if the "no-card" draw isn't reported.

BTW I have a 512MB 4850 and love it. The stock cooler is not rubbish but it is carefully designed to be "just barely good enough". And in a well-ventilated case (my CM-690 is excellent) a single-slot board does have the benefit of lower fan noise, since more of it is kept inside. So yeah, the little guy gets hot, but only when I'm active on a demanding 3D game which is about 0.1% of the time or even less. The rest of the time my 4850 is sitting there silently, consuming less idle power than any other high-end card except the GTX 280, and able to run any game I have at very high settings. For $170!

[mlmiller]

Would crossfire benifit more from the large buffer than a 512 card? Might be an interessting bench with Crysis cranked up...

[Skiddywinks]

Originally Posted by Stukov

you could in theory put the magnified image over the spot you are magnifying.

I was thinking of this solution myself.

I suppose it depends on what the Don thinks.

Btw, does anyone else have the same issue? Or is it just me using a low resolution or something?

[Cybermancer]

Originally Posted by Skiddywinks

(...) is it just me using a low resolution or something?

That's most likely the reason.

[D-Cyph3r]

Wasn't there rumors of a GDDR4 version of a 4850 coming? We've all seen that the 4800 core loves bandwidth (see 4870), so that could be a good way to really make use of that powerhouse chip.

[HisN]

I try to understand why you take Mass-Effekt to test the difference between the Memory-Sizes?

Even in 2560x1600 ME do not take more than 256MB VRAM.

[vbetts]

Originally Posted by HisN

I try to understand why you take Mass-Effekt to test the difference between the Memory-Sizes?

Even in 2560x1600 ME do not take more than 256MB VRAM.

Because Mass Effect is a major game.