Asus HD4850 512mb PCI-E Graphics Card EAH4850
Packaging & Appearance
Published: 30th June 2008 | Source: Asus | Price: £120 |
Packaging & Appearance
Before I start, I just want to clarify that the card we have is a review sample of a stock-clocked HD4850, but Asus sent it to us in their retail 'Top' packaging. The real 'Top' Edition will be overclocked and sporting one of Asus's Glaciator heatsinks.
Asus are a very good company for making very well-packaged products with hugely over-sized boxes. This time, however, they have decided to tone it down just a little on the outside of the box, whilst maintaining the high quality of the interior.
The above image is a press image from Asus
All of the info you need on a box is there and the inside of the box actually feels a little special.
The package contains: 1 x S-Video to component cable, 1 x DVI to HDMI connector, 1 x DVI to VGA connector, 1 x S-Video to composite connector, 1 x ATI CrossFire™ connector, 1 x Driver CD, 1 x Manual/Accessories CD, 1 x Speed Setup Manual.
There are no games included with this card, which is to be expected with a mid-range card.
There are no games included with this card, which is to be expected with a mid-range card.
The reference card we have is packed into a single slot cooler made up of copper with a fairly large fan for a card of this size. The heatsink extends over the power regulating circuitry and covers all of the memory on the card. I'm actually impressed with the design of the heatsink, but more on that later.
The reference card really is very slim here and obviously the cooler does do its job as it becomes very hot during use.
Here we can see the heatsink covering the power circuitry, which is a good addition to see. The card is powered from a 6-pin PCI-E power dongle and will not boot at all without this inserted.
The card has two HDCP enabled Dual-Link DVI outputs capable of being converted to HDMI via the supplied connector. A TV-Out S-video connector supplies the rest of your connectivity needs. I do not believe that the card has the ability to pass 7.1 sound through HDMI, unlike some SKU's.
The stock cooling on this card is pretty good, although perhaps a little immaterial due to the card not being a final Top sample. However, for those of you opting for the stock cooler, I don't think you'll have any complaints as at idle it is virtually silent and even at full load it doesn't become very noticible at all, which is nice!
Most Recent Comments
Been spying on this review for a while 
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So its not the most powerful card in the world. But it can be had for £120. VFM wise i can't see anything better atm. Rather tempting to pick up 2.
.So its not the most powerful card in the world. But it can be had for £120. VFM wise i can't see anything better atm. Rather tempting to pick up 2.
Looks like a great card, wonder if i can Crossfire them on my commando.
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Originally Posted by name='nunzio'
Looks like a great card, wonder if i can Crossfire them on my commando.
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Aye, just worried about the fact they might need PCI-e v.2
Nice review m8. Looks like ATI are slowly clawing back some performance.
very nice looking cards 
XFX should come across to the Red camp
i think XFX and ATi would make some damn fine cards together..
but yea, nice
good review
XFX should come across to the Red camp
i think XFX and ATi would make some damn fine cards together..
but yea, nice
good review
lol yeah XFX ATi cards would be the best.
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT....its about time ATI stopped cowering behind the bikesheds...it bodes well for the 4870 and x2 derivitives.....
Great review as ever Jim, the cost per frame is simply staggering on this card, much lower than nvidia 
Awesome review and card really. ATi bringin back VFM, nuff said really
It is really tempting to get one of these, and then get another for crossfire at a later date.
Great reviews as always!
Great reviews as always!
Not to bad a card really, performance is goodish... but price, WOAH!
For £120 that is a smoking card!
I think I might have to buy a 4870x2 when they come out, ati seems to have won this round
I think I might have to buy a 4870x2 when they come out, ati seems to have won this round
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Originally Posted by name='Mr. Smith'
For £120 that is a smoking card!
I think I might have to buy a 4870x2 when they come out, ati seems to have won this round |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Mr. Smith'
For £120 that is a smoking card!
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='nunzio'
Looks like a great card, wonder if i can Crossfire them on my commando.
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Originally Posted by name='Jim'
8x 8x config might not work too bad with these cards actually. Especially at the price. Doesn't matter too much if you loose a few fps thru PCI-E bottlenecks
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The HD 4850 is by far the best card VFM wise recently. I think it'll be even more of a hit than the 8800gt. Unless nVidia drastically reduce the price of there 9800gtx to the same or lower price level.
The Hd 4850 appears to beat the 9800gtx and the 8800gtx in most games. I was thinking of upgrading my 8800gts 640mb to a 8800gtx, but I'm glad I didn't as this card is cheaper and performs better.
I showed the card to my bro, and with a little persuasion I made him buy it. He'll be happy with it hope fully, upgrading from a x1950pro lol.
Also he got the HD 4850 for about £115 delivered from pixmania.com, hasn't arrived yet though.
Great review Jim, as always. 
The price/performance ration is clearly top with the 4850, but I’m looking more in the direction of the 4870 for my self.
It would be nice to see, how a 4870 performs against the gtx260 in a battle review
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And now that there will also be a black edition 4870 that can go over 1Ghz with its cpu, nvidia will have a hard time.
Better cards from ati, lower price for us, at least I hope nvidia will lower their prices.
The price/performance ration is clearly top with the 4850, but I’m looking more in the direction of the 4870 for my self.
It would be nice to see, how a 4870 performs against the gtx260 in a battle review
. And now that there will also be a black edition 4870 that can go over 1Ghz with its cpu, nvidia will have a hard time.
Better cards from ati, lower price for us, at least I hope nvidia will lower their prices.
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Originally Posted by name='cl0ck_ed'
I think the commando is actually 16x/4x. The 4x bus of the second slot is too crippling to performance. I was looking at two of these cards for crossfire on the same board and after researching crossfire on the p965 chipset there is little point. Best to sell the commando and buy a x38 or x48 mobo.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='cl0ck_ed'
The HD 4850 is by far the best card VFM wise recently. I think it'll be even more of a hit than the 8800gt. Unless nVidia drastically reduce the price of there 9800gtx to the same or lower price level. The Hd 4850 appears to beat the 9800gtx and the 8800gtx in most games. I was thinking of upgrading my 8800gts 640mb to a 8800gtx, but I'm glad I didn't as this card is cheaper and performs better. I showed the card to my bro, and with a little persuasion I made him buy it. He'll be happy with it hope fully, upgrading from a x1950pro lol. Also he got the HD 4850 for about £115 delivered from pixmania.com, hasn't arrived yet though. |
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Originally Posted by name='Jim'
For most P965 boards that would be true, but the Command actually has a "Crosslinx" chip that splits the bandwidth of the first PCI-E slot into 8x/8x when running cards in Crossfire.
Bloody hell thats a good price |
For the cheap price, sign up to Quidco, and you get 5% off at pixmania, you can also get money off at Misco and Novatech.
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Originally Posted by name='cl0ck_ed'
Are you sure? Can’t find that anywhere. On the asus site it says 16x/4x. Sure your not thinking of the Blitz.
For the cheap price, sign up to Quidco, and you get 5% off at pixmania, you can also get money off at Misco and Novatech. |
Blitz has the Crosslinx, Commando is x16 and x4
looks very nice. how does it compare to the 8800 gts in practice? It seems to have much better stats.
I have a question about it.... I'm interested in putting this in a lower end pc, to keep me going until Xmas for a new pc build.
The specs are roughly:
Antec p150 case w/ neo430w psu
2gig DDR Ram
bunch of hdds
MSI 7800gtx (256meg)
Amd 3800x2 cpu (oced from 2.0ghz to 2.4ghz)
With the bottleneck of both the ram and the cpu, will I still get a reasonable boost in games, with their fps?
It's cheap enough to buy if I get more than a say, 30fps jump.
The specs are roughly:
Antec p150 case w/ neo430w psu
2gig DDR Ram
bunch of hdds
MSI 7800gtx (256meg)
Amd 3800x2 cpu (oced from 2.0ghz to 2.4ghz)
With the bottleneck of both the ram and the cpu, will I still get a reasonable boost in games, with their fps?
It's cheap enough to buy if I get more than a say, 30fps jump.
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Asus HD4850 512mb review
By Kempez & Jim (dont ask)