Reviews - Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 TOXIC: better than reference

[HEXUS]

Sapphire is one of the first AMD partners to release an in-house-designed Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. Pre-overclocked and quieter than the reference model, we tell you if it's worth the cash.

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[sawyen]

Probably 25 quid more will get you a 4870.. not very good value if you ask me...

[Tarinder]

Zero-day pricing is always a little high. Expect it to drop to £135-£140 in a week.

However, it does offer something that both the reference HD 4850 and HD 4870 don't.

[m4dn355]

"The TOXIC brand was first showcased with the Radeon X1900-series of GPUs."

The truth is that SAPPHIRE released its first TOXIC model with X800 series, called X800 PRO TOXIC.

The question is why did you use CATALYST 8.6 instead of 8.7?

[Main]

8.7 has only been out a day - the actual testing in the review was probably carried out a few days, maybe even a week ago.

Tarinder you've got an error on the Quake Wars benchmark page where you have the 1680x1050 graph twice instead of a graph for results at 1920x1200.

EDIT: Actually the results appear to be reasonable for 1920x1200, it's just mislabeled.

[Elessar_VPR]

The truth is that SAPPHIRE released its first TOXIC model with X800 series, called X800 PRO TOXIC.

Yep . They pretty much all unlocked to X800XT PE's as well, got one sitting in my old PC (though it needs a new CPU/mobo as one or the other has died!)

[Tarinder]

8.7 has only been out a day - the actual testing in the review was probably carried out a few days, maybe even a week ago.

Tarinder you've got an error on the Quake Wars benchmark page where you have the 1680x1050 graph twice instead of a graph for results at 1920x1200.

EDIT: Actually the results appear to be reasonable for 1920x1200, it's just mislabeled.

Fixed.

CATALYST 8.7s came out after the card was tested, but we have a Radeon HD 4870 tested with it, due to be published in the next few days.

I suppose the TOXIC brand was popularised by the X1900-series of GPUs, but you guys are right, it came out with the X800.

[plowe]

Nice review!!. How about the ASUS 4850 with 1GB and Glaciator fan? Can this be overclocked to similar toxic speeds? Thanks Peter

[Thorsson]

Well this proves my supposition that a clocked 4850 would pretty much match a (stock) 4870. The question now is whether a different cooler will do much for the 4870.

P.S. I saw a GT260 for under £200 the other day, at which price it looks attractive compared to the hot running basic 4870.

[nwmark]

Well this proves my supposition that a clocked 4850 would pretty much match a (stock) 4870. The question now is whether a different cooler will do much for the 4870.

P.S. I saw a GT260 for under £200 the other day, at which price it looks attractive compared to the hot running basic 4870.

Im not sure what graphs you where looking at but by my reckoning the overclocked 4850 is still way off a 4870.

I like th idea of the TOXIC card but i cant help thinking that a stock 4850 with an aftermarker cooler would get you to the same if not higher clock speeds.

And if the price does not drop, then for £25 extra you would be mad not to get the 4870.

Or would you save some pennies and get the 9800GTX+ at around £130 and better performace in i think all but one of the benchmarks, look slike a very good card.

I love ATi for forcing Nvidia's hand in bringing down prices but it makes my purchasing decision SO much harder

[Biscuit]

I think with Nvidia being forced down so far, you need to make the decision depending what games it is you play. im a COD player and the 4870 is the clear way to go in that respect (check out guru3d and anandtech review)

[jamadaia]

Would consider if it is a bit cheaper, like £130 - £140. Especially considering as normal HD485- are going for as little as £115.
And I am not even going to start on the fact that these TOXIC editions are $240 at certain places in the states.
I say wait and you will see these drop to about £140 on there own. Don't fuel the prices.

[nineavenger]

Newegg.com
MSI 4850 - looks like Zalman ?

[Mitch92uK]

Personally I'd go for the cheapest 4850 I could find, Accelero S1 + Overclock it (though it doesn't need it) and save easily £20 just like that.

[kalniel]

Personally I'd go for the cheapest 4850 I could find, Accelero S1 + Overclock it (though it doesn't need it) and save easily £20 just like that.

How much is the Accelero?

[jamadaia]

Well cheapest HD850 is about £110 delivered and S1 is about £15 or just over.
So you are looking at about £125 - £130.
But when you take into account that teh S1 is rather huge and also by doing this change means you void the warranty on the card.
I dunno, but seems liek not such a good proposition.
If an equivalent or near enough card was available for like £5 or £10 more I would def buy that instead.