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I been doing some internet window shopping and reading up about the subject cards as well as he Nvidia equivilent (hey I may not have the money to buy them gfx cards but doesn't stop me dreaming. lol).
Why is the 4850X2 almost 1/2 inch longer than the 4870X2? I just don't understand...
If it really is then I'd guess it's down to Sapphire's custom cooler on the 4850x2.
The 4850X2 is a custom design by Sapphire and they just designed it to be a bit longer so it is I don't think the is any real reason apart from maybe to as Kalniel suggest fit the cooler. The cooler is much more like a CPU cooler than a normal graphics card cooler so maybe they thought they needed more space between the cores for it to fit.
Tis abit silly really as I can fit the 4870x2 in my case (if I actually could afford it) but not the more value friendly 4850x2.
It just seems odd that something that should run cooler has a custom designed cooler that makes the card longer than it's bigger brother.
Hrm..wonder if I can finance the 4870X2...loool.
the prices drop all the time and you can pick one up for around £339, so if you can afford it go for it straight away, and like everyone else has said they use a non-reference design with a double fan cooler the takes up more space then the 4870x2 cooler does.
Possibly the PCB is less layers but needs more length to route it all...