Sapphire Vapor-X series

[Time Bandit]

Hi

I was considering the 4850 for a decent spec, general purpose build and would value any experiences or thoughts on the vapor-x series in general and the 4850 in particular. Looking for a balance between performance, power consumption and noise (and of course £££). Gaming will be done at 1650 x 1050 although this won't be the machine's primary role as it has to earn its living as well!

Pixmania have the 4850 for £103.35 + £8.10 del. (its £131.89 at ebuyer!)
The Hexus review was favourable (without raving about it) but that was at an estimated £140.

Thanks.

Also any views on Pixmania? I usually use Scan, ebuyer, ccl etc. and havent used the maniacs before - I find the number of promos bewildering.

- will you be having the wet wipes with your gfx card sir?
- only if it is REALLY good.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What about the HD4770(RV740 GDDR5) being released next month?? It is a 40nm GPU meaning that it should have relatively low power consumption(80w has been quoted by Fudzilla).

It is meant to be the replacement for the HD4830.

It seems to have performance between that of an HD4830 and HD4850:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...-preview-test/

The card reviewed was an engineering model also.

[Time Bandit]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I don't mind waitng a bit and ~4850 performance with ~4670 power draw sounds attractive. I would be put off though if it does retail at £117 (€130) as suggested by Fudzilla and would probably opt for a 4850 at that price .

The article also suggests that the card may take its power from the PCIe slot as its power draw is at the upper end of what is deliverable. I am guessing that this might restrict it a little when it comes to tweaking.

As an aside I have just seen the evga GTS 250 at Novatech for £125.35 which is a bit more frugal than the 4850 but this begs more questions:

How long is it? If it is the same as the 260 that would be a bit of a squeeze.
Can you create power profiles with Nvidia cards like ATI or is it "managed" automatically?

(sorry drifting off topic)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I don't mind waitng a bit and ~4850 performance with ~4670 power draw sounds attractive. I would be put off though if it does retail at £117 (€130) as suggested by Fudzilla and would probably opt for a 4850 at that price .

The article also suggests that the card may take its power from the PCIe slot as its power draw is at the upper end of what is deliverable. I am guessing that this might restrict it a little when it comes to tweaking.

As an aside I have just seen the evga GTS 250 at Novatech for £125.35 which is a bit more frugal than the 4850 but this begs more questions:

How long is it? If it is the same as the 260 that would be a bit of a squeeze.
Can you create power profiles with Nvidia cards like ATI or is it "managed" automatically?

(sorry drifting off topic)

The reference GTS250 is shorter than a 9800GTX+ and only has one PCI-E power connector. It is more like an 8800GTX 512mb in size. There is an XFX GTS250 available on Scan and many other retailers for around £100 though. However this a non-reference design hence PCB length and power draw maybe different to the reference card.
IIRC I read that some 9800GTX+ 512mb cards had been simply rebranded as a GTS250.

TBH I would wait another month or so and see how things work out. This could mean more price cuts if the RV740 GDDR5 is competitive.

There is a picture of the card with the reference cooler:

http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...ol-soon-2.html

The card seems shorter than the reference HD4830.