“The HD 4850 X2 is one of those really weird releases. The original word was that the card would launch alongside the HD 4870 X2; clearly it didn’t. Word came through that the card was delayed for a week or two, but after that time was up the talk of the card faded.Move forward to November and we finally have the release of the card. What’s interesting about the HD 4850 X2 is that the decision to build the card is completely up to the partner who has to make it themselves. For that reason, the only company to currently have a HD 4850 X2 floating around on the world wide interweb is from Sapphire. So with that said, let’s take the time to have a look at the package Sapphire has put together before we have a closer look at the card and get into the benchmarks.”
Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4850×2 @ CPU3D
- Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition Video Card Review @ OCIA
- HIS Radeon HD 4850 IceQ 4 Turbo @ Legion Hardware
- ATI Radeon HD 4830 (512Mb DDR3) Sapphire vs HIS @ CPU3D
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB @ bit-tech
- Sapphire HD 4850 X2 Video Card Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Sapphire HD 4850 X2 @ Pro-Clockers
- Thermalright T-Rad2 Video Card Cooler @ Legit Reviews
- GeForce GTX 260 with 216 Stream Processors @ Digit-life
- XFX GTX260 Black Edition Review @ OCC
- Leadtek GeForce GTX 260 Extreme+ 216 Shaders @ techPowerUp
- XFX GTX 260 (216S.P) Black Edition @ Neoseeker
So, about that second HD 4850 X2
If you are pondering picking up a pair of the new HD4850X2’s as opposed to a single HD4780X2, you may want to visit Tweaktown. They tested a pair in Crossfire and the results were not exactly encouraging. There were some games which saw an improvement, but more saw the performance unchanged or even slightly degraded. There is a good chance that updated drivers and game patches will at least ensure the experience is the same, but you may prefer to go with a more expensive single card configuration.