Power Consumption and Final Thoughts
Mid-range matchup: ASUS GTS 250 Dark Knight and Sapphire HD 4850 Vapor - Graphics Cards 58

The ASUS GeForce GTS 250 Dark Knight is probably the best performer of the bunch test here today but it also uses the most power in our testing.  Under a gaming load it uses about 30 watts more than the Sapphire HD 4850 Vapor 512MB card and about 25 additional watts at idle. 

Performance

Throughout our performance tests, the one card that clearly came out ahead of the pack were the two GeForce GTS 250 cards, the reference 1GB and the ASUS Dark Knight edition 512MB.  In most cases though the performance gaps between the ASUS GTS 250 DK card and the Sapphire HD 4850 Vapor were relatively small and only in one case do I feel that the performance differences would make a noticeable gameplay advantage – that was in Left 4 Dead. 

Mid-range matchup: ASUS GTS 250 Dark Knight and Sapphire HD 4850 Vapor - Graphics Cards 59

In reality, for the price, any of these cards, including the recently released Radeon HD 4770 and its 40nm GPU design, is going to offer really good gaming performance for the price.

Pricing and Availability

Speaking of the price, things got a bit more interesting during the time from testing to write up with these two cards.  The ASUS GeForce GTS 250 Dark Knight 512MB card can now be found for as low as $109 after mail-in rebate.  The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Vapor 512MB is pretty hard to find today, but the 1GB model is for sale for about $145 after a mail-in rebate.  Unfortunately for Sapphire that price discrepency puts the GTS 250 Dark Knight card, even though it has half the memory as the HD 4850 Vapor card available today, the better value.  In fact, it is one of the least expensive GeForce GTS 250 cards available, period. 

This is also a concern for the Radeon HD 4770 cards on the market today – the lowest we have seen them for sale is $99 and it would struggle to keep up this ASUS GTS 250 that is selling for only $10 more.  Even worse, Newegg shows NO HD 4770s in stock as of this writing; is AMD having problems getting the availability needed for demand with TSMC’s 40nm process?

Final Thoughts

The market for sub-$150 graphics cards is still just as crowded and confusing as it was before this article, but if you are considering a GPU in the price range then we do have some final recommendations for you.  Easily the best performing card in our testing today was the ASUS GeForce GTS 250 Dark Knight 512MB card though in a couple cases the 1GB model stood out above it.  The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Vapor 512MB  card still had some great gaming performance for a $140 card or so and if you are an AMD die-hard or have existing HD 4000-series technology you want to expand with CrossFire technology then it is the better choice.  However, if I were to go for an AMD solution today, I would likely pick the HD 4770 – if you can find them that is.

Mid-range matchup: ASUS GTS 250 Dark Knight and Sapphire HD 4850 Vapor - Graphics Cards 60
ASUS GeForce GTS 250 Dark Knight – Value

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