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GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 REVIEW

"This is a review of the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 which we are comparing to the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870. The Gainward Radeon HD 4850 is a pixel shading powerhouse boasting 800 Unified Shaders compared to 320 with the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 which means that the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 has 60% more shading power. However the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 is using powerful GDDR4 memory and the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 is using slower GDDR3 memory. Another advantage for the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 is the 20% higher GPU speed compared to the Gainward Radeon HD 4850. The benchmarks we will be using in this section are 3dmark 2006, Lightsmark and Shadermark."

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850


SYSTEM INFORMATION
VIDEO CARD GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870
ATI DRIVER CATALYST v8.7
PROCESSOR AMD ATHLON64 X2 4200
MOTHERBOARD ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA 2
MEMORY 2 x 1GB OCUK PC3200 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 3
DIRECTX v9.0c

3DMARK 2006

FINAL SCORE

GAINWARD RADEON HD 48508540
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 38708254

SHADER MODEL 2.0

GAINWARD RADEON HD 48503535
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 38703537

SHADER MODEL 3.0

GAINWARD RADEON HD 48504810
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 38704398

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870

COMMENT - "The Gainward Radeon HD 4850 narrowly beats the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 by 4% overall. Using Shader Model 2.0 the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 and Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 offered equal performance. However using the more advanced Shader Model 3.0 which features HDR and other advanced effects the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 easily beat the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 by 9%."

3DMARK 2006 GAMES

RETURN TO PROXYCON

GAINWARD RADEON HD 485030
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 387030

FIREFLY FOREST

GAINWARD RADEON HD 485030
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 387030

CANYON FLIGHT

GAINWARD RADEON HD 485060
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 387051

DEEP FREEZE

GAINWARD RADEON HD 485039
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 387037

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870

COMMENT - "After the draw with Shader Model 2.0 it was not a surprise that the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 and Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 offered equal performance with the first two SM2.0 game tests. However the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 offered better Shader Model 3.0 performance compared to the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 and it shows with the last two game tests which the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 wins by between 5% to 15%."

3DMARK 2006 FILL RATE

SINGLE-TEXTURING

GAINWARD RADEON HD 48507254
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 38706478

MULTI-TEXTURING

GAINWARD RADEON HD 485019562
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 387012165

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870

COMMENT - "The Gainward Radeon HD 4850 offers between 11% to 38% more Fill Rate compared to the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 which is very impressive."

3DMARK 2006 PIXEL SHADER

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850996
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870541

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870

COMMENT - "The Gainward Radeon HD 4850 has 800 Pixel Shaders compared to the 320 with the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870. The Gainward Radeon HD 4850 outperforms the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 by 46%."

LIGHTSMARK

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850231
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870115

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870

COMMENT - "Lightsmark is a benchmark using a next generation 3D engine. The Gainward Radeon HD 4850 shows it has the power by beating the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 by 50%."

SHADERMARK

SM3.0

GAINWARD RADEON HD 485047043
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 387035004

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 3870

COMMENT - "Shadermark is a Pixel Shader benchmark and the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 puts in a good 26% victory over the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870."

GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 REVIEW INDEX

PAGE 1 - GAINWARD RADEON HD 4850 INTRODUCTION
PAGE 2 - 3DMARK 2006, LIGHTSMARK AND SHADERMARK
PAGE 3 - GAMES BENCHMARKS AND FINAL RESULT


LATEST REVIEWS

"Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 review which also features the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 has 17% higher clock speed and 45% higher memory speed than the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2."

"The Asus GeForce GTS 250 review also featuring the Pov GeForce GTX 260. The Asus GeForce GTS 250 has a 25% faster clock speed, 1% higher memory speed but the Asus GeForce GTS 250 has 64 less Pixel Shaders."

"XFX Radeon HD 4770 review also featuring the Gainward Radeon HD 4850. The XFX Radeon HD 4770 has a 17% higher clock speed, 38% higher memory speed but 20% less Pixel Shaders compared to the Gainward Radeon HD 4850. The XFX Radeon HD 4770 does have a disadvantage which is the 128Bit Memory Interface which is half that of the Gainward Radeon HD 4850. How will this effect the performance?"

"BFG GeForce GTX 275 OC review also featuring the Gainward GeForce GTX 275. The BFG GeForce GTX 275 OC is a Factory Overclocked version of GeForce GTX 275 which means that it has a 3% faster clock speed, 2% higher memory speed and 240 Pixel Shaders."

"Gainward GeForce GTX 275 review also featuring the XFX Radeon HD 4890. The Gainward GeForce GTX 275 has a 26% lower clock speed, 42% lower memory speed and 460 less Pixel Shaders compared to the XFX Radeon HD 4890. The Gainward GeForce GTX 275 is going to have to work hard!"

"Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 review which also features the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 has 4% lower clock speed, 30% higher memory speed and an extra 320 Pixel Shaders compared to the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 does have a disadvantage with the 128 Bit memory interface due to the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 having a 256 Bit interface. How will this effect performance?"

"XFX Radeon HD 4850 review also featuring the EVGA GeForce GTS 250. The XFX Radeon HD 4850 has 15% lower clock speed, 5% lower memory speed, 800 Pixel Shaders and DirectX 10.1 Support. The XFX Radeon HD 4850 does not have any disadvantages just raw performance!"

"Inno3D GeForce 9800 GT review also features the Gigabyte Radeon HD 4770. The Inno3D GeForce 9800 GT has a 20% lower clock speed, 44% lower memory speed and 528 less Pixel Shaders. The Inno3D GeForce 9800 GT does have an advantage and this is the 256Bit Memory Interface which is twice that of the Gigabyte Radeon HD 4770 which uses a 128Bit Memory Interface."

"Gigabyte Radeon HD 4770 review also featuring the Sapphire Radeon HD 4830. The Gigabyte Radeon HD 4770 has a 24% higher clock speed, 44% higher memory speed and the same 640 Pixel Shaders as the Sapphire Radeon HD 4830. The Gigabyte Radeon HD 4770 does have a disadvantage which is the 128Bit Memory Interface which is half that of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4830. Will the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?"

"XFX Radeon HD 4890 review also featuring the Gainward Radeon HD 4870. The XFX Radeon HD 4890 has a 11% higher clock speed, 9% higher memory speed and the same 800 Pixel Shaders as the Gainward Radeon HD 4870. This means the XFX Radeon HD 4890 will be atleast 10% faster than the Gainward Radeon HD 4870. Another advantage for the XFX Radeon HD 4890 is the extra 512MB Memory which will definately increase game performance."

"EVGA GeForce GTS 250 review also featuring the Inno3D GeForce 9800 GTX+. The EVGA GeForce GTS 250 has a 3% higher clock speed, the same 2200 Mhz memory speed and 128 Pixel Shaders as the Inno3D GeForce 9800 GTX+. This means the only real advantage the EVGA GeForce GTS 250 has over the Inno3D GeForce 9800 GTX+ is an extra 512MB Memory."

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