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

	8540
	8254

SHADER MODEL 2.0

	3535
	3537

SHADER MODEL 3.0

	4810
	4398

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

	30
	30

FIREFLY FOREST

	30
	30

CANYON FLIGHT

	60
	51

DEEP FREEZE

	39
	37

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

	7254
	6478

MULTI-TEXTURING

	19562
	12165

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

	996
	541

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

	231
	115

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

	47043
	35004

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

HOME = CPU - MOTHERBOARD - NEWS - 3D BENCH - SITEMAP - TECH - VIDEO CARD - BYTE NEWS - BLOG - LINKS

I hope you enjoy my reviews on ati video cards, be sure to use this information when picking out a new ati video card that's right for your computing needs

LATEST REVIEWS

HIS RADEON HD 7950
AMD A6 3650 VS ATHLON X3 455
ASUS RADEON HD 7970
AMD PHENOM II X4 960T
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 7970
AMD A6 3650 VS AMD A8 3850
AMD A8 3850 VS ATHLON X3 455
INTEL CORE i5 2500 VS FX 8150
AMD FX 8150 VS X6 1100T
PHENOM II X6 1100T VS i5 2500K
INTEL CORE i3 2100 VS CORE i3 530
INTEL CORE i3 530 VS AMD X3 455
INTEL CORE i3 2100 VS AMD X3 455
CORE i5 2500K VS PHENOM II 970
AMD PHENOM II X4 970 VS X4 955
AMD ATHLON II X3 455 VS X4 620
AMD ATHLON II X3 455 VS X2 560
AMD ATHLON II X3 455 VS X2 265
AMD ATHLON II X3 455
AMD ATHLON II X3 435
AMD PHENOM II X2 560 VS X4 645
AMD PHENOM II X2 560 VS X4 955
CORE i3 2120 VS PHENOM II 955
CORE i3 2120 VS PHENOM II 560
INTEL CORE i3 2120
AMD ATHLON II X4 620
AMD PHENOM II X4 955
AMD PHENOM II X2 560
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6850
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6770
HIS RADEON HD 6850
PALIT GEFORCE GTX 460 SONIC
POWERCOLOR RADEON 6790
AMD ATHLON II X2 265
POWERCOLOR RADEON 5770
PALIT GEFORCE GTX 550
PALIT GEFORCE GTX 560
AMD ATHLON II X4 645
AMD ATHLON II X2 255
PALIT GEFORCE GTS 450 SONIC
PALIT GEFORCE GTS 450
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6970
MSI GEFORCE GTX 570
ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 580
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6870