Features & Specifications

The Radeon HD4850 is a brand-new series of cards, featuring a new GPU and 512MB of GDDR3 memory. That said, it can only be assumed that aside from improved performance, the Radeon HD4850 also brings new features to the table as well.

Features

• Dynamic geometry acceleration
• Game physics processing capability
• ATI PowerPlay technology
• ATI CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology
• ATI Avivo HD video and display technology
• Built for Microsoft® Windows Vista
• Full Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 Shader Model 4.1 support

While benefiting from a new 55nm manufacturing process, the Radeon HD4850 has several advantages over the HD3870 such as 7.1 audio over HDMI, and improved physics processing. Let's look at the specifications of the unit to see the power providing these features.

Specifications

• Part Number: AE/48500+T352
• Bus interface: PCI Express 2.0
• 2x Dual-link DVI outputs support 2560x1600 resolution displays
• Memory Support: 512MB GDDR3
• Memory Interface: 256 bit
• Memory Clock: 1986MHz (933 x 2)
• Core Clock: 625 MHz
• HDCP capable
• HDMI function via dongle
• Power Supply Unit Requirement:
  500 Watt or greater power supply with a 75W 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors recommended (600 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode)

Surprisingly, the Radeon HD4850 is clocked slightly slower than the Radeon HD3870, but has roughly 50% more transistors. I hope benchmarks will reveal that the new manufacturing process has given the card a large advantage over the previous generation of cards and such a difference in clock speeds will mean nothing.

Installation

As with most videocards, installation was a snap. Press the card in, and screw in the PCI bracket to secure. Don't forget the 6-pin PCI-Express power connection.

Unlike the Palit GeForce 9600 GSO, the Palit HD4850 doesn't block my SATA ports.

With the physical installation complete, all that was left to do was install the latest Catalyst 8.6 driver in both Linux and Windows. Both versions of the drive can be found on AMD's website