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Radeon HD 4850 - Another GPU that fails to keep up with the aging 8800 GTS

What's going on at AMD/ATI? Who does the company insist on coming out with GPU after GPU that falls flat on its face when compared to NVIDIA's aging 8800 GTS?
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

What's going on at AMD/ATI? Who does the company insist on coming out with GPU after GPU that falls flat on its face when compared to NVIDIA's aging 8800 GTS? Is there anyone at AMD/ATI responsible for benchmarking these things before release, or does the company just hope we won't realize how inferior its products are?

Introducing the Radeon HD 4850.

HEXUS have released some preliminary benchmark results (CoH:OF, Quake Wars, Crysis, and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition) and, well, the results are pretty dismal. Sure, this is a mid-range card, but I was expecting more from ATI than has been delivered.

If you're an ATI fan and you're looking for power, better hold out for the 4870 or even the 4870 X2. Or maybe for cards based on the new R700 GPU which is slated for August.

[UPDATE: In the interests of fairness, here's another, more positive review of the HD 4850. This one starts off positive but the graphs lead me to one conslusion - the 4850 is not a head turner compared to NVIDIA's 9800 GTX, and the latest rounds of price drops from NVIDIA have erased the dollars/FPS advantage the 4850 holds. And remember, NVIDIA holds another ace - CUDA support and very soon built-in PhysX support. Sure, the form factor of the 4850 is smaller than that of the 9800 but thats not really much of an issue. With $200 bucks to spend, my money would go to NVIDIA (and I'm a long-time ATI fan ...).

ATI is going to have to do better. Like I said, wait for the 4870 X2, or maybe for cards based on the new R700 GPU which is slated for August.]

[UPDATE: Seems that HEXUS have pulled their review offline ...]

[UPDATE: Hmmm, I've just got hold of a 4850 for testing but I'm not sure if the card is faulty or the drivers are just not up to scratch but in both test rigs (that otherwise run ATI cards just fine) I'm getting a cascade of the dreaded "Atikmdag has stopped responding and has successfully recovered ..." errors - somethign I've not seen in a LONG time ...]

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