Conclusions

Well, what a difference a new graphics architecture makes.  Ever since the dawn of the DirectX 10 era, we've been mired in disappointment when it comes to AMD's graphics solutions - While they've often managed to provide the exciting new features (such as HDMI support and DirectX 10.1) first, they simply haven't been able to do so at the kind of performance levels that would allow for them to truly challenge NVIDIA on anything more than those particular bullet points.

Thankfully, RV770 has taken those excellent features, improved upon them in places, and most importantly overhauled every aspect of their architecture that was in need of attention, all while managing to create a GPU which is cheap enough to produce to attack NVIDIA at the most relevant price points for the majority of gamers.  Rather than simply throwing more and more shader power at the Radeon HD 4800 series (although this does get a major boost as well), AMD have played smart in improving texture filtering and ROP performance to address their previous areas of concern, and those changes shine through like a blinding light of hope in our testing.  Indeed, looking over our real-world testing results, it's almost like an entire reversal of roles when the Radeon HD 4850 is pitted against a reference GeForce 9800 GTX - While previous generations would see AMD's parts ruling the roost without any eye candy enabled but falling well behind with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering turned on, so NVIDIA are now left in exactly the same position.  While the GeForce 9800 GTX frequently gets to strut its stuff when rendering 'straight', adding those all-important features to increase image quality that we all know and love sees the Radeon HD 4850 pull away, quite significantly in places.

In truth, there's little more to say beyond that - Despite its rival's recent price cut to bring it financial parity, the Radeon HD 4850 still wins out in almost every aspect you can think of, from performance to support for DirectX 10.1 (although how important that will be remains to be seen) and beyond.  The only areas where it loses out is due to NVIDIA's support for both CUDA and PhysX, but at present the importance of PhysX is still an equally unknown quantity beyond improving 3DMark Vantage performance, so this will only become a big deal if it gains sufficient traction over the remainder of 2008.

While current users of a GeForce 8800 GTS or GeForce 9800 GTX (or indeed better) won't be wanting to upgrade any time soon to this part, for anyone else yet to jump on the DirectX 10 bandwagon or otherwise needing a performance boost the Radeon HD 4850 offers absolutely fantastic value for money that simply can't be rivalled right now.  Add to that Sapphire's well priced and nicely bundled board, and you have yourself a definite winner.  Great high-end performance for under £130 simply isn't something to be sniffed at, so kudos to AMD for bringing it to the masses.

Product information

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB

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Many thanks to Sapphire for providing the sample for this review

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