Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 TOXIC 512MB video card review

Having taken a look at a couple of Radeon HD 4850 boards already from a couple of AIB partners, it seems fair to say that we're well and truly in a position to wax lyrical regarding its impressive performance at a very tempting price point.

However, even the best of graphics boards at any given time tends to have its flaws, and the Radeon HD 4850 is no exception in that regard.  Of course, higher clock speeds are always welcome, which is one angle that factory overclocked boards can easily cover, but in this particular instance probably the most common complaint surrounding the reference Radeon HD 4850 is regarding its cooling solution.  In short, the RV770 core which powers these boards gets hot.  Very hot, even at idle.

With that in mind, enter the first non-reference Radeon HD 4850 board to join the fray, in the form of Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 TOXIC.  Sporting both higher clocks speeds and a third-party Zalman cooling solution, it should be clear to see how this part is aiming to differentiate itself from the pack.  So, let's take a look and see if those changes make for an even more tempting graphics solution.