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Sapphire 4850 X2 2gb pictured

LoadsaMoney

LoadsaMoney

LoadsaMoney

Caporegime
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ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 graphics card, which was formally announced way back in August and is still unavailable, was spotted today over at pchacc.cn leading us to believe that it will finally hit the market for real. The card below is build by ATI's major partner Sapphire and features custom dual-slot cooling system, 2GB of GDDR3 memory, a 256-bit memory interface, CrossFireX support and blue PCB. Last but not least are the two 55nm RV770 GPUs and the GPU bridge that links them. The card will require an extra 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe connectors. Currently, there's no exact release date, but the little brother of 4870 X2 is expected to become available later next month.
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http://www.techpowerup.com/74826/Sapphire_ATI_Radeon_HD_4850_X2_2GB_GDDR3_Card_Pictured.html
 
AntiHeroUK said:
Good card but the HS looks crappy...
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thats possibly the best heatsink on an ATi Card in freaking ages. which only makes me angry as my 4870x2 is just loud when its running cool enough to not crash, while I'd be far happier with that card.

Shrouded coolers are.... crap. Blower fans have pitiful airflow and no pressure through contact with the fins. a "real" fan blowing down onto a sink gives better cooling for a variety of reasons, not least because a 60-70mm fan can easily give 30cfm quietly, while blowers give in the region of 5cfm quiet and less than 10cfm when earsplittingly loud.

People get confused by the very hot air that comes out of the back of a "exhausting" card cooler, its because the air is so very slow that the air is hot, nothing more, nothing less. The longer the air is incontact with a heatsink the more heat it will pick up AND the worse it can cool, which just leads to a hotter heatsink and even hotter air. If you triple the airflow the heat you'd feel out of the back of one of these coolers would be all but gone, but the noise would kill you.

In reality the extra 512mb mem per card is only worth £5-10, and we know the 4850 goes for £50-60 less than a 4870 so this really should be £100 cheaper. If the 4870x2 price comes down, so should the 4850x2. With a 55nm Nvidia GX2 out at some point in the next couple months(maybe) it would see both ATi cards drop in price quite a bit I'd think. You should probably wait till after that time to buy if you're going to.
 
jonnylaris said:
Are you serious? £100 at least, more like 150 on a good night.
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Uhh :eek: *cringes* you coulda bought 1 samsung F1 1TBs for that! :( :p

It's interesting what drunkenmaster says about blower type fans. If it's true what he's saying it makes me want to get some thin fans for my 4850s with accelero S1s.

I'd really consider getting a 4850X2 depending on how much they were, if they're too close to a 4870X2 I'd just pay the extra, but if there's like £100 difference I'd get the 4850X2.
 
kylew said:
Uhh :eek: *cringes* you coulda bought 1 samsung F1 1TBs for that! :( :p

It's interesting what drunkenmaster says about blower type fans. If it's true what he's saying it makes me want to get some thin fans for my 4850s with accelero S1s.

I'd really consider getting a 4850X2 depending on how much they were, if they're too close to a 4870X2 I'd just pay the extra, but if there's like £100 difference I'd get the 4850X2.
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the other main issue is people constantly talk about all that massive heat being in the case rather than pumped out, but again its misleading because the heat is only that high due to the insanely low CFM rate of those fans. Bigger fans, faster = very small temp increase and the CFM flow through any modern case is WAY MORE than fast enough to exhaust the extra heat anyway.

I was SO close to getting 2x4870's just so I could cool them better as third party cooling for a dual gpu is difficult without watercooling but the price difference and extra mem for same cost meant the 4870x2 was really the only option at the time. If they have exactly the same layout though I'm gonna send out billions of e-mails till they sell the 4850x2 version separately or just send me one for being a good customer. The other issue is even if you take apart the shroud the sink isn't best designed for having a fan blowing onto it so removing blower and having fans blowing upwards onto it doesn't work. Or at least on the 3870x2 the top of the sink had the fins bent over blocking airflow anywhere but from the side. Not actually looked closely at the 4870x2 to see if thats the same.

Even then I'm risking voiding warranty as the shroud is for no reason known to man attached via screws that require the entire sink to be removed from the card. I'll probably do it anyway, redo the thermal paste as it might be crap causing my high temps, and see what I can do. But at 50% this fan is painfully loud :(
 
drunkenmaster said:
the other main issue is people constantly talk about all that massive heat being in the case rather than pumped out, but again its misleading because the heat is only that high due to the insanely low CFM rate of those fans. Bigger fans, faster = very small temp increase and the CFM flow through any modern case is WAY MORE than fast enough to exhaust the extra heat anyway.

I was SO close to getting 2x4870's just so I could cool them better as third party cooling for a dual gpu is difficult without watercooling but the price difference and extra mem for same cost meant the 4870x2 was really the only option at the time. If they have exactly the same layout though I'm gonna send out billions of e-mails till they sell the 4850x2 version separately or just send me one for being a good customer. The other issue is even if you take apart the shroud the sink isn't best designed for having a fan blowing onto it so removing blower and having fans blowing upwards onto it doesn't work. Or at least on the 3870x2 the top of the sink had the fins bent over blocking airflow anywhere but from the side. Not actually looked closely at the 4870x2 to see if thats the same.

Even then I'm risking voiding warranty as the shroud is for no reason known to man attached via screws that require the entire sink to be removed from the card. I'll probably do it anyway, redo the thermal paste as it might be crap causing my high temps, and see what I can do. But at 50% this fan is painfully loud :(
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That actually makes sense to me. The lower the CFM, the longer the hot air stays in the same area resulting in it having a negative effect on the temps of your case.

I've got a thermalright 120 extreme with 2 120mm fans cooling my Q6700 and the area around it doesn't really get warm and never really has except for the sink itself. I think I will be investing in some low profile 120mm fans for my 4850s. :D
 
so you have what, 20-30 pints on a night out? anyway, back on topic - The price of this card is said to be what? £250? wonder how much better it'll be than the 4870? roughly 20%ish?
 
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