First look: ATI Radeon HD 4850 review

The past few weeks have seen Nvidia raise the graphical stakes repeatedly, first with its new GeForce GTX 280 and then with the announcement of the beefed-up 9800 GTX+. But almost instantly its rival ATI is hitting back with a new Radeon HD 4000 series of cards.

Full technical details will have to wait for a formal announcement, expected next week, but PC Pro has been given a preview of the Radeon HD 4850, already available to order online from a handful of suppliers.

AMD has yet to officially confirm details of other cards, but the 4850's model number suggests it will occupy a mid-range position similar to the current HD 3850's place in the current line-up. Online prices confirm that impression, coming in at around £120 exc VAT.

But for a mid-range card, the 4850's performance is outstanding. In our medium-detail Crysis benchmark, the HD 4850 easily outperformed its predecessor, scoring 63fps against the HD 3850's 47fps.

It beat the Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT too - that card only achieved 50fps - and even slightly outpaced the significantly more expensive GeForce 9800 GTX, which managed 60fps. Only the GeForce GTX 280 beat it, scoring a mammoth 84fps, and that card will cost you three times the price.

When we switched to high settings, the 9600 GT dropped to jerky frame rates of around 20fps, but the 4850 kept up a perfectly playable 32fps - effectively on a par with the 9800 GTX's 33fps. Again, though, the GTX 280 won out convincingly, averaging 45fps.

Our Call of Duty 4 benchmarks told the same story, with the Radeon HD 4850 achieving scores almost exactly on a par with the 9800 GTX, mid-way between Nvidia's 9600 GT and the GTX 280.

Finally, the Call of Juarez benchmark gave the 4850 its best result: its average of 42fps in the medium test was just a whisker behind the GTX 280's 46fps, and well ahead of the 9800 GTX's 32fps. Switching to high detail caused scores to drop, but the 4850's 31fps was closer to the 37fps of the GTX 280 than to the 21fps averaged by the 9800 GTX.

It's impressive to see such scores from a single-height card, but our sample used the same cooling as a stock HD 3850 and ran incredibly hot.

While blasting through our demanding Crysis benchmarks, the HD 4850 hit a searing 84 degrees Celsius - almost 20 degrees hotter than the GTX 280. Thankfully, there's nothing stopping third-party vendors beefing up the cooling.

If you can take the heat, the Radeon HD 4850 gives the best performance you'll find at anywhere near this price-point. It can't quite see off the GTX 280, but it keeps pace with the 9800 GTX at a significantly lower price.

In all, the HD 4850 is a fantastic bargain, and gives us very high hopes for the rest of the range when it materialises. Watch this space for further reviews.

Author: Mike Jennings