AMD's partners were instructed to release reference cards for the first few weeks, with AMD actually controlling sampling of the product. And with the reference embargo now lifted, partners are now free to market their own in-house designed models, so we expect to see a bunch of cards with different coolers and getting rid of that annoying fan on the reference card, and with pre-overclocked core and memory speeds to boot. With Sapphire, the biggest AMD partner of them all, been one of the first to release a non reference Radeon HD 4850 card. The Toxic model promises better aural characteristics combined with higher performance, bringing a potent salvo to the well received GPU on the market. - Hexus

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Toxic Edition Card Review

Although in the past Toxic was often associated with pre-attached water cooling, the Toxic brand is now the umbrella term for designs that eschew the reference design and employ a different cooler on top of a card that's armed with higher than default speeds. The obvious difference between this and the reference card is the binning of original heatsink and/or fan combination, one which caused some consternation by not modulating speeds correctly. Sapphire has teamed up with Zalman and strapped one of its heatpipe clad coolers on top. The larger fan brings promise of lower temperatures and higher overclocks as a result.

The cooler is nicer than the reference card's in every respect, because its fan is quieter for both idle and load modes and, as noted, performs better with respect to temperatures all around. However, it doesn't appear to be thermostatically controlled, and spinning as it does, at the same kind of speed irrespective of temperatures. Looking at it from the other side, eight ramsinks can just about be viewed, running in an L-shaped fashion. The Radeon HD 4850 card uses a 256-bit connection to the frame buffer that's composed of eight 32-bit channels, which each module feeds into. Knowing that, all modules are located on the topside.

We're looking at the full fat version with a bundle complete with a helping salvo from CyberLink along with 3DMark Vantage and Ruby ROM, which contains a bunch of demos to showcase the power of the video card. As it is, the bundle only misses out on a retail game. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Toxic edition is backed up by a two year warranty. Claims in the first year are handled by the supplier from whom the card was purchased from, and subsequent claims are handled by a nearby service centre. We managed to crank the core and shaders to a Radeon HD 4870 matching 750MHz, up from the 675MHz default clock.

Even better, the memory was stable at a lofty 2600MHz. Compare this with the 685/2060MHz we managed from the reference card and you'll appreciate just how potent the Toxic edition is. The game play experience got a bit boost with the 750/2600MHz settings, which are surprisingly close to stock Radeon HD 4870 levels. Pre-clocked to 675MHz core and 2200MHz memory, a healthy increase over stock clocks of 625/1986MHz, the Toxic benchmarks nearly 10 per cent higher than the el-cheapo Radeon HD 4850's. That increase is facilitated by the bolting-on of an aftermarket Zalman heatsink keeping it that little extra cooler.

We are always partial to manufacturers doing their bit to improve on the reference design, and Sapphire clearly has, but the only major fly in the ointment lies with the pricing. This is a capable graphics card that goes about its business in a quiet, efficient manner. Performance is suitably solid, provided by the underlying architecture, and the inclusion of the Zalman heatsink is a sensible method of differentiating it from the crowd.