No matter what you think of AMD's Radeon HD 4800 series of video cards, you would be crazy not to love what AMD did with the pricing of the first two cards, the Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4870 from these series. As a result of AMD's aggressive pricing, NVIDIA felt compelled to lower the price of its latest GeForce video cards, the GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280 series. It's not often that ATI can actually make NVIDIA fans smile as big as its own or vice versa. And ultimately though, you don't have to favor one brand over the other just to appreciate the downward pressure that the new Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870 put on pricing. And that is what we are really after. - HotHardware

MSI Radeon HD 4850 512MB Graphics Design Review

Overall, we've been quite impressed with what we've seen of the Radeon HD 4800 series, especially considering the amount of power the cards offer for the price. We are going to take a look at a card from one of ATI's primary board partners, MSI. The card up to bat today is the MSI Radeon 4850 512MB version. Although it does not feature a factory overclock, the card does sport a custom cooler that promises to keep the GPU much cooler than ATI's reference cooler. Those of you who are familiar with the Radeon HD 3800 series have probably noticed that there are a lot of similarities between the two lines.

We assume the unattractive, armored warrior on the Radeon HD 4850 box is supposed to inspire thoughts of power and domination. While the box art would probably frighten the average hobbit, we think it will just give the average human nightmares or at least remind you of your favorite The Lord of the Rings episode. All jokes aside, we are glad to see that MSI seems to keep its packaging to a relatively small size, especially with respect to this ever greener world we live in. As far as the card design is concerned, the MSI Radeon HD 4850 doesn't differ from the ATI reference design. The cooler is a drastic change from the reference.

What is so great about the MSI Radeon HD 4850 512MB version is how much performance you get for your hard earned dollars. And that performance isn't just about frame rates. You also get excellent cooling performance. The standard MSI Radeon 4850 with the reference ATI cooler can be purchased online for about $190. For only $5 more, you can grab an MSI with the custom cooler like we have seen today. That seems like a no-brainer to us. If you want an MSI Radeon HD 4850, opt for the special version unless you absolutely can't take up an extra slot in your system, though the cooling is the biggest advantage.

To be fair to other Radeon HD 4850's out there, we have to mention that the MSI Radeon HD 4850 is a bit more expensive than many of the other Radeon HD 4850's that we found online. If you like the MSI Radeon HD 4850 and are okay with its price, then we doubt you'll be disappointed if you decide to purchase one. On the other hand, if you just want the cheapest Radeon HD 4850 currently available, then you should shop around a bit before making your decision.