Gainward is one company that we didn't think would ever release an ATI based graphics card, but with Palit acquiring the company a while ago and bringing them in under their massive umbrella, it seemed weird that Palit would not capitalize on the strong Gainward name. We first saw Gainward dip into the ATI pool in the Radeon HD 3800 series of cards. With that said, though, they didn't do a whole lot. Jump forward to the next generation of cards, which have quickly become some of the hottest on the market and Gainward have taken the time to attack the cards and introduce two of the new Radeon HD 4800 series variants under the Golden Sample naming scheme. - TweakTown

Gainward Radeon HD 4850 512MB GS Edition Review

The Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample packs everything you want from a graphics card, good cooling, big clocks and a decent price tag. Across the top of the box we have the Gainward logo while just below that we have the G logo. The middle of the box is taken up by a picture of a wolf like creature behind some bars. Here we also have mention that the card is part of the Golden Sample series along with some ATI logos on the other end. Across the bottom of the box we have the model mentioned along with a list of features which include 512MB of GDDR3 memory, CrossFireX, 256-bit memory interface and more.

We can see that Gainward have opted for a red theme which helps differentiate the ATI based cards from the NVIDIA ones. Turning the box over, we have some details on DirectX 10, Avivo, CrossFireX along with the system information, the Gainward logo again and also their website. Pulling the card out of the box, you can see it's a cooler that we haven't had a chance to look at before. In the middle sits a fan and underneath that we can see the aluminum fins along with the copper heatsink. We can see the G logo on the front of the card towards the top right corner, but apart from that there isn't a whole lot going on with the cooler.

Poking out of the top we can see two copper heatpipes that help move the heat away from the core. Looking around the card, instead of the standard 6-pin PCI Express connector that we would normally find on the Radeon HD 4850, we find that just like Palits own brand, Gainward have opted to use an 8-pin connector. Fortunately they’ve been kind enough to include a convertor in the package, which is great in the event you don't have one available on your power supply. Towards the front we have the two CrossFire connectors that we're used to seeing which gives you the ability to run several of these cards together.

Being part of the Golden Samples series, the video card does of course comes overclocked out of the box. And Gainward have increased the core speed from a boring 625MHz to an extremely healthy 700MHz. And with 512MB of GDDR3 memory on hand, the stock memory clock speed has also been increased from 1986MHz to 2200MHz effective. The Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample is an excellent card and it's good to see that the company has expanded into the ATI realm of graphics cards, especially considering just how popular they are at the moment. So an excellent move of Gainward to gain extra market share.

Really, the only let down for the product is the limited bundle. But with that said, the no frills approach does keep the price down and really the extras on offer from the Golden Sample naming scheme is the excellent out of the box performance and the upgraded cooler. If you're looking for a fast Radeon HD 4850 that manages to offer some excellent after market cooling, you can't go wrong with the Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample. While the package is a bit on the light side of things, the cooler of choice helps keep temperatures down while dropping the noise levels slightly, which is quite a nice feature.

And the overclock on offer right out of the box really helps make the card stand out when compared to a stock clocked model. The Golden Sample series from Gainward have also been an excellent line. It's great to know that even though the company comes under the Palit umbrella, they are still able to produce excellent cards that offer the performance we expect out of the Golden Sample series of cards.