Back in August when ATI originally introduced the Radeon HD 4870 X2, we were told that a less expensive Radeon HD 4850 X2 model would arrive in the coming weeks. We weren't given a specific embargo date, we were just told that ATI wanted to focus on the Radeon HD 4870 X2 for right now and they would get back with us with more specific information later. If you dug a little deeper for info though, the general consensus was that the Radeon HD 4850 X2 launch would follow the Radeon HD 4870 X2 release by roughly a month, with cards arriving in the September timeframe. There was a lot going on behind the scenes though and we were getting conflicting information from various partners. - FiringSquad

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB Card Style Preview

Back then ATI's board partners were more focused on transitioning to Radeon HD 4800 series cards with 1GB of memory rather than the Radeon HD 4850 X2. As we now know the 1GB versions launched quietly in August, while the Radeon HD 4670 was launched successfully in the beginning of September. At the time of the Radeon HD 4670 launch ATI provided no new guidance on the Radeon HD 4850 X2, indicating that the card was still on track for a September release towards the end of the month. Of course if you spoke privately with ATI's board partners they all had conflicting plans for the Radeon HD 4850 X2 release.

Fortunately ATI's projections were correct this time with Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 X2 hitting retail shelves at the beginning of November. We recently snagged one of these cards and were impressed by its performance and feature set, but all isn't perfect with this card. When ATI first announced the Radeon HD 4870 X2, we assumed their board partners would adopt a similar board design for the Radeon HD 4850 X2, although obviously with adjustments to make the board a little cheaper to produce. Surprisingly enough however, that's not what Sapphire's done with the Radeon HD 4850 X2 as they've just decided to start from scratch.

In some ways Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 X2 reminds us of a nascar race car or an ultra exotic sports car like an Enzo Ferrari. Just think, if you could park a nascar or Enzo in your garage, you would have a vehicle capable of delivering a tremendous amount of fun for weekends at the race track. But at the same time, is it something you'd really want to live with on a daily basis? Depending on how you use your computer, that answer could vary wildly. If you have one PC devoted solely to gaming and absolutely just nothing else, your answer would definitely be yes to the Sapphire 4850 X2. After all, it's a tremendous performer.

At the same time though, the card may not be practical for you if you use your gaming PC heavily for other tasks such as web browsing, checking email, or getting a little work done typing up word documents and spreadsheets. For these types of tasks, the card's noise levels at the Windows desktop could get irritating very quickly, not to mention its power consumption, which we measured at 210W at idle. The board's power consumption doesn't bother us as much as the noise, but most high-end cards, including the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and GeForce 9800 GX2, generate very little noise while idling at the Windows desktop.

This definitely isn't the case though for Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 X2. It's a real noisemaker whether you are gaming or just idling. But boy is it a tremendous performer. In many tests it ran circles around the GeForce GTX 280, which is priced similarly to the Radeon HD 4850 X2. And the noise issue is easily fixable via software in the form of a working fan slider in either control center or a 3rd party application like RivaTuner, which at the moment also lacks support for the Radeon HD 4850 X2 cards. So overall it's a tough call, though the noise coming from mainly the fan speed could be easily resolved if Sapphire wanted.

If you are a real performance junkie who craves frames above all else, Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 X2 is certainly an intriguing solution at its price bracket, but if you're the type who is sensitive to noise, the card could get irritating after awhile. Hopefully this issue will get addressed at some point, either by Sapphire, ATI or some third party. If that happens, we would endorse the card wholeheartedly considering its performance. But until then just remember that the Radeon HD 4850 X2 card isn't flawless.