When ATI released their stellar Radeon HD 4800 series this past summer, the first question we had to ask was, where's the duals? Indeed, their launch cards took everyone by surprise, including NVIDIA, so to imagine two such GPU's on one card sounded very drool worthy. But that wait lasted only a few months, and we were greeted by the first Radeon HD 4850 X2 card on the market courtesy of Sapphire. If you game at ultra high resolutions and want to know where the best bang for the buck can be found in graphics cards, look no further than Sapphire's dual GPU based Radeon HD 4850 X2 board. At $300, it's priced right and offers incredible performance regardless of high anti-aliasing or resolutions. - Techgage

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB Video Card Review

So was the wait worth it? As we will see today, it definitely was. Though we are posting this two months after the initial release, the board proves to be just as relevant today as it was in November. And as it stands, the Radeon HD 4850 X2 retails for around $300, and at that price point, it's only a bit more expensive than NVIDIA's renewed GeForce GTX 260 with 216 shaders. There's not too much to touch on regarding this card, as nothing is truly new in way of its inner workings. Like the Radeon HD 4870 X2, this is a single PCB offering with two 55nm GPU's placed down. This is really dissimilar to NVIDIA's dual GPU offerings.

The included fans are both quiet and good looking. And the general design is somewhat similar to Palit's dual fan Sonic edition. That card impressed us with its great cooling ability, so we're hoping this card will deliver similar results. Like the rest of the current ultra high-end GPU offerings, this one also requires a power supply with two PCI Express power connectors, one of which must be 8-pin. Given the power draw of the card, you will want to make sure you have a competent power supply, and that point is even stronger if you plan on going quad GPU. Aside from that you get four DVI outputs, so good for four displays.

We didn't know what to expect when diving into testing this card, but it goes without saying that we are quite impressed. For a $300 offering, it scales well in performance when compared to slightly lesser expensive cards, such as the GeForce GTX 260. For the extra $30-50, you get a card that works much better with games at very high resolutions, or with copious amounts of anti-aliasing. If it came down to getting insane performance while keeping things as cheap as possible, the GeForce GTX 260 is still a great card, and for the most part it's probably a better choice for most people looking for something new.

As with all of the current high-end cards, the Radeon HD 4850 X2 excels at the highest resolution available. If that's the resolution you play at, this card is the board to buy. It has the best value, and given its dual GPU nature, it will allow better performance over any single GPU card currently out there in most cases. The one exception might be the GeForce GTX 280 in some tests, but that is likely to be a rare scenario. In addition to the fair price, this card features a cooler that's not exactly pleasing to the eyes, but it is light and very effective. And not to mention quiet, although the very first versions did proof to be a bit loud.

In addition, compared to the Radeon HD 4870 X2 it has a far more modest power drain. Overall, there are few downsides, and as a result it would make a fantastic addition to your gaming PC if you are looking to spend about $300 and have the capability to run very high resolutions. If you can't than we would rather go for a different solution.