ATI Radeon HD 4850 Preview: AMD Delivers Performance for the Masses
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on June 19, 2008 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Witcher
Near the beginning of the game, our main character must lift a gate for his friends to run through before a giant praying mantis eats them (or something). Anyway, this is a benchmark of that cut scene using FRAPS. We test with 2xAA at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 while our tests at 2560x1600 are performed without any antialiasing. This is due to the fact that the game removes the option to enable AA at certain resolutions on some cards. While we understand the need to keep gamers who don't know any better from cranking everything up on crappy hardware and complaining, it would be great if people who knew what they were doing had the option of forcing specific settings.
The 9800 GTX holds its own against the onslaught of the 4850 under The Witcher. These cards basically perform the same with slightly more difference at lower resolutions in favor of the 4850. The differences aren't large here and for all intents and purposes these cards have the same value for this test.
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Clauzii - Thursday, June 19, 2008 - link
Crossfire two of that ;)(starts looking for a humongous PSU...)
rudolphna - Thursday, June 19, 2008 - link
lol oohhh yeah.. I'll be looking for Anandtech to be reviewing PCP&Ps newest 2kW Power supply with 200amps on teh 12V rail :)rudolphna - Thursday, June 19, 2008 - link
PS. (to PCP&P) Switch to 120mm fans, imagine how loud a 2000watt psu will be with an 80mm fan cooling it :)xsilver - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
the 80mm fan would require its own psu ;)Clauzii - Thursday, June 19, 2008 - link
There goes the carrot cutter :))Devo2007 - Thursday, June 19, 2008 - link
I can walk into a local retailer and pick one up right now (yes, they are actually showing stock on three different cards).Goty - Thursday, June 19, 2008 - link
Something is VERY wrong if a 1000W rated power supply can't boot a system that draws less than 500W at load. Most sites recommend a 500W-600W power supply to run a 4850 CF system, which should be PLENTY of power.Creig - Thursday, June 19, 2008 - link
That's exactly what I was thinking when I read that part of the article. A 4850 supposedly only pulls 110w. So if I was conducting the review, I would have immediately suspected a defective power supply, not an inadequate one.bob4432 - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
exactly what i was thinking....ocz quality????JarredWalton - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
I believe the 1000W PSU having problems was specifically in regards to GeForce GTX 280 SLI - though Anand or Derek would have to confirm. The other factor that I don't know is whether the PSU is the problem or perhaps Derek just has really bad electricity in his house. I know I've had no difficulties with even 550W PSUs and 3870 CrossFire (with a Q6600 overclocked to 3.30GHz).