Diamond HD4850: Review

[jdrom17]

Today my Diamond HD4850 arrived from NCIX which I got for $150 with no rebates

I'm sure you've all read about the HD4850 enough so I won't really say much other than that it's quite a bit quicker than my EVGA 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked. Only real issue I have with it so far is that it runs pretty damn hot which I was expecting. I'm seeing 76C idle though my side panel isn't on so the fan pointed at the GPU isn't there. Noise wise, I don't hear anything different. All I hear is my window air conditioner anyways. The GPU does roar when turning the PC on but after that it gets quiet.

Right now it's running stock with the stock ATI drivers though over the next few days I plan to try out modded drivers and see what gains they yield. I'll probably also modify the BIOS for a better fan profile and to fix the Power Play clocks.

Down the road I'll put it under water and do some real OC'ing. Need more money before I can do this though...

The following configuration was used for benchmarks:

• EVGA 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked (without any further OC'ing)
• Diamond HD4850 512MB (stock)
• X3350 @ 3.4GHz
• 4x1GB DDR2-850
• 3DMark06 with default settings
• 3DMark Vantage on "High" preset
• Crysis on "High" settings

8800GTS 3DMark06


HD4850 3DMark06


8800GTS 3DMark Vantage


HD4850 3DMark Vantage


8800GTS Crysis


HD4850 Crysis


So overall I'd say it was worth the $150 investment. Seems to be able to pull its weight a lot better at 1680x1050 than my 8800GTS could. I'm sure I'll still get more performance out of it as well. CCC Auto-Tune gave me 690/1098 but it doesn't seem to run 3DMark06. It ran Crysis though so I'll have to look into it further.

I'll update this with results from modded drivers eventually.

[1Tanker]

Originally Posted by jdrom17

Today my Diamond HD4850 arrived from NCIX which I got for $150 with no rebates

I'm sure you've all read about the HD4850 enough so I won't really say much other than that it's quite a bit quicker than my EVGA 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked. Only real issue I have with it so far is that it runs pretty damn hot which I was expecting. I'm seeing 76C idle though my side panel isn't on so the fan pointed at the GPU isn't there. Noise wise, I don't hear anything different. All I hear is my window air conditioner anyways. The GPU does roar when turning the PC on but after that it gets quiet.

Right now it's running stock with the stock ATI drivers though over the next few days I plan to try out modded drivers and see what gains they yield. I'll probably also modify the BIOS for a better fan profile and to fix the Power Play clocks.

Down the road I'll put it under water and do some real OC'ing. Need more money before I can do this though...

The following configuration was used for benchmarks:

• EVGA 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked (without any further OC'ing)
• Diamond HD4850 512MB (stock)
• X3350 @ 3.4GHz
• 4x1GB DDR2-850
• 3DMark06 with default settings
• 3DMark Vantage on "High" preset
• Crysis on "High" settings

8800GTS 3DMark06


HD4850 3DMark06


8800GTS 3DMark Vantage


HD4850 3DMark Vantage


8800GTS Crysis


HD4850 Crysis


So overall I'd say it was worth the $150 investment. Seems to be able to pull its weight a lot better at 1680x1050 than my 8800GTS could. I'm sure I'll still get more performance out of it as well. CCC Auto-Tune gave me 690/1098 but it doesn't seem to run 3DMark06. It ran Crysis though so I'll have to look into it further.

I'll update this with results from modded drivers eventually.

They are nice. It(HIS 4850) seems a lot stronger than my 3850 was. No need to not use AA/AF on most anything.

[lemonlime]

I was soo close to checking out one of those at $150 from NCIX too Sure didn't take them long to sell out.

[jdrom17]

Originally Posted by lemonlime

I was soo close to checking out one of those at $150 from NCIX too Sure didn't take them long to sell out.

Hehehe, I was the first one to snag one. Couldn't resist myself.

A little update:
I've modded the BIOS now to run 650/1050 with my own fan profile. I've got it maintaining 80C at 50% fan speed after 50 loops of Crysis Assault Harbor. So I think that's pretty decent since with the stock BIOS it would idle at 77C. Idle now is 70C with 27% fan speed. Anything beyond 50% fan speed starts to get pretty audible so I'm trying to avoid that.

Also with the modded BIOS I have "proper" Power Play clocks so that probably helps bring down the idle temps as well since it doesn't run as fast as it used to.