Sapphire Radeon HD4850 512MB Graphics Card Review

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3DMark 06

3DMark 06

While some may wonder at the use of still including 3DMark06 in the tests it gives us a good idea of the basic limitations of a graphics card. Since the standard test runs at 1280x1024 there will be a fair amount of CPU bottlenecking with higher-end cards and remember that in many cases a higher 3DMark score does not equate better performance. Here we have also included tests with AA and AF enabled

In this test we can see that the Sapphire HD4850 really kicks things into gear when AA is turned on. While the 9800GTX wins by a narrow margin with all the IQ settings at their minimum, once all the bangs and whistles are turned on, the HD4850 is able to pull ahead, especially at higher resolutions.

 

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3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage is the follow-up to the highly successful 3DMark06. It uses exclusively DX10 so if you are running Windows XP, you can forget about running this benchmark. However, it presents us with a truly stressful test of any modern graphics card so we have decided to begin including it in our testing procedure.

Overall Score

GPU Score

CPU Score

It is quite obvious that the HD4850 loves this test as it completely trounced the 9800GTX. Another important thing to note is that at this time the CPU scores of these cards is pretty much redundant until Physics drivers start appearing for both companies.

 

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Unreal Tournament III / Prey

Unreal Tournament III

With absolutely stunning graphics, this popular online FPS provides great visuals to go hand-in-hand with palm-sweating gameplay.

For these tests we set up a 15 minute Bot Match on the Serenity level and let it play though. All of the results were recorded with the in-game benchmark tool.

This game seems be a bit tough on the HD4850 when compared to the 9800GTX but it is able to make up much of its loss at lower resolution by nearly equaling the performance of the GTX at and above 1600x1200.

Prey

Even though Prey may be a bit older game compared against many of the other ones we are testing, it still provides a workout of even the best graphics cards on the market. This time we have enabled its Graphics Boost feature (Gboost in the charts) and run through a custom timedemo.

Here we have another strong showing by the HD4850 which seems to love OpenGL games especially when AA is turned up to 4X or greater. So far its performance against the 9800GTX is extremely good.

 

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Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry has long been a staple platformer on consoles but has found only moderate success with its PC ports. The 4th iteration of this series aims to buck this trend with stunning visuals and intuitve gameplay

In this benchmark we used the in-game benchmark tool while running FRAPS to measure an average and minimum framerate.

1280 X 1024

1600 X 1200

2560 X 1600

Even though this is an Nvidia sponsored title with its inclusion in “The Way it’s Meant To Be Played” program, the HD4850 is able to walk all over the 9800GTX in every test but the first low-resolution setting. This shows us very well how much this new ATI card loves high IQ settings and extremely detailed environments.

 

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Crysis DX9

Crysis DX9

Crysis is one of those games that comes along every now and then and totally humbles every graphics card on the market. While some people have pointed towards shoddy programming, it is undeniable that this game looks ridiculously good when played at higher settings.

For this test we recorded a custom timedemo on the Harbor level equaling about 20 minutes of game time through jungle, over water and in vehicles. All results were recorded with FRAPS over the course of the timedemo.

1280 X 1024

1600 X 1200

1920 X 1080

Unfortunately for the Sapphire HD4850, it can’t seem to catch a break in Crysis DX9 not matter what resolution or if AA is turned on or off. It is always one small step behind the 9800GTX which leads us to believe that Nvidia’s drivers are better optimized for this game and ATI’s driver team has a bit of work left to be done.

 

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Crysis DX10

Crysis DX10

1280 X 1024

1600 X 1200

1920 X 1080

Here we have some very interesting results. The HD4850 seems to struggle a fair bit when AA is turned off since on some occasions it is even passed by the 880GTS 512MB. But then when AA is turned on, it really gets the chance to show how little impact higher IQ settings make upon it since performance stays nearly the same as in the 0XAA tests. In our opinion, it would be a shame if you ignored turning on the eye candy when using this card. There are also the telltale indications of some driver issues when you look at the minimum frame ratees which should be ALOT better than what we see here.

 

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

This has quickly become one of the most popular games for the PC and with good reason. This is one of the few times I have experienced actual excitement when looking for a good area to record the timedemo. The graphics are amazing and at the same time quite demanding when you get into the higher resolutions.

For this test we recorded a 15 minute timedemo on the Crash multiplayer level and recorded framerates using FRAPS. The maximum in-game framerate was bumped to 999.

1280 X 1024

1600 X 1200

2650 X 1600

At turn, the HD4850 dominates the competition in this benchmark with extremely good scores throughout all of the tests. There is however a bit of a hiccup with the minimum framerates as resolution increases where the card seems to have trouble in one particular part of the timedemo.

 

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Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Enemy Territory: Quake wars is the latest iteration of the wildly popular Quake franchise from ID Software. While it was met with luke-warm reviews by both the media and the gaming community, it remains an extremely popular online game.

In this test we set up a 15 minute timedemo on the Refinery level while the framerates were recorded in-game.

In ET: QW the HD4850 shows once again what it has been known for throughout the testing so far; good performance without AA turned on and phenomenal framerates when all the bangs and whistles are turned on.

 

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PT Boats: Knights of the Sea (DX10)

PT Boats: Knights of the Sea (DX10)

Russian developer Akella has released a nifty little DX10 benchmark centered around their game PT Boats: Knights of the Sea. This benchmark traditionally favours Nvidia hardware but we will see how things go this time.

1280 X 1024

1600 X 1200

2560 X 1600

Welcome to a world of broken driver optimizations but at least the ATI hardware actually held things together. Most Nvidia cards on the other hand went tits-up during the last test. Let us make one thing clear: if the game itself plays anything like the demo, people will be avoiding this game like the plague.

 

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World in Conflict DX9

World in Conflict DX9

This is one stunning game. World in Conflict has provided us with some of my most memorable gaming experiences since the first Homeworld game was released and it has not stopped wowing me. In its DX9 form it provides eye-popping visuals and pushes most modern GPUs to their limits. However, in DX10 mode this game will cause nearly every graphics card to beg for mercy.

For this test we used the in-game benchmarking tool.

1280 X 1024

1600 X 1200

2560 X 1600

As we near the end of the game benchmarks, the same story keeps repeating itself over and over again: the HD4850 absolutely stuns us with its performance when AA is turned on. Even in this Nvidia-centric game it is able to fight tooth and nail without AA turned on as well. The only real slip-up we saw was at 2560 X 1600 resolution without A turned on where it was passed by both the 9800GTX and the 8800GTS 512MB.