The ATI Radeon HD 4850 became a worthy alternative to the GeForce 8800GTS and GeGorce 9800GTX graphics accelerators from NVidia from the legendary Canadian manufacturer in 2008. This video adapter did not differ in technical specifications from its direct competitors, and its cost was significantly less. As a result, Nvidia was forced to revise its pricing policy and make products more affordable. As a result, buyers have the opportunity to buy a powerful graphics card at a more affordable price from both ATI and NVidia.
Product Background
After the release of the Radeon HD 3000 series graphics cards, the Canadian company ATI has not presented updated products for almost a year and a half. The 2007 economic crisis led to such a pause, and, as a result, the demand for productive graphics solutions decreased significantly. Ultimately, the old owners were forced to sell the second largest developer and manufacturer of video chips, and AMD was the buyer. It was on this wave that the sales of ATI Radeon HD 4850 and a more productive version of this solution started - this is HD4870. The cost compared to direct competitors from the “green” camp was lower, and the performance level in most applications was almost identical.
The ATI Radeon HD 4850 logo was also applied to the video accelerator chip. The Catalist series driver also originally had the logo of a Canadian manufacturer. But then, as the software updates, it has already been replaced by AMD. As a result, in the future, this product was already called AMD Radeon HD 4850.
Niche Solutions
ATI Radeon HD 4850 was built on the basis of one of the most productive semiconductor video chips of 2008. Accordingly, technical specifications allowed him to solve almost any task at that time. As a result, it was focused on the use of the most productive gaming computers of that time or graphic stations. Also, theoretically, it could be used as part of workstations or multimedia PCs, but in this case its capabilities were far from being fully utilized, and such an approach from an economic point of view was not entirely justified. For such systems, less productive, lower cost products were introduced.
Equipment
The package for this product was as follows:
The video card itself with an installed cooling system.
Operation manual supplemented with a warranty card.
A CD with distributions, drivers, and other special software.
Some manufacturers have replaced the usual cardboard box with a metal case to further stimulate sales of this product. This indicated its premium. Such a practice was not widely adopted, but the fact itself must be noted.
Operating modes
The basic mode of operation of this product is a single video card as part of a PC. But this solution also supported the proprietary ATI technology, which was called Crossfire. Its essence lies in the fact that several graphic accelerators are installed in several PCI Express slots of 16X format (usually there are 2 or 3 of them). They are additionally connected to each other by special adapters. As a result, the processing of graphic information was divided between several video accelerators, and this made it possible to obtain a significant increase in speed.
Graphics Accelerator Options
The code for the silicon chip underlying the ATI Radeon HD 4850 is the RV770 with the PRO index. It was manufactured according to the technological process of 55 nm, which at that time was advanced. 956 million transistor elements were deposited on this semiconductor chip. The thermal package in this case was 110 watts. The number of processors in comparison with the previous two generations of video cards has more than doubled: from 320 to 800 pieces. It is this engineering solution that significantly increased the performance of this chip. Also, the architecture of these processors has been redesigned.
The second point is the increase in the number of texturing blocks from 16 to 40. But the number of ROP blocks (rasterization operations) has not changed and remains equal to 16. The memory bandwidth in this case was equal to 64 Gb / s. The adapter itself was optimized to work with the PCI Express bus in 2.0 mode. You can use it in 1.0 mode, but this will slow down performance. Well, in motherboards with support for 3.0, the graphics bottleneck will be the accelerator. Therefore, the work of the graphics accelerator in combination with the motherboard, which works strictly in PCI Express v mode, looks optimal in this regard. 2.0.
Memory
The ATI Radeon HD 4850 was imprisoned for the use of GDDR3 RAM chips. 512Mb - this is the amount of RAM that could be most often found in combination with this silicon chip. Much less common were more advanced modifications of this solution, which were already equipped with 1 GB of RAM. The capacity of the memory bus in this case was equal to solid 256 bits even by today's standards.
The older video card of this line, HD 4870, had almost identical parameters. But the memory type in this case was already GDDR5. This made it possible to obtain higher memory clock speeds and a speed level. For comparison: in HD 4850 this value was only 2000 MHz, and in HD 4870 - 3600 MHz.
Drivers
The difficult situation at the start of sales was precisely with the drivers. Apparently, Canadian programmers did not have time to bring them to perfect condition, and as a result of this there were various errors when launching demanding toys on PCs equipped with ATI Radeon HD 4850. The driver was further developed in the future, and all identified flaws were eliminated. At the same time, the ATI logo in the software was replaced by AMD. It is such modifications, according to user reviews, that ensured the most stable operation of such graphic adapters. Moreover, on all major versions of the Windows operating system at that time - XP, Vista and 7. Well, the bit depth of the system software itself also in this case no longer played a key role, and it was possible to put on 32-bit OS modifications or even on 64-bit ones.
Overclocking situation
The acceleration potential of this semiconductor crystal was quite good. But to perform such an operation, it was necessary to equip the PC with a powerful power supply (at least 750 W). Also, the graphic accelerator itself must be equipped with an advanced cooling system. Therefore, boards with a passive heat sink and a basic cooling system were not recommended to be overclocked. And only products with a branded set of coolers can be subjected to this procedure. As a result, using the ATI Overdrive utility, instead of a combination of 625 MHz (for a graphics chip) and 2000 MHz (for RAM), a combination of 685 MHz and 2150 MHz, respectively, could be obtained. This is an additional 8-9 percent performance. It was impossible to further improve such an accelerator. In fact, if you overcome the frequency limit of 700 MHz, then this accelerator has become a direct competitor to the older model HD 4870. From a marketing point of view, this situation is simply unacceptable.
Competing products at time of release
The ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card at the time of its release, as noted earlier, was a direct competitor to two NVidia products at once. These are the GeForce 8800GTS and the GeForce 9800GTX. Moreover, in the first case, the parity between the products was both in price and performance. And in terms of speed, the product from ATI turned out to be even more preferable. But this is normal. In the event of overclocking, the NVidia solution compensated for the lag and often even broke into the front. But the GeForce 9800GTX, taking into account its technical specifications, was a more efficient video accelerator and, as a result, cost more. The difference in speed was 7-10 percent, which even overclocking did not allow to compensate.
The situation in synthetic tests
In normal mode, the HD 4850 in the synthetic test PC MARK 2006 gives 12,200 points. If you overclock it to the frequencies of 685 MHz and 2150 MHz, respectively, then you can get an additional thousand points. As a result, its performance in this case will be estimated at 13,200 points. In turn, the GeForce 880GTS in this case, even in the base mode, already produces 13,500 points. Well, if you still overclock this to 820MHz / 1890MHz, then we get already 15,000 points. As a result, in a synthetic test, a solution from a green manufacturer looks preferable. But these virtual points often have nothing to do with real performance. Such values only show a high degree of software optimization. In this case, the driver for the ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card is simply not “tuned” for this test.
Opportunities in gaming applications of the time
The fundamentally different situation with gaming applications in terms of performance is any product line ATI Radeon HD 4850 Series. Drivers in this case are already playing a less important role.
Let's start with the Enemy Territory Quake War. In this performance game, the hero of our review outperforms even the 9800GTX. For HD 4850, the number of displayed images per second is 86. In turn, for 9800GTX this value is 81, and for 8800GTS it is 71 in general. The indicated figures are valid for 1680 X 1050 mode. If the resolution is increased to 1920 X 1200, the trend will remain, and the indicators will be already equal 72, 66 and 58, respectively.
A similar situation is with Half Life 2. For the first mode, the values will be 111, 103 and 89, and for the second - 88, 82 and 71. The situation in Perseus Mandate changes slightly. Here, the 9800GTX solution with indicators of 184 (for 1680 X 1050) and 149 (for 1920 X 1200) is already becoming a leader. The performance of HD 4850 is 162 and 127, respectively. Well, the 8800GTS is almost equal - 157 and 129.
Almost the same in Call of Duty 4. In this case, the values for 9800GTX are 82 and 72, for HD 4850 - 79 and 67, and for 8800GTS - 72 and 62. The difference between the first and second places in this case is insignificant in terms of performance but their cost differed significantly.
In Unreal Tournament 3, the situation is changing dramatically again. The HD 4850 with 121 (for 1680 X 1050) and 97 (for 1920 X 1200) indicators again becomes the leader. In second place is 9800GTX with indicators of 117 and 92. In last place is 8800GTS with 102 and 80, respectively.
A similar trend continued in most gaming applications. Most often, the HD 4850 was ahead, albeit insignificantly, of its direct competitor in the person of 9800GTX. Moreover, this alignment is valid for 70 percent of software. Well, in the remaining 30%, the leader was already 9800GTX. But it should be noted that the difference was not so significant. At the same time, the 9800GTX chip was manufactured using the outdated process technology (65 nm) and had higher heat dissipation (156 W). So it turns out that the HD 4850 was the most preferable purchase at that time.
Special performance of this video card
At that time, the engineers of the Canadian manufacturer decided not to stop on the achieved result. They released a more advanced modification of this accelerator - ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2. The prefix X2 indicated that this is a dual-chip video card. Accordingly, it was equipped with an improved cooling system, and its technical specifications even now allow to solve most problems. Also on such products without fail was present 1 GB of RAM. Such an accelerator was much more expensive. The only negative that he had the first time after the start of sales - poor software optimization. Not all toys “wanted” to be launched on it. But further software updates by AMD engineers have already resolved this issue.
Cost
The ATI Radeon HD 4850 turned out to be very, very high-quality. Its characteristics are really impressive, and the test results indicate high speed. As a result, such a product cannot be cheap and affordable. But even being in a very difficult economic situation, ATI managed to maintain a balance of price and performance and offer this accelerator at a democratic cost of 199 dollars. But this basic modification was so appreciated. In the future, more advanced versions appeared, the cost of which could reach even $ 320. But in this case, the user received an improved solution with high-quality heat sink and increased frequencies. At the same time, there remained the possibility, albeit slightly, of overclocking the graphics accelerator.
Reviews
A key flaw in all ATI Radeon HD 4850 Series solutions was weak software. Quite often, the drivers of this product led to the fact that some gaming applications did not function normally on such hardware. These were “outliers” from the game, and “freezes”, and the appearance of a “black” screen, although the PC itself worked fine. This is exactly what the owners of such an accelerator indicated. But then, as the software was updated, all problems were resolved, and in the future there were no problems with the ATI Radeon HD 4850.
The Windows 7 driver has evolved in a similar way. The “raw” assembly with certain drawbacks was immediately presented, which was then brought to perfection by AMD engineers. The main advantage of this product is the price / performance ratio. At a cost of $ 199, this product could compete almost on an equal footing with the expensive GeForce 8800GTS or even the GeForce 9800GTX.
Summary
ATI Radeon HD 4850 did not make any revolutionary changes to the niche of graphics accelerators and his older brother represented by HD 4870. This is an evolutionary change in the products of the previous generation, albeit with a serious revision of the technical parameters of the solution. But the appearance of precisely these solutions in the premium segment “shook” ATI’s direct competitor, NVidia. As a result, the latter revised its pricing policy and significantly reduced the cost of graphics accelerators in this segment. Only the final consumer benefited from this, who had the opportunity to get a more productive solution at a reduced price. And you could even choose a graphics card either from the "red" camp (that is, ATI / AMD), or from the "green" (NVidia).