Product: Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Vapor-X 512MB GDDR3
Reviewer: Dave Pung
Date: 05/03/2009
Price: $139.99
Provided By: Sapphire Tech
Company URL: http://www.sapphiretech.com

About Sapphire Tech:

Pioneers in a new era of how data is displayed and games are played, Sapphire shepherds the performance oriented with ground-breaking solutions to an environment that remains in a constant state of flux and ultimate evolution. For over ten years Sapphire has held true to its unwavering commitment, the commitment to deliver the most feature rich and soundly engineered products. Because of Sapphire’s firm position on achieving excellence with each product that leaves our ISO9001 and ISO14001 certified factories, you can rest assured that your customers will recognize YOUR commitment to selling only the highest of quality components. “Sapphire is ATI’s largest and best performing partner World Wide” Dave Orton, CEO ATI

Since ATI announced its manufacturing & distribution relationships with ODMs and AiBs in June of 2001, SAPPHIRE has been THE key ATI Graphics Boards Supplier worldwide and now stands poised and ready to capture the mainboard audience of those who seek a stable platform for their mission critical operations.

Captured within the circuitry of each of SAPPHIRE’s graphic cards and mainboards can be found the collective feedback from generations of enthusiasts in every market niche. Brought to life through performance oriented innovation and an emphasis on quality control, SAPPHIRE designs, manufactures and distributes the most complete range of ATI video boards and mainboards–from the mainstream products that afford the casual user the opportunity to enjoy enriched graphics and affordable platform solutions to the state-of-the-art technological marvels that drive fantasies to before unattainable thresholds of realism, and offer the pinnacle of stability and performance! SAPPHIRE refuses to compromise quality by cutting corners at the expense of its customers experience with their products. All ATI board designs undergo a stringent layout inspection by our staff of engineers to guarantee that they represent the usual high-quality image of ATI original boards. We also enjoy the resources of a highly innovative technical department that layout complex designs to accommodate different market niches as they arise. SAPPHIRE ATI video boards have long been the reliable choice for a great number of OEMs and large System Integrators in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America based largely on our ability to meet a fast paced technical markets advancements as well as our means to produce large quantities of product.

All SAPPHIRE ATI video boards are manufactured under 100% ATI production criteria including QC and outgoing system. Our monthly video board production capacity can reach a lofty 1.8 million and often topples this landmark figure. Our factory has always been the major manufacturer on ATI boards for most of the top ten tier 1 OEMs worldwide. With this background, you should undoubtedly be guaranteed of the impeccable quality, production capacity and product reliability of all ATI video boards and mainboards from SAPPHIRE. Be they business oriented or something just off center of the crosshairs, Sapphire has a solution for you and we look forward to an exciting and prosperous relationship with you!

Radeon HD 4850 Vapor-X 51MB GDDR3 Specs and Features:

• 256-bit
memory interface

• Quiet and
Powerful Dual Slot Vapor-Chamber Cooler, Under 20 dbA in 2D Operation, under 30
dbA in 3D Operation before 85 degree °C

• DirectX®
10.1

• 24x
custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) and high performance anisotropic filtering

• PCI
Express® 2.0 support

• Dynamic
geometry acceleration

• Game
physics processing capability

• ATI Avivo™HD
video and display technology, Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD) for Blu-ray™ and HD
Video Built-in HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support On-chip HDCP

• ATI PowerPlay™ technology

Product
Specifications

Bus
Technology: PCI Express 2.0

Memory
Amount: 512MB DDR3

Memory
Interface: 512-bit

Memory
Bandwidth (GB/sec.): 230

Stream
Processors: 800

Key Features

• 
  TeraScale Graphics Engine

  The powerful new TeraScale graphics engine features deliver high
  resolutions and fast frame rates.

• Enhanced Anti-Aliasing
  & Anisotropic Filtering

  High performance anisotropic filtering and 24x custom filter
  anti-aliasing (CFAA) smooth jagged edges and create true-to-life graphics,
  for everything from grass to facial features.

• DirectX 10.1 Play today while preparing for tomorrow with state-of-the-art DirectX
  10.1 graphics capabilities.

• ATI CrossFireX™
  Technology

  ATI CrossFireX™ technology with up to quad GPU support offers superior
  scalability so your system is ready to level up when you are.

• PCI Express 2.0 Support for PCI Express 2.0 will prepare you for bandwidth-hungry games
  and 3D applications.

• Power to Spare This GPU has the brute processing power needed for physics, artificial
  intelligence, stream computing and ray tracing calculations.

Minimum System Requirements

–PCI
Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the
motherboard

–450 Watt or
greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended
(550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)

–Certified
power supplies are recommended. Refer to


http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU
for a list of Certified products

–1GB of
system memory

–Installation software requires CD-ROM drive

–DVD
playback requires DVD drive

–Blu-ray™ /
HD DVD playback requires Blu-ray / HD DVD drive

–For a
complete ATI CrossFireX™ system, a second ATI Radeon™ HD 4850 graphics card, an
ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect
cable per board (included) are required.

Included in the box

Sapphire ATI
Radeon 4850 Vapor-X

Graphics
Card User Manual

CrossfireX
Bridge Interconnect Cable

Molex to PCI-E
power adapter

Installation
Driver CD with Case Decal

Ruby ROM
Volume 1.1 CD

CyberLink
DVD Suite

CpyerLink
PowereDVD v7

3DMARK
Vantage Advanced CD

Other Features:

• ATI PowerPlay™
  Technology

  ATI PowerPlay™ Technology delivers high performance when needed and
  conserves power when the demand on the graphics processor is low.

• Energy Efficient
  Manufacturing Process

  Second generation 55nm chip uses the industry?s most energy efficient
  manufacturing process.

• Unified Video Decoder 2 Unified Video Decoder 2 frees up your CPU for other tasks so you get The
  Ultimate Visual Experience™ for even the most processing-intensive content,
  including VC-1, H.264 and now MPEG-2. Also, take full advantage of Blu-ray
  functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities.

• Upscale Beyond 1080p Watch the hottest Blu-ray movies or other HD content at full 1080p
  display resolution and beyond.

• On-chip HDCP On-chip HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) makes life
  easier by allowing you to playback HDCP protected content.**

• HDMI Enjoy the latest audio technologies using HDMI with 7.1 digital surround
  sound support. Also, xvYCC support allows the user to enjoy a wider range of
  color when connected to a capable HDTV.

*Note: HD capable monitor
required

** Note: Playing HDCP
content requires additional HDCP ready components, including but not limited to
an HDCP ready monitor, Blu-ray or HD DVD disc drive, multimedia application and
computer operating system.

Now that the technical and official specs are laid out, let’s get to some pictures and benchmarks of the card.