AMD’s smashing release of the 4800 series was represented from the get-go not by an over-the-top, uber-expensive, for-enthusiasts-only videocard, but rather by an almost unassuming, mid-range offering in the form of the Radeon HD4850. We take our recently arrived GeCube brand 4850 for a quick spin and find ourselves salivating at the possibilities.

The 4850 is without a doubt not the fastest card you can get. Even its big brother the 4870 or the upcoming 4870 X2 probably won’t be able to make that claim. Regardless, the Radeon 4850 is an excellent piece of kit that can only be described as the perfect building block in AMD/ATI’s bid to dominate or at least be on equal footing with Nvidia in the graphics space. The reason that the 4800 series was introduced with the 4850 is after all, is due to ATI’s change of strategy – that from offering monolithic, super-powerful chips to offering chips that excel in the performance-per-watt and performance-per-mm squared measurements, instead of in simple, raw performance.

From all of the numbers gathered online, the 4850 is more than capable of taking on Nvidia’s B-team, even without considering the price advantage. This would include the 9800 GTX, the older 8800 GTS and GT, and to some extent, the newly release, 55nm-based 9800 GTX+. If we factor the price into the equation, then all hell breaks loose, although Nvidia is scrambling with the price issue, especially evident in their recent price cut with the 9800 GTX. When compared to the A-team however, the waters become a bit murkier, although the situation is still clear enough for any shopper with a modicum of cost awareness when shopping. For those without this overriding virtue, the very expensive GTX 280 (and the GTX 260 to a certain extent) will work just fine. For these money-is-no-object enthusiasts, the architectural excellence and “performance per” classification of the 4800 series, in particular the 4850 will make little impression – absolute performance still rules for them.

                                             Strakes lend a bit of design flair to the GeCube 4850.

                                             Rear follows typical single-slot layouts.

Then again AMD is not aiming to sway this special subset of buyers; as stated above, this building block of a chip will eventually lead to dual GPU, triple Crossfire, CrossfireX, or any combination of the above that will still come under the price of a single Nvidia GTX 280 and be on equal footing with it in performance.

                                             Only a single 6-pin power connector is required.

What you get when you delve into the 4850 is very good performance for an almost negligible outlay when weighed against typical performance or enthusiast-level graphics options. Our sample GeCube 4850 looked no different from ATI’s previous offerings, with the same red heatsinl/cooling apparatus, red PCB, and the same connectors. The GeCube design with the heatsink housing also deserves special mention; scalloped edges in a flame pattern in this single-slot solution blends nicely with the overall design. Crossfire golden-fingers (there are two) adorn the upper left corner, and the rear remains true to typical videocard design with two DVI connectors and a single TV-out. This card only requires a single 6-pin power connector.

                                             The back of the card reveals a dense filigree of circuitry.

The 4850, as represented here by the GeCube not only spanks the competition when it comes to pricing and “performance per” specifications, it is also way up there in technical specification. A total of 800 stream processors (similar to simple processing units as opposed to the complex CPU cores), formed from 10 SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) arrays containing 80 ALUs (Arithmetic Logic Units, otherwise known as shaders). Simply stated, these parallel processors are able to push enough data to punch through the Teraflop level, something that even the GTX 200 series cannot boast off (the GTX 280 is able to reach 933Mflops). The 55nm process, DX10.1 compatibility, and a much improved UVD2 accelerated video encoding technology is also part of this supposedly mid-level offering.

                                             Comparison graph lifted from Tom's Hardware - thanks!

As listed above, the 4850’s pedestrian specifications are just that – pedestrian, only it is backed by the aforementioned excellent “inner workings” and accomplished execution. The specifications cannot tell the whole story, similar to how the size and complexity of a chip cannot determine its actual superiority when considered against price and “performance per”. This 4850 merely represents the first foray into the green-dominated graphics landscape, but will surely be followed by much more menacing units that based on improvements on the same excellent chip and will still be price champs compared to Nvidia’s offerings. Look forward to benchmark numbers in the near future.