Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB GDDR3 Card Pictured
 

ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 graphics card, which was formally announced way back in August and is still unavailable, was spotted today over at pchacc.cn leading us to believe that it will finally hit the market for real. The card below is build by ATI's major partner Sapphire and features custom dual-slot cooling system, 2GB of GDDR3 memory, a 256-bit memory interface, CrossFireX support and blue PCB. Last but not least are the two 55nm RV770 GPUs and the GPU bridge that links them. The card will require an extra 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe connectors. Currently, there's no exact release date, but the little brother of 4870 X2 is expected to become available later next month.

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/08-10...850x21_thm.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/img/08-10...850x22_thm.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/img/08-10...850x23_thm.jpg

Source: TechConnect Magazine

lol that looks like 2 intel hsf glued together on the cooler

I agree with the heatsink comment. This should make a lot of people very happy though.

4850x2 :nutkick: 8800GTX

Yepp, I'm getting this one alright. Me ol' 88GTX has seen it's glory days :D :D :D

It's looking like this is going to be coming out just as I make my new gaming build. SWEET :) Let's hope performance is right up there and that cooling/drivers/instability are not going to be a problem......oh and that they remember to include all the shaders LOL

F... xD and I bought a 4850 recently now they come out with 4850x2 what next this is why I should of waited till end of the year :(

why... WHY?!? Sapphire do you insist on using these coolers? :confused:

Actually, it looks like 2 of my 4850 Dual Slots glued together.

It cools ok, but I can't seem to overclock the memory (without noticeable artifacts) with the damn thing. Maybe I need one of those mem brackets this new one is sporting. :rolleyes:

to be honest, I don't think that those 2 heatsinks will handle a 4850x2 very good but it looks like theres enough room to replace them with 2 modded vf900's though

Sapphire is usually pretty good with their cooling solutions. This card is really going to rip! I wonder if it has the locked sideboard tech that the 4870x2 has :). Time will tell. Let's see who else makes some 4850x2. :toast:

I know it won't happen, but I'd most likely cry with happiness if they ever ported one to AGP.

This card should preform very well from what I've read in the past. And I belive the price will be under $400 usd.. so it should be a good price to performance ratio. =P I will buy one when ASUS comes out with there model.. should look like the 4870x2 HSF. all black =D

If ATI can produce this thing really cheap, this card is sure to be a winner. Keep the price around $300 or less and that'd be perfect. It'll slaughter in that price segment.

If you've got the money to get a 4850x2, I'm sure there'll be somebody willing to take that 4850 off your hands for you, and you can always go Tri-fire, of course. :D

Few things:

AMD has already given its partners the space to work on their own HD 4850 X2 designs. This one is the PCPartner design. You'll be seeing more soon, such as one by ITC (GeCube, Diamond), HIS, Asus, MSI, etc.

Partners can launch HD 4850 X2 cards anytime they wish, there won't be a set date. Whenever a partner releases a model, it will make it to the stores immediately. AMD has already launched this card, there's no NDA set, expect some performance numbers to come out soon, from the east-block, that is.

This PCB is largely an "economical" design, if you know what I mean. Digital PWM on used on HD 4870 X2 PCB (AMD reference, made by PCP) is missing, ferrite-core chokes take their places.

its about time

"Partners can launch HD 4850 X2 cards anytime they wish, there won't be a set date"

then why they launch the card so late :confused:

i realy want to see this babies score and how it perform against hd 4870 x2. :rockout:

i think AMD overkill nvidia :nutkick: ( we will see epic price cut from nvidia when this thing come out:D)

The card was officially launched in August, it is already launched. It's just that partners weren't ready with their own designs, and AMD let it open for them to do so.

The price of that darn GTX 280 should drop, however the price of the 4870X2 probably won't budge much, unfortunately. :laugh: I'm just proud of AMD for not raising the price, when they've had more than enough opportunity to do so.

Mmmm, two of these with water.........

Its about time! I think the 4870 X2 is a bit overkill for the price however I think this is perfect! What is the cost?

Expected to be below $400, to compete with GeForce GTX 280.

I know in the past, like 9600GT and 8800GT cards that had 1gig of GDDR3 did not do any better then the 512 cards, will the 4850X2 be able to use the 2gigs? or is it kinda over kill vs say 4850X 1gig.
I know the 4870X2 does well cause GDD5 has huge badwith, so im kinda unsure as to the 4850x2

It is probably 1 GB per GPU, total 2GB, but it is shared. So effectively it's 1GB.

The 1 GB framebuffer /GPU can be seen as a little measure to make up for any performance loss that may have been caused due to sharing the PCI-E x16 bus bandwidth. PCI-E x8 2.0 does affect a HD 4850's performance (source). So it's just a little measure, GDDR3 prices are at a low, and 2 GB 'sounds' appealing.

I dont think is the final product !! I hope is not...

And blue PCB Like entry-level cards ? No way !!

MSRP for EU ~400.
Not a good segment when 4870X2 is so close :(