Introduction

Today Sapphire finally released their HD 4850 X2 card. The original product had been announced since August by AMD. Both the HD 4850 X2 and HD 4870 X2 were announced at the same time but partners were very slow to adapt the product into their lineup.

Sapphire as one of the biggest AMD add in board partners is the first to actually deliver a HD 4850 X2. Actually based on the information we got so far, Sapphire is the only board partner who will have a HD 4850 X2. The card is based on the same dual GPU principle as the HD 4870 X2 but comes with GDDR3 instead of GDDR5. Sapphire has chosen to use their own cooler design with two independent fans over the AMD reference cooler.

With a price point of $419, the Sapphire HD 4850 X2 is a direct competitor of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280.

Packaging & Contents

Sapphire's package is big and representative of the loot inside. The front shows the product highlights while the back goes into more detail on why two is better than one.


Sapphire just sent in this picture which shows the revised box design of the HD 4850 X2 that will be used on the retail cards.



You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Documentation + Driver CD + 3DMark full version + PowerDVD
• TV Out adapter + cable
• DVI adapter, HDMI adapter
• CrossFire Bridge
• 6-pin PCI-E power adapter + 8-pin PCI-E power adapter

The Card

The card is the longest video card we ever had in our labs. With a total length of 28.5 cm it is even longer than the HD 4870 X2 (left) and the GeForce GTX 280 (right). As expected a dual slot cooler is used to keep the card cool.


The card has four DVI ports which is an interesting output configuration. Each GPU drives two DVI outputs, which opens new market possibilities for this card. In case you need an analog VGA output, you can use a DVI adapter (included). To connect big digital TV screens you can use an HDMI adapter (also included). The HDCP output then features the usual HDCP+Audio, which allows easy setup of a media PC. AMD has integrated a Realtek 7.1 audio device inside the GPU which means that the sound card's HDMI output shows up as sound device in Windows. In my opinion this is an easier solution than on NVIDIA's cards where you have to route an audio cable from your motherboard to the VGA card. Compared to the previous HD 3000 Series' 5.1 audio, you are now able to output 7.1 audio.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

Sapphire's heatsink assembly is quite big and consists of two independent heatsinks that look a bit like CPU coolers. Each GPU controls its own fan speed depending on its own temperature. The heatsinks both have a small copper base where contact is made with the hot GPU to transport heat away more efficiently. Due to the cooler design hot air will not be exhaust out of the case.


You may combine two of these cards for even more performance in CrossFireX. You can also combine this card with a single HD 4850 (or HD 4870) card for triple CrossFire.


The card has one six-pin and one eight-pin power connector. Both are required for operation.


The GDDR3 memory chips are made by Samsung and carry the model number K4J10324QD-HJ1A. With a latency of 1.0 ns, they should be good for at least 1000 MHz.


Between the two GPUs sits the PCI-Express bridge chip which adds a fast interconnect between both GPUs to exchange data. The heatsink is epoxied on permanently. Usually I still try, but in this case the failure rate feels like 100% and breaking the card just to see the bridge chip doesn't seem to be worth it. Based on the readings in GPU-Z we can see that the bridge is a PCI-Express 2.0 bridge just like on the HD 4870 X2.


Two AMD RV770 GPUs are working together on the Radeon HD 4850 X2. The GPU has a die size of 256 mm², is made in a 55 nm process and sports 956 million transistors.