Introduction

AMD's Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4870 have been on the market for some time now and the first customized solutions from AIBs (Add-In-Board Partners) are showing up. Last week we tested the Sapphire HD 4850 Toxic, today we have the Powercolor PCS 4850.

Just like on previous products, Powercolor has chosen to use a full copper cooler made by Zerotherm. According to Powercolor the price "for the retailers should not change at all or not much, maybe $5" compared to Powercolor's HD 4850 reference design. So this means that the merchants will buy the card at the same price, but can charge you more because it is a premium product and they want to make more money.

Actually Powercolor is replacing all the reference design cards with products from their new Series: PCS (overclocked), SCS (passive, noiseless) and Play! (Displayport, HDMI).

	Radeon HD 3850	Radeon HD 3870	GeForce 9600 GT	GeForce 8800 GT	GeForce 9800 GT	Radeon HD 4850	PowerColor PCS 4850	GeForce 9800 GTX	GeForce 9800 GTX+	GeForce 8800 GTX	GeForce GTX 260	Radeon HD 4870	Radeon HD 4850 X2	GeForce GTX 280	Radeon HD 4870 X2
Shader units	320	320	64	112	112	800	800	128	128	128	192	800	2x 800	240	2x 800
ROPs	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	24	28	16	2x 16	32	2x 16
GPU	RV670	RV670	G94	G92	G92	RV770	RV770	G92	G92	G80	GT200	RV770	2x RV770	GT200	2x RV770
Transistors	666M	666M	505M	754M	754M	956M	956M	754M	754M	681M	1400M	956M	2x 956M	1400M	2x 956M
Memory Size	256 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	768 MB	896 MB	512 MB	2x 1024 MB	1024 MB	2x 1024 MB
Memory Bus Width	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	384 bit	448 bit	256 bit	2x 256 bit	512 bit	2x 256 bit
Core Clock	670 MHz	777 MHz	650 MHz	600 MHz	600 MHz	625 MHz	665 MHz	675 MHz	738 MHz	575 MHz	576 MHz	750 MHz	625 MHz	602 MHz	750 MHz
Memory Clock	828 MHz	1126 MHz	900 MHz	900 MHz	900 MHz	993 MHz	993 MHz	1100 MHz	1100 MHz	900 MHz	999 MHz	900 MHz	1000 MHz	1107 MHz	900 MHz
Price	$99	$125	$90	$140	$160	$170	$180	$185	$200	$295	$270	$280	$400	$430	$550