Asus HD4850 512mb PCI-E Graphics Card EAH4850

 

Before I start, I just want to clarify that the card we have is a review sample of a stock-clocked HD4850, but Asus sent it to us in their retail ‘Top’ packaging. The real ‘Top’ Edition will be overclocked and sporting one of Asus’s Glaciator heatsinks.

 

Asus are a very good company for making very well-packaged products with hugely over-sized boxes. This time, however, they have decided to tone it down just a little on the outside of the box, whilst maintaining the high quality of the interior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the info you need on a box is there and the inside of the box actually feels a little special.

 

 

The package contains: 1 x S-Video to component cable, 1 x DVI to HDMI connector, 1 x DVI to VGA connector, 1 x S-Video to composite connector, 1 x ATI CrossFireâ„¢ connector, 1 x Driver CD, 1 x Manual/Accessories CD, 1 x Speed Setup Manual.
There are no games included with this card, which is to be expected with a mid-range card.

 

 

The reference card we have is packed into a single slot cooler made up of copper with a fairly large fan for a card of this size. The heatsink extends over the power regulating circuitry and covers all of the memory on the card. I’m actually impressed with the design of the heatsink, but more on that later.

 

 

 

The reference card really is very slim here and obviously the cooler does do its job as it becomes very hot during use.

 

 

 

Here we can see the heatsink covering the power circuitry, which is a good addition to see. The card is powered from a 6-pin PCI-E power dongle and will not boot at all without this inserted.

 

 

 

The card has two HDCP enabled Dual-Link DVI outputs capable of being converted to HDMI via the supplied connector. A TV-Out S-video connector supplies the rest of your connectivity needs. I do not believe that the card has the ability to pass 7.1 sound through HDMI, unlike some SKU’s.

 

 

The stock cooling on this card is pretty good, although perhaps a little immaterial due to the card not being a final Top sample. However, for those of you opting for the stock cooler, I don’t think you’ll have any complaints as at idle it is virtually silent and even at full load it doesn’t become very noticible at all, which is nice!