Sapphire 4850x2 2GB PCIe Graphics Card

Dual GPU setups used to be the makings of a geeks wet dream but now they are common place among high end gaming setups. Having a dual GPU used to mean having two cards with a bridging cable across the two cards which linked them together enabling them, theoretically at least, to work in tandem. ATI however, took a different direction and placed two GPU's on the same PCB with an on board crossfire chip, first seen with the previous generation 3870x2. The last incarnation of this format was with the range topping 4870x2 monster. Upon it's release back in August it obliterated all the competition but it's Achilles heel was the price. At the time ATI promised a cheaper version based upon the 4870's sibling, the 4850, due for release around September but due to delays and backroom indecision on whether to ship the GPU with one or two gigabytes of memory the release date was put back. Today however we can finally reveal the latest GPU from ATI under the Sapphire banner, the 4850x2.

Based on a 55 nanometre fabrication, the RV770 core pushes the transistor count to 956 million, including 800 Stream Processors. Couple this with a 256-bit memory controller, DX10.1 and Shader model 4.1 support, cooled by a twin fan/dual heatsink design all wrapped up in a sleek aluminium frame and Sapphire appear to have a giant killer on their hands.

Here's what Sapphire had to say:


Specification

The following specification was taken directly from Sapphire:


Let's take a look at the card itself...