Testbed

Motherboard: MSI P45D3 Platinum ( Provided by: MSI );
Processor: Intel Core 2 QX9770 Extreme edition at 3.6GHz ( Provided by: Intel );
Memory: Corsair Dominator 12800 7-7-7-24 ( Provided by: Corsair);
HDD: WD VelociRaptor 300G 10,000RPM ( Provided by: SmoothCreation );
Vista 32
Drivers: AMD ATI CCC 9.1,Nvidia Geforce driver 181.22


Today we’re looking at how XFX’s HD4850 XXX card fared, and you’ll also see results scored by Gainward HD 4850 1GB Golden Sample (Clocked at 700MHz) and Nvidia Geforce 9800 GTX+ (marked in our charts with 9800 GTX). XFX overclocked their card from reference 625MHz to 650MHz, whereas the memory was overclocked from 1986MHz to 2100MHz.

Futuremark tests







Vantage tests see XFX’s HD 4850 with 512MB of memory and core running at 650MHz hold up nicely versus Gainward’s HD 4850 GS running at 700MHz and packing 1024MB of memory. XFX’s result is only 5.5% lower, but it managed to beat its main competitor 9800 GTX+ by as much as 16%. Nvidia’s card didn’t quite excel in Vantage tests, but it bounced back in Mark06.
 


Left4Dead

This game doesn’t seem to care about Gainward’s extra memory as it scores almost identically with XFX HD4850 XXX. Gainward’s higher clocks are the only reason it managed to squeeze out a couple more frames at resolutions with no antialiasing, whereas turning on the filters results in XFX HD 4850 XXX running on par with Gainward.











The Geforce 9800 GTX+ isn’t significantly slower than XFX HD 4850 XXX, only 5-8%, and both cards enable comfortable gaming at all resolutions.







World in Conflict

World in Conflict shows that XFX HD 4850 XXX and Geforce 9800GTX+ enable gaming at maximum settings but not at the highest resolutions. Initially the 9800GTX+ starts with almost a 10% advantage over the XFX’s card, but the same resolution sees it lose ground when we turned on the filters, as XFX HD 4850 catches up scoring the same 35fps.

The following resolutions with no filters on also see the 9800GTX win, but XFX catches up as the resolution go higher.

Gainward HD 4850 GS fails to make a more significant advantage, although it packs 1024MB of memory compared to XFX’s 512MB.