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Gainward's GDDR5 HD 4850 available

by on19 March 2009

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Pricey little thing


We already
talked about Gainward's new GLH card, the lovechild of a GDDR3 based HD 4850 and a GDDR5 HD 4870.

Well, the new HD 4850 GDDR5 Goes Like Hell card is now available, and the lowest list price stands at €153. Its GPU is clocked at 700MHz, while the GDDR5 memory ended up at 800MHz, or 3200MHz effective. The reference HD4850 runs at 625MHz, with GDDR3 memory at 993MHz, while the HD 4870 runs at 750MHz and packs GDDR5 memory clocked at 900MHz.

So, the hybrid HD 4850 ends up somewhere half way between an HD 4850 and HD 4870. Price wise, however, the new card ends up a bit too steep. Although it looks like a really good deal when you compare it to other overclocked HD 4850 cards, which use slower GDDR3 memory and run on lower GPU clocks, the new GHL still seem too pricey if you look at the HD 4870 series. For just €5 more, you can get Gainward's HD 4870 Golden Sample, an overclocked card with non-reference cooling, a 775MHz GPU and 512MB of memory running at 1000MHz.

This is the trouble with all non-reference HD 4850 cards. When ATI slashed HD 4870 prices a few weeks ago, it did not do the same with HD 4850 cards, thus making quite a mess for itself and its AIBs, as they are now priced too close to the HD 4870 series. Hopefully we'll see HD 4850 prices go down soon, and Gainward's GDDR5 GLH card should be a very good deal once that happens.

You can find the listing here.

Also read:

Gainward has a HD4850 with GDDR5
Last modified on 19 March 2009
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