- Joined
- Nov 21, 2005
- Location
- Atlanta, GA, USA
HD 4850 Shootout: 512mb VS. 1gb
How much difference does the extra 512mb make?
Sure, I've seen reviews comparing the new 1gb HD 4850 and HD 4870 models
to their 512mb counterparts, but I wanted to see what the additional 512mb
did for myself. I would like to thank Gigabyte US for letting me test these cards.
First, I'd like to introduce the cards I'll be testing.
The 512mb is a Gigabyte model, from when the HD 4850 first came out.
My review of this card are here. Here's the 1gb model it'll be going up against
Model-specific specs
Model: GV-R485MC-1GH
Stock clocks: 625mhz core, 1920mhz mem
Memory size: 1gb
Cooling: Gigabyte's Multi-Core™ Cooling Technology
The box hasn't changed, but to include mention of the upgraded heatsink on this card.
As we all know, the reference cooler on all of the original HD 4850's was poorly suited for overclocking.
This massive heatpipe cooler is the reason I asked for this card. It's meant to be passive,
so the heatsink is bigger, with much more surface area/plenty of fins.
Think what this passive cooler could do with a little airflow.
The only obvious issue is the lack of memory and pwm cooling.
As well as with Gigabyte's other GPU heatsink, there's little room for memory cooling.
I rarely use ram sinks, but when I'm dumping on the clocks, I usually have a high-cfm
fan throwing enough air across the chips to keep them cool. I'm not adding pwm sinks
for the shootout since it didn't come that way, but I will be for serious benching later.
Plus, looking at the pwm layout on this card, I'll end up cutting a heatsink down to custom sizes for them.
I'll add some pictures when I get them on.
The back. Everything's been moved around! That means no volt mod out
of the box like I was planning. It'll come soon enough though.
Sitting in a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P (still reviewing the board). They match perfectly.
To briefly test the cooler out, I set the core clock to 750mhz, and ran 3DMark 03
(the first 4 tests) and left rivatuner open to monitor core temps.
I hovered the mouse where the temps were the highest for the screenshot.
In case you can't tell, the one on the left is with no fan, the one on the right
is with a low-cfm 80mm fan resting against the heatsink. I haven't tested
for max clocks yet, but will add them to this post when I do.
Card clocks top out at 780/1200 on stock voltage, which is better than the 512mb did.
How much difference does the extra 512mb make?
Sure, I've seen reviews comparing the new 1gb HD 4850 and HD 4870 models
to their 512mb counterparts, but I wanted to see what the additional 512mb
did for myself. I would like to thank Gigabyte US for letting me test these cards.
First, I'd like to introduce the cards I'll be testing.
The 512mb is a Gigabyte model, from when the HD 4850 first came out.
My review of this card are here. Here's the 1gb model it'll be going up against
Model-specific specs
Model: GV-R485MC-1GH
Stock clocks: 625mhz core, 1920mhz mem
Memory size: 1gb
Cooling: Gigabyte's Multi-Core™ Cooling Technology
The box hasn't changed, but to include mention of the upgraded heatsink on this card.
As we all know, the reference cooler on all of the original HD 4850's was poorly suited for overclocking.
This massive heatpipe cooler is the reason I asked for this card. It's meant to be passive,
so the heatsink is bigger, with much more surface area/plenty of fins.
Think what this passive cooler could do with a little airflow.
The only obvious issue is the lack of memory and pwm cooling.
As well as with Gigabyte's other GPU heatsink, there's little room for memory cooling.
I rarely use ram sinks, but when I'm dumping on the clocks, I usually have a high-cfm
fan throwing enough air across the chips to keep them cool. I'm not adding pwm sinks
for the shootout since it didn't come that way, but I will be for serious benching later.
Plus, looking at the pwm layout on this card, I'll end up cutting a heatsink down to custom sizes for them.
I'll add some pictures when I get them on.
The back. Everything's been moved around! That means no volt mod out
of the box like I was planning. It'll come soon enough though.
Sitting in a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P (still reviewing the board). They match perfectly.
To briefly test the cooler out, I set the core clock to 750mhz, and ran 3DMark 03
(the first 4 tests) and left rivatuner open to monitor core temps.
I hovered the mouse where the temps were the highest for the screenshot.
In case you can't tell, the one on the left is with no fan, the one on the right
is with a low-cfm 80mm fan resting against the heatsink. I haven't tested
for max clocks yet, but will add them to this post when I do.
Card clocks top out at 780/1200 on stock voltage, which is better than the 512mb did.
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