The innovative SAPPHIRE HD 4850 X2 is now in volume production, enabling the company to reduce prices for both the 2GB and 1GB models making this product the best value graphics solution in the high performance segment. Responding to initial feedback in early reviews, production units now have an improved fan speed profile, keeping noise to a low level when in idle or 2D graphics mode. Driver support has further increased performance, and a fully WHQL driver is now available for download from AMD.
Only available from SAPPHIRE, the HD 4850 X2 comprises two complete HD 4850 graphics systems on a single PCI-Express card connected by an on-board PCI Express Gen 2 bridge chip. Each GPU has 800 stream process units and a 256-bit memory interface driving 1GB or 512MB of GDDR3 memory, making a total of 2GB or 1GB of on-board memory.
Four Dual Link DVI outputs are provided as well as TV-Out. This provides a choice of Multi-monitor operation or CrossFire mode in which 3D applications such as games use both GPU’s together to deliver a single accelerated output. In this mode the HD 4850 X2 delivers stunning levels of performance and high frame rates in games even at high resolutions with graphics features enabled.
The SAPPHIRE HD 4850 X2 is implemented on a single ATX format PCI-Express card, with a dual fan assisted cooler assembly making it a standard dual-slot configuration. This solution has great appeal to performance users with only a single PCI-Express slot available. On a suitable PCI Express Gen 2.0 CrossFireX mainboard it is also possible to use two HD 4850 X2 cards in CrossFireX mode to provide even higher levels of performance.
The SAPPHIRE HD 4850 X2 incorporates the latest ATI Avivo™ HD Technology for enhanced Video display and features a second generation built in UVD (Unified Video decoder) for the hardware accelerated decoding of Blu-ray™ and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, as well as mpeg files, reducing CPU loading to a minimum. The SAPPHIRE HD 4850 X2 is HDCP ready and is compatible with the latest High Definition displays. Like other HD 4800 series products it also supports HDMI over the DVI interface with the HDMI Adapter supplied.
All SAPPHIRE's current graphics cards are Microsoft Windows Vista certified and supported by the ATI Catalyst™ suite of software, ensuring customers have easy and ongoing access to software updates for performance, stability and added features.
