Conclusion
Looking at the positive side, if you're looking for, arguably, the quietest air-cooled Radeon HD 4850 around, then the PowerColor PCS+ 4850 HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 works well.
If, however, as we suspect, the majority of people will (in these hard
times), want a card with the best bang-for-buck, coupled with a cooler
that doesn't threaten to give you blisters any time you touch it, then
the PowerColor PCS+ isn't for you.
Add this to a very average warranty and there's little reason to recommend this board over, say, the HIS Radeon HD 4850 IceQ4 TurboX or the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 TOXIC, especially when both of these cards have more-efficient coolers and higher pre-overclocked frequencies yet cost around the same money from e-tailers.
Pros
Very quiet ZEROtherm coolerCompetitive performance when compared to its NVIDIA rivals
Cons
Somewhat overpriced when compared to its ATI rivalsHEXUS Rating
HEXUS.net scores products out of 100%, taking into account technology, implementation, stability, performance, value, customer care and desirability. A score for an average-rated product is a meaningful ‘50%’, and not ‘90%’, which is common practice for a great many other publications.
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
PowerColor PCS+ 4850 HD4850 512MB GDDR3
HEXUS Where2Buy
The PowerColor PCS+ 4850 HD4850 512MB GDDR3 is available for £132 from Ebuyer .
HEXUS Right2Reply
Andre Santos, marketing manager for PowerColor, was keen enough to submit a HEXUS.righ2reply. His thoughts are printed verbatim.
"These days, noise level are one of the most important aspects
in buying decision together with performance and features and such
PowerColor went for a more balanced solution that provides
higher than reference performance with super quiet operation during 2D
and 3D modes (as the article says the quietest card in the market)
while maintaining -10c in every situation compared to AMD reference
card while still overclocked.
In regard of prices PowerColor offers the HD4850 PCS+ 1Gb solution for
little over than 5£ where it’s still
cheaper than the competition alternative solutions (with only 512Mb)
that was mentioned on the article.
We all know and feel in our skin the hard times and as such PowerColor
provides the HD4850 PLAY! Version where it competes directly to AMD
reference or other add in boards partners in this price sensitive
market."
