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Impressions

Though featuring no overclock, the MSI R4850 features a well designed double slot cooler. The original reference board design HD 4850's were great video cards, but if they had one major flaw, it was that they run quite hot. Not hot enough to cause a premature death of the GPU, but hot enough that you couldn't touch the cooler without having some aloe vera burn-balm within hand's reach.

Featured on many other current MSI cards, including the HD 4830 and 9800 GT models, the contemporary MSI cooler is an effective -- if conventional -- design. Four copper heatpipes span across the bottom the card, reaching into a deck of horizontally aligned aluminum heat fins. The fins are cooled by a large fan positioned above the GPU, that is capable of achieving some high RPMs. The heat fins are also encased in a plastic cover that helps push the air into all the right places.

The bracket of the R4850 is artistically engraved with the letters 'MSI' -- a nice touch that no other brand does. Below the MSI and air-circulation grooves, lies the standard two dual link DVI connectors and HDTV connector.

As all HD 4000 series cards, the R4850 supports DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.1, and  PCI Express 2.0. Additionally, up to 24x custom filter anti-aliasing performance is possible with this series.

The R4850 also features CrossFireX support, allowing it to be linked to up to three other cards, from the HD 3000 series or newer, with a CrossFireX compatible motherboard. In addition to handling games quite well, the HD 4850 also features the Unified Video Decoder 2 technology and ATI Avivo for improved high definition video playback that will be handled by your GPU, not your CPU.

Non R4850 cards, right to left: Palit 9800 GTX, VisionTek HD4850, ATI HD4870 (all reference board designs.)

Specifications

MSI's R4850 operates at the same clock speeds as the reference board design.

For a more in depth look at what changes were brought with the HD 4000 series, please consult our initial HD 4850 review.