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ATI's 48XX series cards have been out for quite some time now, and for this reason, "The Question" is posed by users who want to upgrade their computers: "Should I purchase a video card now or wait until ATI's new cards come out?" It is almost impossible to give an answer, because it varies depending upon the buyer. Sometimes they'll wait a few months, and other times, well.., let's just say that it's like putting a kid in a candy store and telling them they've got to wait a week before they can make a purchase.

In order to assist you with this puzzle of whether or not a current GPU is enough for you, I'll be looking at another card from Sapphire. I just recently looked at their Toxic 4870, and as it turns out the card had a little brother. That's right, today I'll be setting my crosshairs on the Toxic 4850. However, from the looks of it, nothing all that special has been added to this card.

Instead of the fancy VaporX cooling solution we saw on the Toxic 4870, you'll receive a ball bearing cooler from Zalman. It uses only 512MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 2200MHz and has a slightly overclocked core (675MHz). The Toxic 4850 is nothing more than a normal 4850, but for many consumers, that is more then enough power.

There has been a lot of recent speculation that it is pointless purchasing a 4850, because you can get a 4770 for slightly less and have it perform the same. It's also been said that overclocking the 4770 will result in scores that almost match the 4850. In order to find out whether or not this is true, I'll overclock a 4770 as far as it will go and then put the 4850 up against it. Will the 4850 be able to hold it's place in the world, or will the overclocked 4770 take it over?

Read on and let's find out.