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Dennis N.

Dennis N.

Joined on 04/14/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
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Most Favorable Review

Overclock Dream

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4850 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card GV-R485OC-1GH
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4850 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card GV-R485OC-1GH

Pros: Comes from the factory @ 700MHz with a decent overclock (75MHz), but I am currently running stable at 775MHz. The Zalman HSF keeps the temp at a relatively cool 55C, which is absolutely fine in a graphics card. The memory doesn't have any sort of heat dissipation, but I still have it overclocked to 1050 MHz with no heat problems at all. I was lucky enough to get it for $85 with the $30 rebate, but I would still buy it at the current price.

Cons: Can't disable ATi PowerPlay from the Catalyst driver.

Overall Review: Not an issue with the card itself, but still a minor concern: ATi PowerPlayer auto-throttles the clock speed when switching from 2D to 3D environments. In some games (notably Borderlands) it causes unstable drivers and eventual crash after roughly 20 minutes. A fix for this is to get a 3rd party utility and manually clock the card (even stock clock speed if desired) thus disabling PowerPlay. ATi's Catalyst Control Center allows you to overclock but it will *not* disable PowerPlay.