Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 Graphics Card - 900241 - Second Version
Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 256-bit PCI-E 2.0 DirectX 10.1 Supported Video Card

Bought it for a refurbished HP workstation, xw4600, that came with no graphics card. Since the PS was only 450W, I could not go with the 4870, but I chose this instead. It has performed very nicely to a 24" LCD monitor 1920x1200 as well as to a 1080p HDTV (where I found that a new HDMI cable gave better results than the DVI cable that came with my monitor, the latter having some strange echo or two of sharp transitions just a few dozen pixels to the right). I currently use the 24" monitor and also have an old CRT hooked up as an extension, but it is placed inconveniently due to size and therefore I don't use it much. Despite just barely having its rated power supply requirements met, it works just fine. I am not a serious gamer and do not push the envelope too much. I tried Company of Heroes (which is supposedly optimized more for NVidia than ATI) at max resolution and max settings, and got a decent framerate most of the time (better than what I was used to at lower settings on a different computer), though hard-core gamers might demand better. I don't know how much of it is due to have an Extreme 3GHz Quad-Core cpu, though. :-) Already familiar with the ATI driver software (catalyst control center == CCC, etc.), I got the latest AMD/ATI online for 64bit Vista. However, the Hydravision software (a separate program for multiple desktops) does not work on my OS. One thing that has been bothersome is the way the driver software will automatically switch settings when it partially loses its connection to my 24" lcd monitor. To make a long story short, I could not get high resolution to work to my lcd while simultenously extending high res desktop to the crt. The non-obvious fix I finally stumbled on was to *swap* the two displays in the *software* (doing it with cabling did not help when I tried it, but in CCC it worked). Nearly sent my monitor back before fixing this! Now I have a hotkey to get to known-working profiles fast, but this was a troublesome problem to solve. One other minor complaint: when installing another PCI card, the force required caused a violent hand motion, and the radiator fins on this card sliced some skin off the back of my thumb nuckle. Those things were bloody sharp. But they look cool. And you can use them as a thumb piano. :-) Noise levels matter to me, but I cannot say much since the xw4600's two disk drives already put out a good bit of noise, and when pushing the system, I hear a lot of fan noise that *might* be coming from the cpu fan instead, so I cannot tell the cause. I've just decided that I'll have to remote it for serious recording work (fortunately I have the HDMI and USB cables through the studio wall already). That means no portable/field use for recording, but most people would not use a tower-style desktop for that anyway (laptops are more suitable). Final word: Make sure you have a PCIe x16 slot. Rating: I'll give a 5 on everything except a 4 on overall satisfaction, since the software has some minor issues as noted above.
 
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Outstanding value and performance. Runs hot but there are easy fixes on the web. Just Google it.
 
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I used to be an nVidia fan but when VisionTek released this card I had to switch. All the reviews were true, this card and its older brother (HD4870) absolutely beat nVidia. I was thinking of purchasing an nVidia 260 or 280, but after I compared the price/performance I had to go with this card. ATI and VisionTek are the leaders in performance now. I almost forgot to mention you can purchase two of these cards, outperform the 280 and save money ! Gotta love CrossFire X.
 
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AWSOME CARD FOR THE Price. First the QUALATATIVE. VisionTek (ATI) renders the smoothest game play in Crysis already with their HD3870x2 and testing the HD4850 just reinforced that belief. I also liked the size of the HD4850 which allows you to now use the motherboard slots between the PCIe slots. Now for the QUANTATATIVE. Vantage benchmark by FutureMark scores P7308 HD4850 & P12,266 HD4850(2cards) in CrossFireX. This smokes my 9600GT that only gets P4008. The price is right and I know I can trust a US company like VisionTek + VT has LifeTime warranty and US based TechSupport that actually knows what they are talking about.
 
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This card is awesome and for a reasonable price, none the less. Out performs my 8800 GTS by a long shot - ATI is back in the game! Runs a little hot but definately best in class! A real change for my whole computer actually. Totally worth it!
 
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