With so much data presented on previous pages, we think we should summarize our review answering two questions: how is Sapphire HD 4850 compared to Radeon HD 3870 – once the most high-end video card from AMD/ATI – and how is Sapphire HD 4850 compared to GeForce 9800 GTX, especially now that nVidia is promoting a price cut on this model in order to make it a competitor to HD 4850.

AMD raised the performance of the new Radeon HD 4850 to a completely new level. Sapphire HD 4850 was between 6% and 91% faster than Radeon HD 3870 during our tests, depending on the game, resolution and image quality settings. The highest differences were found when we increased image quality. You can see the complete breakdown on previous page.

We saw a good battle between Sapphire HD 4850 and GeForce 9800 GTX. Here is the breakdown.

We saw Sapphire HD 4850 being faster than GeForce 9800 GTX on two programs: 3DMark Vantage (between 26% and 35% faster) and Quake 4 (between 7% and 31% faster).

We saw Sapphire HD 4850 and GeForce 9800 GTX achieving the same performance level on Call of Duty 4, Crysis and 3DMark06 with image quality settings enabled (with image quality settings disabled, GeForce 9800 GTX was between 8% and 11% faster).

And we saw GeForce 9800 GTX being faster than Radeon HD 4850 on Unreal Tournament 3 (between 17% and 53%) and on Half-Life 2: Episode Two (between 15% and 22%, however both cards achieved the same performance at 1920x1200 with no image quality settings enabled and Sapphire HD 4850 was 7% faster than GeForce 9800 GTX at 1680x1050 with no image quality settings enabled).

So we have to call it a technical tie, because which one is faster will depend on the game. On the two of the heaviest games around today – Crysis and Call of Duty 4 – both cards achieved similar performance.

Then comes pricing. On this aspect Sapphire HD 4850 has, today, the biggest advantage, even with nVidia pushing their partners to drop GeForce 9800 GTX’s price down to USD 200. This model from Sapphire can be found around USD 195 and you can buy it on NewEgg.com for USD 175 after a mail-in rebate. Even though the cheapest GeForce 9800 GTX was being sold by USD 200 on the day we published this review, you could find GTX models being sold as high as USD 300, with most models being sold by USD 250. As we mentioned before we doubt resellers will drop their prices just because nVidia wants them to.

So unless you only play Unreal Tournament 3 or Half Life 2 we honestly believe that Sapphire HD 4850 is the video card that brings the best cost/benefit ratio for the savvy user looking for a high-end video card: it costs at least half the price of GeForce 9800 GX2, GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce GTX 280 and still brings a high-end gaming performance to your PC.

A final trick: at this time Radeon HD 4850 will only run stable if you install Catalyst 8.6 drivers and a hotfix made available by AMD.