Tom's Hardware: Topic Radeon HD 4850 - HIS, XFX, or Asus?
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I'm looking to build my own PC soon and have chosen the Radeon HD 4850 512MB for the video card. There are lots of different brands for these cards and I was hoping you could help me out.
At first I was looking at the MSI 4850 for its low price ($110 after rebate), but I'm looking again now and seeing that some reviews say it has some problems with drivers and other things. So I've been looking for a more solid brand that has good reviews, and have come up with these three cards:
HIS Hightech H485FN512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161259
XFX HD-485X-YDDC Radeon HD 4850 XXX 512MB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150348
ASUS EAH4850 MATRIX/HTDI/512M/A Radeon HD 4850 512MB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121295
They are all priced at $130 (after rebate for the XFX and Asus).
Which do you think would be the better buy? Are any of these cards too large for a possible crossfire setup? I don't know if that depends on the motherboard or not, but this is the one I'm getting: BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX. How do they stack up against each other cooling wise? Are these cards going to be more reliable than the MSI card or am I just paranoid? Anybody here have the MSI card running fine? Also, the XFX card has a lifetime warranty while the Asus is 3 years and the HIS is 2 years. Do you really need a warranty for longer than 2 or 3 years?
Help appreciated. 
Hi,
Whats the priority here budget or performance ? All the cards you listed are pretty much the same as far as performance goes. They all look like twin slot cards to me so you would need plenty of space to run Crossfire. Your chosen board has Crossfire X capability which means it will run a single dedicated card along with the onboard graphics and use the dedicated card only when required, im not sure how this would work with a standard crossfire set up fitted, sorry 
If your main concern is budget then i have friends with MSI cards (not that exact one) and they are very happy with them. The cooler is very good and it exhausts the hot air out of the rear of the PC, only the HIS you listed dosent.
If you want performance then this is what i would get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161244
Its a bit dearer but i can personally vouch for its performance and i have owned 4 of these type of cards from HIS now without issue.
As far a warranties go you only need it for as long as you plan to keep the PC, so if you will upgrade in 3 years then a 3 year one will do you.
Mactronix
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