Well the HD2900XT bought the ranch a while back...

[HTM|Minion]

I have been running a 3870 as a replacement while Sapphire works out my RMA. This 3870 seems to run better than the 2900 did at almost half the original cost of the 2900 so i'm not really missing the 2900 too much.

Today I received the following email from Sapphire much to my surprise....

Minion, 
 

We would like to offer a TOXIC HD4850 512M GDDR3 PCI-E for you as replacement.

If you like to take it, please e-mail us back.
 

Original            HD 2900XT 512M GDDR3 PCI-E

Replacement   TOXIC HD 4850   512M GDDR3 PCI-E

 


Regards, 
RMA Dept. 
Althon Micro Inc

Although it's not the fire breathing 4870 that Raker has, it certainly eats the 2900 for breakfast.

[HTM~ZenEye]

Holy crap, that a deal! I guess that card has a fancy cooling system in it, like a vapor chill system or something. Lucky you

[HTM|Minion]

I guess that card has a fancy cooling system in it, like a vapor chill system or something. Lucky you

It uses a "Zalman" heatsink and fan, not real fancy but it does look like it will be on the quiet side, unlike the 2900 was... thank God. The 2900 sounded like a friggin' helicopter when I would enter the 3D realm.

Here's a review...

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...ic-hd4850.html

[HTM~ZenEye]

Ooops I was confused, I was talking about the 3870 and you are getting the 4850. It's the 3870 that has the fancy cooling system.

[HTM|Assraker]

The 4870X2 renders pRon like nothing before it ever has...

[HTM~Night_Ranger]

The 4870X2 renders pRon like nothing before it ever has...

That's all the review I need, time to upgrade! lol

[HTM|Minus]

Awsome!

[HTM~.:Q:.]

The 4870X2 renders pRon like nothing before it ever has...

I'll take 2 please

[HTM|Minion]

I just installed the "Toxic" 4850 by Sapphire, It seems to work just fine with my pcie 1.0 board (it's a 2.0 card). It's fairly quiet, I'd say it's in between the screaming 2900 and the super quiet 3870.

I ran 2125 points higher on 3DMark 06 than with the 3870. I'll try it out in UT after I feed my face.

( Teh Minion is starving)