VisionTek 4850 1GB B2 Review

RHKCommander959 - August 26, 2009
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Testing:

Testing the VisionTek 4850 is done by installing it in my i7 test setup and then running the card through a battery of synthetic and real-world tests and settings. The processor is overclocked to 3GHz and several resolutions are used, generally 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200, with highe-end cards also going up to 2560x1600. PhysX is disabled on the Nvidia cards in the 3DMark Vantage test. The video card is then overclocked with, the fan set to 100%, and then benchmarked again. The results of both the stock and overclocked settings are then compared to similar level cards.

Processor: Intel Core i7 920 150x20
Motherboard: MSI X58 Platinum
Memory: Mushkin HP3 12800 7-7-7-20
Video Card(s): VisionTek 4850 1GB B2
Power Supply: Mushkin 800 watt Modular power supply
Hard Drive: 1 x Western Digital Green 1TB SATA
Optical Drive: LG DVD-RW
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 64-bit SP1

Comparison Video Cards:

Overclocking:

Overclocked settings:

VisionTek 4850 1GB B2 690/1000

Going into the overclocking, I didn't hold out too much hope for this videocard. The silent heat sink worked very well and the core didn't really get very hot. Although the fan uses only two wires, I was able to adjust fan speed with RivaTuner, which made the fan lightly audible, but only dropped the temperatures a few degrees at best. The memory was underclocked, as it is rated for 1000MHz operation, likely due to the lack of enough cooling for stable operation at stock speed. In overclocking both I went for both the highest settings I could achieve without artifacts, approximately 690MHz and 1000MHz on the core and memory speeds respectively, about a 50MHz overclock on each. A few MHz more on either resulted in artifacts, although the GPU temperature was very reasonable. With a volt mod and some memory heat sinks this card would probably overclock very well, with a very small investment.

Video benchmarks: