Introduction

We've literally loved everything about the HD 4850 since its release. The only thing that worried me was the high temperatures coming out from behind the card. While the stock single slot cooler is an excellent choice, it simply isn't going to do as good a job as dual slot coolers with bigger fans.

While we've never run into a single issue with a HD 4850 running stock cooling, it doesn't mean that we wouldn't prefer to be running the cards cooler. And really, with the amount of onboard devices on a motherboard these days and their quality, the need to use every expansion slot in your motherboard is becoming lower and lower.

Sapphire has not only chosen to include aftermarket cooling on the card, but also to take it a step further by overclocking the bad boy. With two in hand today, we will be looking at both single and Crossfire performance. Before we get into that, though, let's have a quick look at the package and the actual cards.