Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel i7 920 @ 3.8GHz (190MHz x 20)

Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P (Supplied by Noctua)

Motherboard(s): GIGABYTE EX58-UD5 (Supplied by GIGABYTE)

Memory: 3 X 2GB OCZ Technology PC-12800 DDR-3 8-8-8-24 (OCZ3G1600LV6GK)

Hard Disk(s): Western Digital 300GB Velicorapter (Supplied by Western Digital)

Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2, Windows Vista SP1 64-Bit

Drivers: Catalyst 9.1

What we'll do today is have a look at how the PowerColor HD 4830 goes against the much loved HD 4850, but in this case it's a bit of a pimped out version from HIS which carries with it the IceQ4 cooling solution.

With the HD 4830 coming in at $89.99 U.S. Dollars from Newegg, it's anywhere from $50 to $60 cheaper than the HD 4850. While that might not sound like a lot for people who are buying GTX 295s, when you're talking about a $100 card it equates to a 50%+ price increase.

With that said, let's see not only how the PowerColor HD 4830 goes, but have a peek to see if it can pack some serious value with its aggressive price tag.

3DMark Vantage

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/

Buy It Here

3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.

3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.

In our first test the HD 4850 has quite the lead on the HD 4830. But being a synthetic test, it's not the most important. We will have to see if the two cards sit closer together in a real world environment.