14 DAY TRIAL // As we told you yesterday, Sapphire's highly rumored Toxic HD 4850 graphics card is one of the most anticipated products of this summer. However, as it turns out, Sapphire is not the only one that plans on releasing a high-end card based on AMD's mid-range 4850 GPU. Another one of AMD's channel partners is also preparing to launch a high-end version of the Radeon HD 4850.
According to a couple of pictures posted on the ExpreView website, PowerColor is expected to release a new version of the HD 4850 card, one that will provide users with no less than 2GB of memory. This means that the upcoming HD 4870 X2 will not be the only graphics card to perform the never-before feat of sporting 2GB of graphics memory. However, the difference between the two is to be found in that the PowerColor card is going to feature GDDR3 memory, while the top HD 4870 X2 will sport GDDR5 memory chips.
Back to the topic of PowerColor's HD 4850: reports indicate that it will also feature a custom cooling technology that will turn it into a dual-slot graphics card. The new non-reference dual-slot cooler is provided by Zerotherm, and will offer PowerColor the opportunity to enhance the card's performance through some graphics core and memory overclocking. According to the above-mentioned website, the new card should provide a factory-set GPU speed of 665MHz, with 2GB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 2000MHz.
For the time being, these are the only details available. This means that the card's estimated price tag or availability date are yet to be unveiled. Nevertheless, the 2GB of graphics memory will most certainly take its toll on the card's overall pricing. Also, due to the fact that the HD 4870 X2 could arrive as soon as next week, the new PowerColor card might soon follow suit and will probably become available by the end of July or early August.