If you're thinking of a Radeon 4850, consider this one

[Firefly2002]

FiringSquad just did a review on a new Radeon 4850 board, which addresses what they considered the RV770-based card's one glaring weakness- heat output.

The "MSI R4850 512M" introduces a clever (and rather attractive, in my opinion) cooling solution which cuts down on the heat considerably. It even performs a hair faster than the retail 4850.

Just thought I'd link it.

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/msi_radeon_4850_r4850_512m_review/

 

[Mangaroo]

thanks firefly that's good to know. Can I ask, would there be any advantages of getting a 4850 over a 4870 (other than price?) thanks!

 

[Firefly2002]

thanks firefly that's good to know. Can I ask, would there be any advantages of getting a 4850 over a 4870 (other than price?) thanks!

Well, a 4870's naturally faster than a 4850 due to the much faster memory and slightly higher clocked GPU. If you're going to be running at moderate resolutions (i.e. 1600x1200) without FSAA and Anisotropic filtering cranked up to the max, then you'd probably be better off with a 4850 simply because, yes, it's cheaper, and will also give off less heat.