We still find it hard to get our minds off that graphics monster, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 card from Palit. However, it looks like users are bound to get the exact same graphics card from two of ATI's partners, namely Palit and the ex-NVIDIA exclusive Gainward. That's right, pictures of a tri-slot Gainward graphics card, looking strangely familiar to Palit's behemoth, have recently surfaced on the Internet.

It could be that the tri-slot, dual-fan, heat-dissipating solution has become the latest in the design of high-end graphics cards, since we couldn't otherwise explain why Gainward decided to create a card that uses the same cooling solution as the one designed by its competitor Palit. In addition, the Gainward card is also said to have been featured with the same factory overclocked core and memory speed, so it's safe to say that it will deliver the same level of performance as Palit's proprietary design.Turning to the available technical specifications of the overclocked "Spartan," enthusiasts will be happy to hear that the card comes with no less than 2GB of GDDR5 memory, working at a speed of 3800MHz, while the two graphics processors have been set to work at a 750MHz core frequency. Expected to become part of the company's range of "Golden Sample" cards, the yet-to-be officially unveiled product also includes features such as D-Sub, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity options, for users who want to connect it to different high-quality displays.

Unfortunately, it appears that a few other features are also similar to those of Palit's graphics monster, in that they both lack a specific release date and price point, at least for the time being. However, no matter which of the two cards will be released first on the market, users are bound to get the same level of performance from either one.

Gainward has introduced an improved version of the generic ATI Radeon HD4850. The graphics card we have in our labs today features a faster GPU and memory and has 1GB of DDR3 memory. Before starting with our usual presentation of the card's features and specifications, let's say a few words about AMD's HD48xx series.

ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series GPUs is a "TeraScale graphics engine " according to AMD, promising to offer HD gaming and Blu-ray/HD content playback with incredible visual fidelity.The new graphics engine combines the power of one teraFLOPS, 800 stream processors and next generation GDDR5 memory. It also supports tessellation, DirectX 10.1 and scalable ATI CrossFireX technology.Like their predecessors, the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series graphics cards offer optimal performance and efficiency with platform-independent intelligent power management. Regardless of platform, these graphics cards deliver the power needed during gaming while conserving energy at idle or when demand is low.According to the system requirements, the Gainward HD4850 1GB GS needs a PCI-e based PC with one X16 lane graphics slot and a 450Watt (or greater) power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin connector. For CrossFire configurations, a 550 Watt PSU with two 6-pin connectors is recommended.

Our sample comes with a different cooling system than the generic ATI Radeon HD4850, potentially offering better conditions for overclocking. Our sample comes with a massive 700MHz core (625MHz for generic HD4850) and 1000MHz of memory (vs 993MHz for generic HD4850) clocks. As we have mentioned, it has an 1GB memory onboard (0.8ns) with a bandwidth of 256bits.

- Retail package

Below you can see the photo of the retail package of the Gainward HD4850 1GB GS. The graphics card is available for approximately €180.All the included box contents are well-packaged and secured. In the box you will find a printed manual, a driver's disc, a power adapter and the DSub15-to-DVI converter. No retail game is included.