(Edit: Benchmarks are up here)
About 9 months ago, Nvidia released the 8800gt, based on the G92 core. Initial pricing was around $250 for a few months after its release, and its was heralded as the great mid range card, offering performance within 15% of the 8800gtx. It was so good, that I myself got 2 of them (and had trouble with SLI, but that’s another story).
This July, ATI released to 4850, with prices dropping to around 150 dollars.
I can tell you from personal experience, that this is a great card. The computer I run it in has a resolution of 1440×900, and it has been able to max out any game I play (except for Crysis). The card is also single slot, has relatively tame power consumption, is quiet under load, and supports HD decoding.
However, the card does have some flaws that keep it from being perfect. The card gets very hot, enough so that its painful to touch, and the fan is definitely noticeable under load (although not as hot or noticeable as the 8800gt).
Some reviewers were not that excited about this card. I thought those reviews were stupid, and I told them so under the username bholstege.
Rating: Pass