Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GI Summary

Besides good gaming performance and 1 gigabyte of memory, the Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GI has one important advantage and one insignificant drawback. It has a fully passive and, consequently, absolutely silent cooling system that makes the card a perfect choice for advanced HTPCs. Gigabyte’s cooler can dissipate 110 watts of heat, but it does not mean the Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GI can be installed into any system case. It should be a well-ventilated system case if you want to avoid overheat. The insignificant drawback we’ve mentioned is very poor overclockability our sample of the card showed. We must acknowledge, however, that graphics cards with passive cooling are not meant for serious overclocking. Then, overclocking is not something that HTPC or “quite system” users usually do. And third, there is a lot of versions of Radeon HD 4850 on the market that are far more overclocker-friendly than the Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GI.

Thus, if you are into overclocking, the Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GI won’t suit you. But if you care about how much noise your gaming system produces more than about its 3DMark score, or if you are assembling a universal configuration suitable for watching HD video and playing modern games on a large display, we can recommend you this card. The Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GI is also relatively cheap at considerably less than $200.

Highs:

• High performance for its class;
• Outperforms GeForce GTS 250 1GB in most tests;
• Wide range of supported FSAA modes;
• Best Edge-detect CFAA in the industry;
• 1024MB of local video memory onboard;
• DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support;
• Fully-fledged hardware HD video decoding;
• High-quality HD video post-processing with scalability;
• Built-in 8-channel audio controller with HD support;
• Sound over HDMI;
• Zero noise;
• GPU and memory voltages can be controlled via special software tools.

 Lows:

• Almost no overclocking potential;
• Is not recommended for system cases with poor ventilation.