Since when is a any hotfix improving stability and performance bad?? I really dont get the point, the HD4850 beats the 9800GTX by a fair margin, it is the best card for the money right now. But still some people feel the need to bash AMD/ATI.

The Inq is getting quite retarded if you ask me...
They are not on the same level they were one year ago, it is becoming sad

So what? Reading some articles Inq. has DAAMIT shares and DAAMIT pays them for writing against INTEL/NVIDIA. Now the Inq. is NVIDIA/INTEL fan boy? Grow up guys! Its just they style of writting....

Actually, I´d rather have a hotfix the day after I buy a card then 6-24 months after wich is the story with Nvidia, thank god there finally is some competition, and the green team finally will have to pay for their customer neglect.

"Reception was mixed"??? What bizarro world are you living in? I read several reviews/previews and the consensus across all of them was clear: It's a great card for that price, despite Nvidia dropping prices on the 9800GTX.

Reception was mixed? I didn't see much mixing of the reception. The card was much praised by all the first class reviewers.

That's not to say that Nvidia's shrewd move wasn't also acknowledged for its.... shrewdness.

The Inquirer unofficial home of the Intel fanbois! ;-)

the crossfire on the 4850 was either hit or miss... maybe this makes more hits...

Bob,

I think the adds are random. The one I saw on this article page was for IBM, not Intel. I do think it's a coincedence that you saw an Intel add when you read this article. Now if AMD is also a sponser of this site, that I don't know. Be honest, I normally do pay attention to the adds, I only noticed what was advertised when you pointed out their use of an Intel one.

the ads are random

I see an IBM ad on my end.

It's likely a fanspeed-related fix. I read that some of the cards came with fans that didn't speed up when 3D was being used.

Let's hope ATI gives the user the ability to manually set the fanspeed that "stays set" after a reboot, unlike nVidia. (I hate my 8800GTS cards because of that)

Nvidia and it's 3rd party suppliers had to provide an update to the firmware of the 8800GT because of cooling problems. I myself had to update the firmware of my EVGA 8800GT to make it run cooler...
It happens...ATI and Nvidia. Neither of them are perfect, but at least ATI realized there was an issue just after releasing the cards to the public.

And at the same time you insert an 
Intel ad with in your text.
Does this seam bias to anyone. 
This seams typical of your articles
involving AMD. Do you have Money in 
Intel? lol

So what's your point????
Patches / fixes are common.
It would be a shame if we lost AMD
because of your bashing. Ease up 
will you! It's a good Co. and 
trying very hard against it's 
competitors.

As with some HD3870 & the X2 these cards are reported running barbecue hot all over the interscribble, up in the eighties centigrade.

Seems like ATI & Co still havent twigged the cooling solution / fan control issue yet, one generation on.