While it is a great news in general, it is an even greater news for Europeans :)))
Go Go Go!!
I just hope this trend continues, in many meanings of the word!

Good bye Nvidia...it would like to stay with you a bit longer but that short hair hot lady is calling me and I don't really wanna lose her...so i guess I see u next year unless there was An Amd fuzion in the way!!!

NVIDIA WILL BRING OUT 9800GTX SOON TO COUNTER THIS, BYEBYE AMD

seem to fight like rabid dogs for a bigger slice of the VGA market.

I love it! Time to buy a new DirectX 10 graphics card (cheap & packed with tons of graphics power).

This is how it should happen in the CPU market also, I'm hoping AMD will get back in the performance race after they switch their manufacturing process to .45 nm at the end of the year so we can have monster CPUs at bargain prices also.

But I thought I read somewhere that the existing ones ran super hot as it was, like 70 or 80 degrees celcius?

I've always loved my ati cards and would actually prefer to buy daamit over nvidia since I usually vote for the underdog if performance is reasonably close. However, since ATI continues to provide pathetic attempts at linux compatibility, my next card will definitely be nvidia.

when's that coming out?

Their complete lack of money is going to catch them very soon unless they grab significant market share, and Nvidia isn't making the 5000 series mistake this time. If they don't get a large percentage of nvidia 8000 series users to switch, its game over.

Nvidia, on the other hand is sitting on a pile of cash, not red ink.

Sorry, but NVIDIA sucks in just about every way possible except for one, and that is a few more FSP than an ATI card up until now. WHOOPIE!!!!!! Not worth a couple FPS more for HUNDREDS MORE in most cases. The 4870 X2 will be the fastest card around this time...sorry NVIDIA fag boys!

4850 runs hot b/c it has a crappy single slot cooler. This article specifically mentioned upgraded cooling solutions for the OC versions of 4850; I would assume that means dual slot cooling.

linux support is vastly improved for the 3xxx and 4xxx series gpus. daamit made a decision not to support the older gpus, probably b/c they're spread too thin already. The linux code for the newer cards is in the open source community already, however.

Good article, no kissing up to Nvidia this time.

Will AMD release a driver update to open up its OC ability?

Paul, I'm not saying they are perfect, but AMD/ATI's drivers are on par with Nvidia's drivers. Maybe even better since AMD is pushing a lot of their driver/API into the open source world.

Yes, they used to suck big time when it came to drivers. But since they've started including Linux drivers on the retail cd and even putting TUX on the box... they've come a long way and show no signs of slowing.

If there's a well cooled dual slot 4850... $200 seems quite doable for one of these, would be a really nice upgrade over my nvidia 7600GT.

I'm just saying, yes they used to be bad but try them now. They are a lot better.

I'm shocked to find that ATI is finally letting someone who can actually write good drivers write them...that would be their customers. I'm also surprised that they are actually innovating; this company used to be so anal about clocking and control that it was a joke... But don't expect Nvidia to go away, they've always come back in the past and crushed ATI--I don't see it being any different this time. Sure, their drivers have had some problems lately, but come on, they're nowhere near the problems that ATI had for so many years.

Wow man what a load of nVidia fangirl crap I read. Of course, that is a sign of FEAR.

Why on earth would anybody be a fan of a company that abuses its own partners, the press and its customers???

Again I read remarks driven by fear that ATI is going bankrupt and nVidia is going to crush ATI again.
Wow man, I guess some people can be so foeking stupid...no lets call it ignorant!
WAKE UP!
sorry about the flame, I just had it with utterly stupid remarks......

If anybody with some sense of smartness and alertness have read the VGA market for the past years, you know ATI is getting better and better and better. Why? because they were put in a large disposition with the merger of two big companies that did NOT share the same culture/traditions, and because of an unexpected bug in their design which gave huge implications. Read R600 design.

It is sooooo simple: this HD48xx provides both the customer and DAAMIT a favor: lower price, lower energy use, excellent performance, richer feature set and functionality. And low manufacturing costs.
This is a clear win-win situation and nVidia is NOT able to bring a better solution any time soon.
Why not? Because their high productions costs will not allow much lower consumer prices, whereas DAAMIT have succeeded in it.
Expect the HD4850 to drop in price significantly making it an even more SUPERIOR product than its direct rival!!

Of course, nVidia had their great architecture, G80, but that is already old!!
Welcome in the new world!!

nvidia will own the finland and the world

nuff' said

"Again I read remarks driven by fear that ATI is going bankrupt"

Its not fear, its being able to read a financial statement. If ATI doesn't recapture the market lost to the Nvidia 8000 series, they are done. That is economic fact. Their stock will be worthless and there isn't a bank on the planet that will loan them money with so much red ink and no way to pay it back. Escpecially in the aftermath of the credit crisis. Market share is the only thing that can save them now.

Fanboyism aside, both companies have good cards and the competition is fierce. The only difference between the companies is their approach to design and marketing segments. AMD is attacking mainstream and using multi GPU to go at performance segments. Nvidia is attacking top level and then scale down to the mainstream. What all fanboys on both sides should note is that we have some of the most powerful cards ever at fantastic price points. Things have never been better for gamers and enthusiasts. Count your blessings that Intel is not the only player in graphics. As far as performance goes I will only say this; the performance of both new cards will gradually improve as the drivers mature and before you know it TG may be talking about 5850/70 and GTX360. Point is enjoy the cards.
Regarding AMD going broke; this is a broken comment. AMD is at least 2 years away from broke and most analysts agree. Even if AMD goes south it will be slow and gradual, there will be no collapse.Most likely the Arabs will prop it. And as far as ATI market share and profitability goes, market share is only one part. Gross and net margins on your parts have a lot to do with profitability. ATI is producing a relatively cheap chip and is making a good profit (I suspect) so a reduced market share will still yield increased profits(over last period) due to less overhead. With the GTX280 at 65nm I am not so sure, though a die shrink will help a lot.
AMD will not fall because of ATI, more likely because of mis-steps with the CPU side of business. Yes, also note that AMD is also coming to the end of the acquisition of ATI so that impairment will soon end.

where do you find it for 130€ in europe ??

All I have to say that every time I messed with ATI I had nothing but problems. And I tried many times over the years to move to ati video and always ended up going back to nvidia. ATI has stability issues.