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About a week ago, around lunch time, if you listened very closely you could probably make out one big collective groan coming from all of the hardware reviewers across North America.

The video card many of us have been eager to share with you -- the HD 4850 -- was supposed to be a dirty word until today. But, alas, the non-disclosure-agreement, which all of us reviewers have signed, turned out to be a non-event. As it turns out some of AMD's partners, eager to cash in on the HD 4850 (which they've had for some time now), jumped the gun and started selling the card in Hong Kong, and then shortly thereafter, certain parts of Europe. And now, about a week later with the official launch date finally reached, 4800's have made their way to the rest of us.

Reviews and previews of the HD 4800 series have hit the web in full force. Hardware enthusiasts can finally find all about the poorly kept secret of the 4800's arrival. Today, we'll take our own look at the HD4850. You'll probably see why so many technology writers were so anxious to talk about the HD4850 -- in many peoples' eyes, the HD4800 series is the most exciting product launched by ATI in quite some time.

You probably know why the HD4850 is exciting by now. It all boils down to this: the HD4850 is a $199 card that is fast enough to keep up with any card out there. That alone is enough to whip up some serious commotion. But if that one line doesn't satisfy you... well then, we'll just have to do a full review of the HD4850 and investigate further, courtesy of the fine folks at VisionTek.

First we'll take a look at the design goals of the 4800 series, then we'll take a look at today's card, and then we'll put the HD4850 up against seven other video cards to see just how fast this new generation of cards is.