4890 Review Thread

[SlowSpyder]

They're for sale at Newegg already!

Only $250.

 

[bryanW1995]

This is just a pet peeve, but I hate it when the egg lists an OC version of a card without clearly showing what the oc is (look at the two xfx cards).

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
This is just a pet peeve, but I hate it when the egg lists an OC version of a card without clearly showing what the oc is (look at the two xfx cards).

Shows 850MHz vs. 875MHz for me.

 

[coldpower27]

Oh wow, ATI is sure turning up the heat...

 

[zod96]

Dam I was hoping for a black pcb from xfx

 

[CrystalBay]

Yeah , I dont see the Asus Top on there yet.... Notice XFX calls it an 4890XT one more sku coming from them possibly...

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
This is just a pet peeve, but I hate it when the egg lists an OC version of a card without clearly showing what the oc is (look at the two xfx cards).

Shows 850MHz vs. 875MHz for me.

yes, but it should show up in the main card description in that case imho, or maybe in that little comment section above the card name where they usually put "free farcry while supplies last" or whatever.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Reviews are going up all over the place

http://www.tweaktown.com/revie...aphics_card/index.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...ATI/HD_4890_CrossFire/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_4890/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_4890/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/...n-hd-4890-review-test/
http://xbitlabs.com/articles/v...lay/radeon-hd4890.html
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=684

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Wow, how the hell did it beat the 4870 1GB by 50% on UT3 2560x1600 4xAA link

Will read other reviews now.

 

[josh6079]

HardOCP

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

 

[kb2114]

canucks...

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com...d-4890-1gb-review.html

 

[ronnn]

Looks like a very nice card that is too loud. Will be interesting to see what variations on cooling come with the oc versions.

 

[Sylvanas]

Woah checkout the high rez Multi-GPU scaling in Techpowerup's review, 92% @ 1920x1200- nice. Overall looks like a great card- finally voltage adjustments available in the software - even without it though, Hardwarecanucks got to 1ghz stock cooling

 

[thilanliyan]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...-hd-4890-review-test/1

Seems the 4890 OCs pretty well.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...lay/radeon-hd4890.html

 

[Sylvanas]

4890 on Linux by Phoronix

 

[chewietobbacca]

looks like this card when OC'd beats the GTX280 and gives the 285 a run for its money...

and at high resolutions and AA (1920x1200 with 4xAA or more, or 2560x1600) it more than beats the 4870 1GB and GTX275

Amazing for a single GPU

 

[Jacen]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539&p=1

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Card looks pretty impressive even at stock speeds.

 

[Sylvanas]

AT review is garbage IMO. They used Catalyst 8.12 Hotfix to test the 4890 and then use the newly released Nvidia driver, wtf? Also no heat/noise/power consumption figures. The review (AT) mentioned Nvidia's press release of the GTX275 being more about PhysX and Cuda than actual game performance, well, thats what the review read as aswell. If you are going to go on about PhysX in a review about the 4890 equally as much as the GTX270 then where are the performance figures comparing the use of PhysX turned on and that of it turned off- if I lose 20fps by turning it on I don't care if I can shoot holes in cloth realistically.

 

[Creig]

Hmmm... I distinctly remember DailyTech mentioning the following:

The chip is not just an overclocked RV770, as there are a few tweaks and modifications that we are still investigating.

http://www.dailytech.com/ATI+R...Taken/article14616.htm

Yet the AT review states:

For the Radeon HD 4890 our hardware specs are pretty simple. Take a 4870 1GB and overclock it. Crank the core up 100 MHz to 850 MHz and the memory clock up 75 MHz to 975 MHz. That's the Radeon HD 4890 in a nutshell.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539&p=3


So what are these "tweaks and modifications" mentioned by DT and where did they disappear to between then and today?

 

[evolucion8]

http://www.pcgameshardware.com...TX-275/Reviews/?page=6 Another nice review which compares the HD 4890 and HD 4870 using their own respective clocks, HD 4890 at HD 4870 speeds, HD 4870 at HD 4890 speeds, and their normal values.

 

[Creig]

Never mind, I found it. Apparently X-bit was a bit more in-depth in their investigation of the 4890's improvements than AT was.

Being a revised RV770, the new graphics core RV790 is, however, not pin-compatible with its predecessor and made it necessary to develop a new PCB for the Radeon HD 4890 series.

When they designed RV790, they revised the entire RV770 internal structure quite significantly, having rebalanced internal chip timings and optimized its internal power circuitry. The memory controller now supports burst read, which was earlier implemented in RV710 and 730. But most importantly, they added a capacitor Decap Ring along the entire RV790 perimeter, which should improve the signal quality by lowering the parasitic noise.

Note: There is a possibility that the statement regarding the memory controller supporting burst read mode is an error in the promotional material handed out by AMD and will be retracted.

Just a quick update. RV790 does *not* support burst memory reads, we had an error in our documentation that will be fixed and updated shortly, sorry about that. Y'all are just too quick scanning through things and finding nuggets like that. There are some tweaks in RV790, but burst reads is not one of them.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/show...ad.php?t=50698&page=42

So, the power circuitry of the Radeon HD 4890 has been reinforced to seven phases. The two top phases with single-channel PA0511 inductors and compact power drivers seem to be responsible for GDDR5 memory whereas the other five phases, with advanced power components and an assemblage of dual- and triple-channel PA1312NL and CPLA-3-50 inductors, power the graphics core. For comparison, the Radeon HD 4870 had a three-phase GPU voltage regulator with a possibility of expanding to four phases. The more complex power circuit is necessary as the Radeon HD 4890 is specified to have a peak power consumption of 190 watts.

The power circuit is controlled by two Volterra VT1165MF controllers. These chips allow to adjust the GPU voltage from software. It is for VT1165-based cards that EVGA has released its GPU Voltage Tuner program, so there seem to be no theoretical obstacles to creating a similar tool for the Radeon HD 4890.

So much for "Take a 4870 1GB and overclock it". Thankfully we have sites like Xbit who actually dive into the cards and tell us exactly what has changed.

 

[CrystalBay]

Firing Squad image of 4890 chip

 

[Jacen]

I am hearing the $20 MIR goes live at some point today. So if you buy one make sure you come back for the rebates to print them out.

$20 off on an already great value, can't complain about that.

 

[BFG10K]

Check out the hugely reduced power consumption in the XBit review, and also the amazing performance in Call of Duty 5 and Fallout 3.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Check out the hugely reduced power consumption in the XBit review, and also the amazing performance in Call of Duty 5 and Fallout 3.

Yea, pretty amazing that it shows less power usage for more performance on the same process, especially considering it's basically a higher voltage version of the RV770. They must haved saved some power on a few components or something.