By 
INTRODUCTION
At the moment, all the spotlights in the graphics card market are pointing towards AMD ATI, which is in the process of launching a new generation of cards that support the new DirectX 11 standard. One of these cards is the AMD ATI Radeon HD 5870 of which we have many reviews. However, when a new generation of cards is introduced, you can often get a bargain on a higher-end graphics card from the previous generation. Therefore, I decided to take a look at the Radeon HD 4890, the price of which has dropped dramatically since the 5890 was introduced.
For a long time, AMD’s HD 40xx series was supplemented by the HD 4870 model, but as nVidia kept advancing, AMD decided to release an improved version of that card and call it the 4890. In addition to increasing the memory frequency of the card, the HD 4890 also has some extra memory, 1 GB GDDR5 instead of the 512 MB of the 4870 (standard model). Ok, before we take a look at the specs, you should know that Sapphire has released many different versions of the HD 4890. The one I’ll be reviewing here is the “Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCIe 21150-00-40R”:
RV790 GPU (Radeon HD 4890)
55nm technology
800 stream processors
GPU speed 850 MHz
1GB GDDR5 memory
Memory speed 975 MHz (3.9 Gbps)
Bus width 256 bits
Cooling system Reference chiller
Video connectors 2 x DVI-I
high definition television
HDCP Compliant Yes
CrossFireX compatible yes
Power Requirements 6-pin PCIe 2
Maximum consumption 190W
Supported Technologies DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.1, UVD 2, ATI Stream, ATI PowerPlay
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The card comes in a fairly large cardboard box with lots of attractive graphics, as is customary with all
retail boxes of graphics cards. Inside the box I found the card in an antistatic plastic bag that was placed between a black foam plastic that protected the card. The accessories were placed in a box below the graphics card it contained; a printed documentation; CD with drivers; 3D brand advantage; PowerDVD; DVD set etc.; some video adapters and adapters for molex to 6-pin PCI-E and finally a CrossFireX bridge.
IN DETAIL
The card is actually more or less the same as the AMD ATI reference card, it has the same heatsink/cooling solution and the memory and GPU frequencies are as recommended by AMD. Sapphire also has custom models with increased memory, specialized cooling solutions, and overclocked memory and GPUs. The card is thick, occupies 2 slots, basically due to the large size of the heatsink/fan that is made of copper and incorporates several heat pipes to ensure better cooling performance. The fan is 70mm in diameter, which is common with AMD cards.
The length (240mm) of the card is also considerable, which is quite normal these days with high end cards. Of course, this can be a problem depending on the space inside your case, so measure the available space before buying, is my advice. The bulky cooling solution leaves very little detail on display, but we can see that the Sapphire uses solid capacitors, which should ensure stable power supply and a long-lasting card. The card has 2 x 6-pin PCIe connectors, so together with power from the PCI-Express port, the card can consume up to 225W (in theory). The support with the connectors consists of a metal grill at the top, to promote air flow. The lower part houses two DVI connectors and an HDTV output.
TEST EQUIPMENT INSTALLATION
Ok, for this review I used the following test system:
Test equipment
AMD Phenom II 920 processor
Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler
Sapphire PC-AM2RD790 Motherboard – CrossFireX PUREE
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 graphics card
Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1 Sound Card
Kingston HyperX DDR2 1066 2×2GB T1 Series Memory
Samsung SP2504C hard drive (SATA II, 7200rmp, 8MB)
Zalman ZM660-XT Power Supply
Antec Skeleton Case
operating system and software
Windows XP SP3 operating system
R7LS422 BIOS Driver
Catalyst 9.9
DirectX 9 (August 2009)
Benchmarks 3D Mark 06
furmark 1.7
light mark 2008
Games World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
street fighter iv
Warhead Crysis
X3: Meeting
X3: Earth Conflict
Club of Officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Cry 2
WEAPON 2
Stalker: Clear Sky
the last remnant
Other software CPU-Z 1.52
GPU-Z 0.4.5
RESULTS OF COMPARISON TESTS
The results are a bit confusing for me because in 3D Mark 06 the result is almost the same as what I got in my Gigabyte GTX 285 review, while the Lightmark and Furmark results are clearly below the results obtained with the GTX card. 285.
PLAYTEST RESULTS
The test results with the first batch of games clearly show that the 4890 cannot achieve the high results that I got with the GTX 285, but considering the price difference, the result is still very competitive.
ACTUAL TEST RESULTS II
The small increase in memory and GPU frequencies I received in my overclocking attempts resulted in a 1-2 fps improvement in real life gaming situations. In 3D Mark 06, I got a 300 point improvement, which is a pretty big improvement considering how little overclocking was possible on the card.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Currently, the Radeon HD 4890 is no longer the most powerful graphics GPU from AMD ATI. With the launch of the HD 5800 series, the prices of the HD 4800 series models have been reduced considerably, so it is a great opportunity to purchase one of these cards.