Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 graphics card review
GamingINTRODUCTION
At the moment, all the reflectors of the graphics card market are directed towards AMD ATI, which is in the process of launching a new generation of cards compatible with the new DirectX 11 standard. One of these cards is the AMD ATI Radeon HD 5870, from which we have many reviews. However, when introducing a new generation of cards, you can often make a bargain with a high-end graphics card from the previous generation. So 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 completed with the HD 4870 model, but as nVidia progressed, 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 additional memory, 1GB GDDR5 instead of 512MB with 4870 (standard model). Well, 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 will review here is the “Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCIe 21150-00-40R”:
GPU RV790 (Radeon HD 4890)
55nm technology
Stream Processors 800
GPU speed 850MHz
1GB GDDR5 memory
Memory speed 975MHz (3.9Gbps)
Bus width 256 bits
Refrigeration system Reference refrigerator
2 x DVI-I video connectors
HDTV
HDCP compliant yes
CrossFireX compatible yes
2 x 6-pin PCIe power requirements
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 for all of them.
graphics card retail boxes. 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 under the graphics card it contained; printed documentation; CD with drivers; 3D Mark Vantage; PowerDVD; DVD suite, etc. some video adapters and adapters for molex to PCI-E 6-pin and lastly a CrossFireX bridge.
IN DETAIL
The card is actually pretty much 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, occupying 2 slots, basically due to the large size of the heatsink / fan, which is made of copper and incorporates several heat pipes to ensure better cooling performance. The fan has a diameter of 70mm, which is common with AMD cards.
The length (240mm) of the card is also considerable, which is quite normal with many cards these days. Of course, this can be a problem depending on the space within your case, so please measure the available space before purchasing, is my advice. The bulky cooling solution leaves very little detail in sight, but we can see that Sapphire uses solid capacitors, which should ensure a stable power supply and a long-lasting card. The card has 2 6-pin PCIe connectors, so together with the power of 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 bottom has two DVI connectors and an HDTV output.
TEST EQUIPMENT INSTALLATION
Okay, 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 2x2GB T1-series memory
Samsung SP2504C hard drive (SATA II, 7200rmp, 8MB)
Zalman ZM660-XT Power Supply
Antec Skeleton Case
Operating system and software
OS Windows XP SP3
R7LS422 BIOS Drivers
Catalyst 9.9
DirectX 9 (August 2009)
3D Mark 06 benchmarks
Furmark 1.7
Lightmark 2008
Game World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
Street fighter iv
Crysis Warhead
X3: Reunion
X3: Terran Conflict
Shout 2 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Officers Club
WEAPON 2
Stalker: clear sky
The last remnant
Other software CPU-Z 1.52
GPU-Z 0.4.5
COMPARISON OF TEST RESULTS
The results confuse me a bit because in 3D Mark 06 the result is roughly the same as I got in my review of the Gigabyte GTX 285, while the Lightmark and Furmark results are clearly below the results obtained with the GTX 285 card.
GAME TEST RESULTS
The test results with the first group of games clearly show that the 4890 cannot achieve the high results that I obtained with the GTX 285, but considering the price difference, the result is still very competitive.
REAL RESULTS OF THE TEST II
The very small increase in memory and GPU clock rates that I received in my overclocking attempts resulted in a 1 or 2 fps improvement in real life gaming situations. On 3D Mark 06, I got a 300-point improvement, which is a pretty big improvement considering how little the card was possible to overclock.
CONCLUSIONS
Today, the Radeon HD 4890 is no longer AMD ATI’s most powerful graphics GPU. With the launch of the HD 5800 series, the prices of the HD 4800 series models have dropped considerably, making it a wonderful opportunity to purchase one of these cards.